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HERODOTUS
THUCYDIDES

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THE HISTORY OF HERODOTUS

*
THE HISTORY OF

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR
THUCYDIDES

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GENERAL CONTENTS

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THE HISTORY OF HERODOTUS, Page i

Translated by GEORGE RAWLINSON

THUCYDIDES: THE HISTORY
OF THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR, Page 349

Translated by RICHARD CRAWLEY
Revised by R. FEETHAM

THE HISTORY OF HERODOTUS

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
HERODOTUS,

HERODOTUS was born about four years after
the battle of Salamis in Halicarnassus in Asia
Minor. Although a Greek colony, the city had
been subject to Persia for some time, and it
remained so for half of Herodotus' life. He
came from a Greek family which enjoyed a
position of respect in Halicarnassus, and his
uncle, or cousin, Panyasis, was famous in anti-
quity as an epic poet.

The Persian tyranny made any free political
life impossible, and Herodotus, after his ele-
mentary education, appears to have devoted
himself to reading and travelling. In addi-
tion to his unusually thorough knowledge of
Homer, he had an intimate acquaintance with
the whole range of Greek literature. In his
History he quotes or shows familiarity with,
among others, Hesiod, Hecataeus, Sappho,
Solon, Aesop, Simonides of Ceos, Aeschylus,
and Pindar. Whether or not the plan of his
History governed or grew out of his travels is
not known. All the dates of his travels are
uncertain; it is thought that most of them were
made between his twentieth and thirty-seventh
year. The History reveals the elaborateness of
his observation and inquiry. He traversed Asia
Minor and European Greece probably more
than once, visited all the most important
islands of the Archipelago — Rhodes, Cyprus,
Delos, Paros, Thasos, Samothrace, Crete,
Samos, Cythera, and Aegina — , made the long
journey from Sardis to the Persian capital of
Susa, saw Babylon, Colchis, and the western
shores of the Euxine as far as the Dnieper,
travelled in Scythia, Thrace, and Greater
Greece, explored the antiquities of Tyre,
coasted along the shores of Palestine, saw
Gaza, and made a long stay in Egypt.

Apart from the travels undertaken in his
professional capacity, political developments
involved Herodotus in many shifts of resi-
dence. About 454 B.C. his relative, Panyasis,
was executed by Lygdamis, the tyrant of Hali-
carnassus. Herodotus left his native city for
Samos, which was then an important member
of the Athenian Confederacy. He was there for

seven or eight years and perhaps took part ir
the preparations for the overthrow of Lyg
damis. After the expulsion of the tyrant, ii
which the Athenian fleet may have been a deci
sive factor, he returned to Halicarnassus
which then became a member of the Confed
eracy. He remained there less than a year. I
is surmised that an unfavorable reception t<
parts of his History and the ascendency" of th<
anti-Athenian party caused Herodotus to leav<
Halicarnassus for Athens.

At Athens, Herodotus seems to have beer
admitted into the brilliant Periclean society
He was particularly intimate with Sophocles
who is said to have written a poem in hi:
honour. Plutarch records that the public read
ings he gave from his History won such ap
proval that in 445 B.C., on the proposal of Any
tus, the Athenian people voted to award him ;
large sum of money. At one of his recitations
the story is told that the young Thucydides wa:
present with his father and was so moved thai
he burst into tears, whereupon Herodotus re
marked: "Olorus, your son has a natural en
thusiasm for letters."

Despite his fame in Athens, Herodotus ma^
not have been reconciled to his status as a for
eigner without citizenship. He was either un
willing or unable to return to his native land
When in 443 B.C. Pericles sent out a colony tc
settle Thurii in southern Italy, Herodotus was
one of its members. He was then forty yean
old.

From this point in his career Herodotus dis
appears completely. He may have undertaker
some of his travels after this time, and there ii
evidence of his returning to Athens, but it i«
inconclusive. He was undoubtedly occupiec
with completing and perfecting his History
He may also have composed at Thurii the spe
cial work on the history of Assyria to which he
refers and which Aristotle quotes.

From the indications afforded by his work it
is inferred that he did not live later than 425
B.C. Presumably he died at Thurii; it was there
that his tomb was shown in later ages.

IX

CONTENTS

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE, p. ix

THE FIRST BOOK, ENTITLED CLIO, p. i

THE SECOND BOOK, ENTITLED EUTERPE, p. 49

THE THIRD BOOK, ENTITLED THALIA, p. 89

THE FOURTH BOOK, ENTITLED MELPOMENE, p. 124

THE FIFTH BOOK, ENTITLED TERPSICHORE, p. 160

THE SIXTH BOOK, ENTITLED ERATO, p. 186

THE SEVENTH BOOK, ENTITLED POLYMNIA, p. 214

THE EIGHTH BOOK, ENTITLED URANIA, p. 260

THE NINTH BOOK, ENTITLED CALLIOPE, p. 288

MAPS, p.

I. Babylon
II. Persian Empire

III. Scythia

IV. Africa, According to Herodotus
V. The Region of the Aegean

VI. Marathon

VII. Thermopylae

VIII. Salamis

IX. Plataea

INDEX, p. 325

The First Book, Entitled
CLIO

THESE are the researches of Herodotus of Halicarnassus, which he publishes,
in the hope of thereby preserving from decay the remembrance of what men
have done, and of preventing the great and wonderful actions of the Greeks
and the Barbarians from losing their due meed of glory; and withal to put on
record what were their grounds of feud.

i. According to the Persians best informed in
history, the Phoenicians began to quarrel. This
people, who had formerly dwelt on the shores
of the Erythraean Sea,1 having migrated to the
Mediterranean and settled in the parts which
they now inhabit, began at once, they say, to
adventure on long voyages, freighting their
vessels with the wares of Egypt and Assyria.
They landed at many places on the coast, and
among the rest at Argos, which was then pre-
eminent above all the states included now un-
der the common name of Hellas.2 Here they
exposed their merchandise, and traded with
the natives for five or six days; at the end of
which time, when almost everything was sold,
there came down to the beach a number of
women, and among them the daughter of the
king, who was, they say, agreeing in this with
the Greeks, lo, the child of Inachus. The
women were standing by the stern of the ship
intent upon their purchases, when the Phoeni-
cians, with a general shout, rushed upon them.
The greater part made their escape, but some
were seized and carried off. lo herself was
among the captives. The Phoenicians put the
women on board their vessel, and set sail for

1 The Indian Ocean, or rather both the Indian
Ocean and the Persian Gulf, which latter Herod-
otus does not consider distinct from the Ocean,
being ignorant of its shape.

2 The ancient superiority of Argos is indicated
by the position of Agamemnon at the time of the
Trojan war and by the use of the word Argive in
Homer for Greek generally. No other name of a
single people is used in the same generic way.

Egypt. Thus did lo pass into Egypt, according
to the Persian story, which differs widely from
the Phoenician: and thus commenced, accord-
ing to their authors, the series of outrages.

2. At a later period, certain Greeks, with
whose name they are unacquainted, but who
would probably be Cretans, made a landing at
Tyre, on the Phoenician coast, and bore off the
king's daughter, Europe. In this they only re-
taliated; but afterwards the Greeks, they say,
were guilty of a second violence. They manned
a ship of war, and sailed to /£a, a city of Col-
chis, on the river Phasis; from whence, after
despatching the rest of the business on which
they had come, they carried off Medea, the
daughter of the king of the land. The monarch
sent a herald into Greece to demand reparation
of the wrong, and the restitution of his child;
but the Greeks made answer that, having re-
ceived no reparation of the wrong done them
in the seizure of lo the Argive, they should
give none in this instance.

3. In the next generation afterwards, accord-
ing to the same authorities, Alexander the son
of Priam, bearing these events in mind, re-
solved to procure himself a wife out of Greece
by violence, fully persuaded, that as the Greeks
had not given satisfaction for their outrages, so
neither would he be forced to make any for
his. Accordingly he made prize of Helen; upon
which the Greeks decided that, before resort-
ing to other measures, they would send envoys
to reclaim the princess and require reparation
of the wrong. Their demands were met by a
reference to the violence which had been of-

HERODOTUS

[ BOOK i

fered to Medea, and they were asked with
what face they could now require satisfaction,
when they had formerly rejected all demands
for either reparation or restitution addressed to
them.

4. Hitherto the injuries on either side had
been mere acts of common violence; but in
what followed the Persians consider that the
Greeks were greatly to blame, since before any
attack had been made on Europe, they led an
army into Asia. Now as for the carrying off of
women, it is the deed, they say, of a rogue: but
to make a stir about such as are carried off,
argues a man a fool. Men of sense care nothing
for such women, since it is plain that without
their own consent they would never be forced
away. The Asiatics, when the Greeks ran off
with their women, never troubled themselves
about the matter; but the Greeks, for the sake
of a single Lacedaemonian girl, collected a vast
armament, invaded Asia, and destroyed the
kingdom of Priam. Henceforth they ever
looked upon the Greeks as their open enemies.
For Asia, with all the various tribes of barbar-
ians that inhabit it, is regarded by the Persians
as their own; but Europe and the Greek race
they look on as distinct and separate.

5. Such is the account which the Persians
give of these matters. They trace to the attack
upon Troy their ancient enmity towards the
Greeks. The Phoenicians, however, as regards
lo, vary from the Persian statements. They
deny that they used any violence to remove
her into Egypt; she herself, they say, having
formed an intimacy with the captain, while his
vessel lay at Argos, and perceiving herself to be
with child, of her own free will accompanied
the Phoenicians on their leaving the shore, to
escape the shame of detection and the re-
proaches of her parents. Whether this latter ac-
count be true, or whether the matter happened
otherwise, I shall not discuss further. I shall
proceed at once to point out the person who
first within my own knowledge inflicted in-
jury on the Greeks, after which I shall go for-
ward with my history, describing equally the
greater and the lesser cities. For the cities
which were formerly great have most of them
become insignificant; and such as are at pres-
ent powerful, were weak in the olden time. I
shall therefore discourse equally of both, con-
vinced that human happiness never continues
long in one stay.

6. Croesus, son of Alyattes, by birth a Lyd-
ian, was lord of all the nations to the west of
the river Halys. This stream, which separates

Syria1 from Paphlagonia, runs with a course
from south to north,, and finally falls into the
Euxine. So far as our knowledge goes, he was
the first of the barbarians who had dealings
with the Greeks, forcing some of them to be-
come his tributaries, and entering into alliance
with others. He conquered the ^Eohans, lon-
ians, and Dorians of Asia, and made a treaty
with the Lacedaemonians. Up to that time all
Greeks had been free. For the Cimmerian at-
tack upon Ionia, which was earlier than Croe-
sus, was not a conquest of the cities, but only
an inroad for plundering.

7. The sovereignty of Lydia, which had be-
longed to the Heraclides, passed into the fam-
ily of Croesus, who were called the Mermnadae,
in the manner which I will now relate. There
was a certain king of Sardis, Candaules by
name, whom the Greeks called Myrsilus. He
was a descendant of Alcaeus, son of Hercules.
The first king of this dynasty was Agron, son
of Ninus, grandson of Belus, and great-grand-
son of Alcaeus; Candaules, son of Myrsus, was
the last. The kings who reigned before Agron
sprang from Lydus, son of Atys, from whom
the people of the land, called previously Meon-
ians, received the name of Lydians. The Hera-
clides, descended from Hercules and the slave-
girl of Jardanus, having been entrusted by these
princes with the management of affairs, ob-
tained the kingdom by an oracle. Their rule
endured for two and twenty generations of
men, a space of five hundred and five years;
during the whole of which period, from Agron
to Candaules, the crown descended in the di-
rect line from father to son.

8. Now it happened that this Candaules was
in love with his own wife; and not only so, but
thought her the fairest woman in the whole
world. This fancy had strange consequences.
There was in his bodyguard a man whom he
specially favoured, Gyges, the son of Dascylus.
All affairs of greatest moment were entrusted
by Candaules to this person, and to him he was
wont to extol the surpassing beauty of his wife.
So matters went on for a while. At length, one
day, Candaules, who was fated to end ill, thus
addressed his follower: "I see thou dost not
credit what I tell thee of my lady's loveliness;
but come now, since men's ears are less credu-
lous than their eyes, contrive some means
whereby thou mayst behold her naked." At

1 By Syria Herodotus here means Cappadocia,
the inhabitants of which he calls Syrians (i. 72,
and vii. 72), or Cappadocian Syrians (Zvptovt
Kas i. 72).

this the other loudly exclaimed, saying, "What
most unwise speech is this, master, which thou
hast uttered? Wouldst tnou have me behold
my mistress when she is naked ? Bethink thee
that a woman, with her clothes, puts off her
bashfulness. Our fathers, in time past, distin-
guished right and wrong plainly enough, and
it is our wisdom to submit to be taught by
them. There is an old saying, 4Let each look on
his own.' I hold thy wife for the fairest of all
womankind. Only, I beseech thee, ask me not
to do wickedly."

9. Gyges thus endeavoured to decline the
king's proposal, trembling lest some dreadful
evil should befall him through it. But the king
replied to him, "Courage, friend; suspect me
not of the design to prove thee by this dis-
course; nor dread thy mistress, lest mischief be-
fall thee at her hands. Be sure! will so manage
that she shall not even know that thou hast
looked upon her. I will place thee behind the
open door of the chamber in which we sleep.
When I enter to go to rest she will follow me.
There stands a chair close to the entrance, on
which she will lay her clothes one by one as she
takes them off. Thou wilt be able thus at thy
leisure to peruse her person. Then, when she is
moving from the chair toward the bed, and her
back is turned on thee, be it thy care that she
see thee not as thou passest through the door-
way."

10. Gyges, unable to escape, could but de-
clare his readiness. Then Candaules, when
bedtime came, led Gyges into his sleeping-
chamber, and a moment after the queen fol-
lowed. She entered, and laid her garments on
the chair, and Gyges gazed on her. After a
while she moved toward the bed, and her back
being then turned, he glided stealthily from
the apartment. As he was passing out, how-
ever, she saw him, and instantly divining what
had happened, she neither screamed as her
shame impelled her, nor even appeared to have
noticed aught, purposing to take vengeance
upon the husband who had so affronted her.
For among the Lydians, and indeed among
the barbarians generally, it is reckoned a deep
disgrace, even to a man, to be seen naked.

11. No sound or sign of intelligence escaped
her at the time. But in the morning, as soon as
day broke, she hastened to choose from among
her retinue such as she knew to be most faith-
ful to her, and preparing them for what was
to ensue, summoned Gyges into her presence.
Now it had often happened before that the
queen had desired to confer with him, and he

1UK Y 5

was accustomed to come to her at her call. He
therefore obeyed the summons, not suspecting
that she knew aught of what had occurred.
Then she addressed these words to him: "Take
thy choice, Gyges, of two courses which are
open to thee. Slay Candaules, and thereby be-
come my lord, and obtain the Lydian throne,
or die this moment in his room. So wilt thou
not again, obeying all behests of thy master, be-
hold what is not lawful for thee. It must needs
be that either he perish by whose counsel this
thing was done, or thou, who sa west me naked,
and so didst break our usages." At these words
Gyges stood awhile in mute astonishment; re-
covering after a time, he earnestly besought the
queen that she would not compel him to so
hard a choice. But finding he implored in vain,
and that necessity was indeed laid on him to
kill or to be killed, he made choice of life for
himself, and replied by this inquiry: "If it must
be so, and thou compellest me against my will
to put my lord to death, come, let me hear how
thou wilt have me set on him." "Let him be at-
tacked," she answered, "on the spot where I
was by him shown naked to you, and let the
assault be made when he is asleep."

12. All was then prepared for the attack, and
when night fell, Gyges, seeing that he had no
retreat or escape, but must absolutely either slay
Candaules, or himself be slain, followed his
mistress into the sleeping-room. She placed a
dagger in his hand, and hid him carefully behind
the self-same door. Then Gyges, when the king
was fallen asleep, entered privily into the cham-
ber and struck him dead. Thus did the wife
and kingdom of Candaules pass into the posses-
sion of Gyges, of whom Archilochus the Parian,
who lived about the same time, made mention
in a poem written in iambic trimeter verse.

13. Gyges was afterwards confirmed in the
possession of the throne by an answer of the
Delphic oracle. Enraged at the murder of their
king, the people flew to arms, but after a while
the partisans of Gyges came to terms with
them, and it was agreed that if the Delphic
oracle declared him king of the Lydians, he
should reign; if otherwise, he should yield the
throne to the Heraclidcs. As the oracle was
given in his favour he became king. The Py-
thoness, however, added that, in the fifth gen-
eration from Gyges, vengeance should come
for the Heraclides; a prophecy of which
neither the Lydians nor their princes took any
account till it was fulfilled. Such was the way
in which the Mermnadz deposed the Herach-
des, and themselves obtained the sovereignty.

HERODOTUS

BOOK i

14. When Gygcs was established on the
throne, he sent no small presents to Delphi, as
his many silver offerings at the Delphic shrine
testify. Besides this silver he gave a vast num-
ber of vessels of gold, among which the most
worthy of mention are the goblets, six in num-
ber, and weighing altogether thirty talents,
which stand in the Corinthian treasury, dedi-
cated by him. I call it the Corinthian treasury,
though in strictness of speech it is the treasury
not of the whole Corinthian people, but of
Cypselus, son of Eetion. Excepting Midas, son
of Gordias, king of Phrygia, Gyges was the
first of the barbarians whom we know to have
sent offerings to Delphi. Midas dedicated the
royal throne whereon he was accustomed to sit
and administer justice, an object well worth
looking at. It lies in the same place as the gob-
lets presented by Gyges. The Delphians call the
whole of the silver and the gold which Gyges
dedicated, after the name of the donor, Gygian.

As soon as Gyges was king he made an in-
road on Miletus and Smyrna, and took the city
of Colophon. Afterwards, however, though he
reigned eight and thirty years, he did not per-
form a single noble exploit. I shall therefore
make no further mention of him, but pass on
to his son and successor in the kingdom, Ardys.

15. Ardys took Priene and made war upon
Miletus. In his reign the Cimmerians, driven
from their homes by the nomads of Scythia,
entered Asia and captured Sardis, all but the
citadel. He reigned forty-nine years, and was
succeeded by his son, Sadyattes, who reigned
twelve years. At his death his son Alyattes
mounted the throne.

1 6. This prince waged war with the Medes
under Cyaxares, the grandson of Deioces, drove
the Cimmerians out of Asia, conquered
Smyrna, the Colophonian colony, and invaded
Clazomense. From this last contest he did not
come off as he could have wished, but met with
a sore defeat; still, however, in the course of his
reign, he performed other actions very worthy
of note, of which I will now proceed to give an
account.

17. Inheriting from his father a war with
the Milesians, he pressed the siege against the
city by attacking it in the following manner.
When the harvest was ripe on the ground he
marched his army into Milesia to the sound of
pipes and harps, and flutes masculine and fem-
inine. The buildings that were scattered over
the country he neither pulled down nor burnt,
nor did he even tear away the doors, but left
them standing as they were. He cut down,

however, and utterly destroyed all the trees and
all the corn throughout the land, and then re-
turned to his own dominions. It was idle for
his army to sit down before the place, as the
Milesians were masters of the sea. The reason
that he did not demolish their buildings was
that the inhabitants might be tempted to use
them as homesteads from which to go forth to
sow and till their lands; and so each time that
he invaded the country he might find some-
thing to plunder.

1 8. In this way he carried on the war with
the Milesians for eleven years, in the course of
which he inflicted on them two terrible blows;
one in their own country in the district of
Limeneium,the other in the plain of the Macan-
der. During six of these eleven years, Sadyattes,
the son of Ardys, who first lighted the flames
of this war, was king of Lydia, and made the
incursions. Only the five following years be-
long to the reign of Alyattes, son of Sadyattes,
who (as I said before) inheriting the war from
his father, applied himself to it unremittingly.
The Milesians throughout the contest received
no help at all from any of the lonians, except-
ing those of Chios, who lent them troops in re-
quital of a like service rendered them in for-
mer times, the Milesians having fought on the
side of the Chians during the whole of the war
between them and the people of Erythrae.

19. It was in the twelfth year of the war that
the following mischance occurred from the fir-
ing of the harvest-fields. Scarcely had the corn
been set alight by the soldiers when a violent
wind carried the flames against the temple of
Minerva Assesia, which caught fire and was
burnt to the ground. At the time no one made
any account of the circumstance; but after-
wards, on the return of the army to Sardis,
Alyattes fell sick. His illness continued, where-
upon, either advised thereto by some friend, or
perchance himself conceiving the idea, he sent
messengers to Delphi to inquire of the god con-
cerning his malady. On their arrival the Py-
thoness declared that no answer should be
given them until they had rebuilt the temple of
Minerva, burnt by the Lydians at Assesus in
Milesia.

20. Thus much I know from information
given me by the Delphians; the remainder of
the story the Milesians add.

The answer made by the oracle came to the
ears of Periander, son of Cypseius, who was a
very close friend to Thrasybulus, tyrant of
Miletus at that period. He instantly despatched
a messenger to report the oracle to him, in or-

]

THE HISTORY

der that Thrasybulus, forewarned of its tenor,
might the better adapt his measures to the pos-
ture of affairs.

21. Alyattes, the moment that the words of
the oracle were reported to him, sent a herald to
Miletus in hopes of concluding a truce with
Thrasybulus and the Milesians for such a time
as was needed to rebuild the temple. The herald
went upon his way; but meantime Thrasybu-
lus had been apprised of everything; and con-
jecturing what Alyattes would do, he contrived
this artifice. He had all the corn that was in the
city, whether belonging to himself or to private
persons, brought into the market-place, and
issued an order that the Milesians should hold
themselves in readiness, and, when he gave the
signal, should, one and all, fall to drinking and
revelry.

22. The purpose for which he gave these or-
ders was the following. He hoped that the Sar-
dian herald, seeing so great store of corn upon
the ground, and all the city given up to festiv-
ity, would inform Alyattes of it, which fell out
as he anticipated. The herald observed the
whole, and when he had delivered his message,
went back to Sardis. This circumstance alone,
as I gather, brought about the peace which en-
sued. Alyattes, who had hoped that there was
now a great scarcity of corn in Miletus, and
that the people were worn down to the last
pitch of suffering, when he heard from the
herald on his return from Miletus tidings so
contrary to those he had expected, made a
treaty with the enemy by which the two na-
tions became close friends and allies. He then
built at Assesus two temples to Minerva in-
stead of one, and shortly after recovered from
his malady. Such were the chief circumstances
of the war which Alyattes waged with Thra-
sybulus and the Milesians.

23. This Periander, who apprised Thrasybu-
lus of the oracle, was son of Cypselus, and ty-
rant of Corinth. In his time a very wonderful
thing is said to have happened. The Corinthi-
ans and the Lesbians agree in their account of
the matter. They relate that Arion of Methym-
na, who as a player on the harp, was second to
no man living at that time, and who was, so
far as we know, the first to invent the dithy-
rambic measure, to give it its name, and to re-
cite in it at Corinth, was carried to Taenarum
on the back of a dolphin.

24. He had lived for many years at the court
of Periander, when a longing came upon him
to sail across to Italy and Sicily. Having made
rich profits in those parts, he wanted to recross

the seas to Corinth. He therefore hired a vessel,
the crew of which were Corinthians, thinking
that there was no people in whom he could
more safely confide; and, going on board, he
set sail from Tarentum. The sailors, however,
when they reached the open sea, formed a plot
to throw him overboard and seize upon his
riches. Discovering their design, he fell on his
knees, beseeching them to spare his life, and
making them welcome to his money. But they
refused; and required him either to kill him-
self outright, if he wished for a grave on the
dry land, or without loss of time to leap over-
board into the sea. In this strait Arion begged
them, since such was their pleasure, to allow
him to mount upon the quarter-deck, dressed
in his full costume, and there to play and sing,
and promising that, as soon as his song was
ended, he would destroy himself. Delighted at
the prospect of hearing the very best harper in
the world, they consented, and withdrew from
the stern to the middle of the vessel: while
Arion dressed himself in the full costume of his
calling, took his harp, and standing on the
quarter-deck, chanted the Orthian. His strain
ended, he flung himself, fully attired as he was,
headlong into the sea. The Corinthians then
sailed on to Corinth. As for Arion, a dolphin,
they say, took him upon his back and carried
him to Taenarum, where he went ashore, and
thence proceeded to Corinth in his musician's
dress, and told all that had happened to him.
Periander, however, disbelieved the story, and
put Anon in ward, to prevent his leaving Cor-
inth, while he watched anxiously for the re-
turn of the mariners. On their arrival he sum-
moned them before him and asked them if
they could give him any tiding of Arion. They
returned for answer that he was alive and in
good health in Italy, and that they had left him
at Tarentum, where he was doing well. There-
upon Arion appeared before them, just as he
was when he jumped from the vessel: the men,
astonished and detected in falsehood, could no
longer deny their guilt. Such is the account
which the Corinthians and Lesbians give; and
there is to this day at Tacnarum, an offering of
Arion's at the shrine, which is a small figure in
bronze, representing a man seated upon a
dolphin.

25. Having brought the war with the Mile-
sians to a close, and reigned over the land of
Lydia for fifty-seven years, Alyattes died. He
was the second prince of his house who made
offerings at Delphi. His gifts, which he sent on
recovering from his sickness, were a great

HERODOTUS

f BOOK i

bowl of pure silver, with a salver in steel curi-
ously inlaid, a work among all the offerings at
Delphi the best worth looking at. Glaucus, the
Chian, made it, the man who first invented the
art of inlaying steel.

26. On the death of Alyattcs, Croesus, his
son, who was thirty-five years old, succeeded to
the throne. Of the Greek cities, Ephesus was the
first that he attacked. The Ephesians, when he
laid siege to the place, made an offering of
their city to Diana, by stretching a rope from
the town wall to the temple of the goddess,
which was distant from the ancient city, then
besieged by Croesus, a space of seven furlongs.
They were, as I said, the first Greeks whom he
attacked. Afterwards, on some pretext or other,
he made war in turn upon every Ionian and
JEolian state, bringing forward, where he
could, a substantial ground of complaint; where
such failed him, advancing some poor excuse.

27. In this way he made himself master of
all the Greek cities in Asia, and forced them to
become his tributaries; after which he began to
think of building ships, and attacking the
islanders. Everything had been got ready for
this purpose, when Bias of Priene (or, as some
say, Pittacus the Mytilenean) put a stop to the
project. The king had made inquiry of this
person, who was lately arrived at Sardis, if
there were any news from Greece; to which he
answered, "Yes, sire, the islanders are gather-
ing ten thousand horse, designing an expedi-
tion against thce and against thy capital." Croe-
sus, thinking he spake seriously, broke out,
"Ah, might the gods put such a thought into
their minds as to attack the sons of the Lydians
with cavalry!" "It seems, oh' king," rejoined
the other, "that thou desirest earnestly to catch
the islanders on horseback upon the mainland,
— thou knowest well what would come of it.
But what thinkest thou the islanders desire bet-
ter, now that they hear thou art about to build
ships and sail against them, than to catch the
Lydians at sea, and there revenge on them the
wrongs of their brothers upon the mainland,
whom thou boldest in slavery?" Croesus was
charmed with the turn of the speech; and
thinking there was reason in what was said,
gave up his ship-building and concluded a
league of amity with the lonians of the isles.

28. Croesus afterwards, in the course of
many years, brought under his sway almost all
the nations to the west of the Halys. The Lyci-
ans and Cilicians alone continued free; all the
other tribes he reduced and held in subjection.
They were the following: the Lydians, Phryg-

ians, Mysians, Mariandynians, Chalybians,
Paphlagonians, Thynian and Bithynian Thra-
cians, Carians, lonians, Dorians, ^Eolians and
Pamphylians.1

29. When all these conquests had been
added to the Lydian empire, and the prosperity
of Sardis was now at its height, there came
thither, one after another, all the sages of
Greece living at the time, and among them
Solon, the Athenian. He was on his travels,
having left Athens to be absent ten years, un-
der the pretence of wishing to see the world,
but really to avoid being forced to repeal any
of the laws which, at the request of the Athen-
ians, he had made for them. Without his sanc-
tion the Athenians could not repeal them, as
they had bound themselves under a heavy
curse to be governed for ten years by the laws
which should be imposed on them by Solon.

30. On this account, as well as to see the
world, Solon set out upon his travels, in the
course of which he went to Egypt to the court
of Amasis, and also came on a visit to Croesus
at Sardis. Croesus received him as his guest,
and lodged him in the royal palace. On the
third or fourth day after, he bade his servants
conduct Solon over his treasuries, and show
him all their greatness and magnificence.
When he had seen them all, and, so far as time
allowed, inspected them, Croesus addressed
this question to him. "Stranger of Athens, we
have heard much of thy wisdom and of thy
travels through many lands, from love of
knowledge and a wish to see the world. I am
curious therefore to inquire of thee, whom, of
all the men that thou hast seen, thou deemest
the most happy?" This he asked because he
thought himself the happiest of mortals: but
Solon answered him without flattery, accord-
ing to his true sentiments, "Tellus of Athens,
sire." Full of astonishment at what he heard,
Croesus demanded sharply, "And wherefore
dost thou deem Tellus happiest?" To which
the other replied, "First, because his country
was flourishing in his days, and he himself had
sons both beautiful and good, and he lived to
see children born to each of them, and these
children all grew up; and further because, after
a life spent in what our people look upon as
comfort, his end was surpassingly glorious. In
a battle between the Athenians and their

1 It is not quite correct to speak of the Cilici-
ans as dwelling within (i.e., west of) the Halys,
for the Halys in its upper course ran through
Cilicia (M KtXfew, I. 72), and that country lay
chiefly south of the river.

26-32]

THE HISTORY

neighbours near Eleusis, he came to the assist-
ance of his countrymen, routed the foe, and
died upon the field most gallantly. The Athe-
nians gave him a public funeral on the spot
where he fell, and paid him the highest hon-
ours."

31. Thus did Solon admonish Croesus by the
example of Tellus, enumerating the manifold
particulars of his happiness. When he had
ended, Crcesus inquired a second time, who
after Tellus seemed to him the happiest, ex-
pecting that at any rate, he would be given the
second place. "Cleobis and Bito," Solon an-
swered; "they were of Argive race; their for-
tune was enough for their wants, and they
were besides endowed with so much bodily
strength that they had both gained prizes at
the Games. Also this tale is told of them: —
There was a great festival in honour of the
goddess Juno at Argos, to which their mother
must needs be taken in a car. Now the oxen
did not come home from the field in time: so
the youths, fearful of being too late, put the
yoke on their own necks, and themselves drew
the car in which their mother rode. Five and
forty furlongs did they draw her, and stopped
before the temple. This deed of theirs was wit-
nessed by the whole assembly of worshippers,
and then their life closed in the best possible
way. Herein, too, God showed forth most evi-
dently, how much better a thing for man death
is than life. For the Argive men, who stood
around the car, extolled the vast strength of the
youths; and the Argive women extolled the
mother who was blessed with such a pair of
sons; and the mother herself, overjoyed at the
deed and at the praises it had won, standing
straight before the image, besought the god-
dess to bestow on Cleobis and Bito, the sons
who had so mightily honoured her, the highest
blessing to which mortals can attain. Her
prayer ended, they offered sacrifice and par-
took of the holy banquet, after which the two
youths fell asleep in the temple. They never
woke more, but so passed from the earth. The
Argives, looking on them as among the best of
men, caused statues of them to be made, which
they gave to the shrine at Delphi."

32. When Solon had thus assigned these
youths the second place, Crcesus broke in an-
grily, "What, stranger of Athens, is my happi-
ness, then, so utterly set at nought by thec, that
thou dost not even put me on a level with
private men?"

"Oh! Croesus," replied the other, "thou ask-
edst a question concerning the condition of

man, of one who knows that the power above
us is full of jealousy, and fond of troubling our
lot. A long life gives one to witness much, and
experience much oneself, that one would not
choose. Seventy years I regard as the limit of
the life of man. In these seventy years are con-
tained, without reckoning intercalary months,
twenty-five thousand and two hundred days.
Add an intercalary month to every other year,
that the seasons may come round at the right
time, and there will be, besides the seventy
years, thirty-five such months, making an addi-
tion of one thousand and fifty days. The whole
number of the days contained in the seventy
years will thus be twenty-six thousand two
hundred and fifty, whereof not one but will
produce events unlike the rest. Hence man is
wholly accident. For thyself, oh! Croesus, I see
that thou art wonderfully rich, and art the lord
of many nations; but with respect to that
whereon thou questionest me, I have no an-
swer to give, until I hear that thou hast closed
thy life happily. For assuredly he who possesses
great store of riches is no nearer happiness
than he who has what suffices for his daily
needs, unless it so hap that luck attend upon
him, and so he continue in the enjoyment of
all his good things to the end of life. For many
of the wealthiest men have been unfavoured of
fortune, and many whose means were moder-
ate have had excellent luck. Men of the former
class excel those of the latter but in two re-
spects; these last excel the former in many. The
wealthy man is better able to content his de-
sires, and to bear up against a sudden buffet of
calamity. The other has less ability to with-
stand these evils (from which, however, his
good luck keeps him clear), but he enjoys all
these following blessings: he is whole of limb,
a stranger to disease, free from misfortune,
happy in his children, and comely to look
upon. If, in addition to all this, he end his life
well, he is of a truth the man of whom thou art
in search, the man who may rightly be termed
happy. Call him, however, until he die, not
happy but fortunate. Scarcely, indeed, can any
man unite all these advantages: as there is no
country which contains within it all that it
needs, but each, while it possesses some things,
lacks others, and the best country is that which
contains the most; so no single human being is
complete in every respect — something is al-
ways lacking. He who unites the greatest num-
ber of advantages, and retaining them to the
day of his death, then dies peaceably, that man
alone, sire, is, in my judgment, entitled to bear

8

HERODOTUS

[ BOOK i

the name of 'happy.' But in every matter it be-
hoves us to mark well the end: for oftentimes
God gives men a gleam of happiness, and then
plunges them into ruin."

33. Such was the speech which Solon ad-
dressed to Croesus, a speech which brought
him neither largess nor honour. The king saw
him depart with much indifference, since he
thought that a man must be an arrant fool who
made no account of present good, but bade
men always wait and mark the end.

34. After Solon had gone away a dreadful
vengeance, sent of God, came upon Croesus, to
punish him, it is likely, for deeming himself
the happiest of men. First he had a dream in
the night, which foreshowed him truly the
evils that were about to befall him in the per-
son of his son. For Croesus had two sons, one
blasted by a natural defect, being deaf and
dumb; the other, distinguished far above all
his co-mates in every pursuit. The name of the
last was Atys. It was this son concerning whom
he dreamt a dream that he would die by the
blow of an iron weapon. When he woke, he
considered earnestly with himself, and, greatly
alarmed at the dream, instantly made his son
take a wife, and whereas in former years the
youth had been wont to command the Lydian
forces in the field, he now would not suffer
him to accompany them. All the spears and
javelins, and weapons used in the wars, he re-
moved out of the male apartments, and laid
them in heaps in the chambers of the women,
fearing lest perhaps one of the weapons that
hung against the wall might fall and strike
him.

35. Now it chanced that while he was mak-
ing arrangements for the wedding, there came
to Sardis a man under a misfortune, who had
upon him the stain of blood. He was by race a
Phrygian, and belonged to the family of the
king. Presenting himself at the palace of Croe-
sus, he prayed to be admitted to purification
according to the customs of the country. Now
the Lydian method of purifying is very nearly
the same as the Greek. Croesus granted the re-
quest, and went through all the customary
rites, after which he asked the suppliant of his
birth and country, addressing him as follows: —
"Who art thou, stranger, and from what part
of Phrygia Reddest thou to take refuge at my
hearth? And whom, moreover, what man or
what woman, hast thou slain?" "Oh! king,"
replied the Phrygian, "I am the son of Gordias,
son of Midas. I am named Adrastus. The man
I unintentionally slew was my own brother.

For this my father drove me from the land,
and I lost all. Then fled I here to thee." "Thou
art the offspring," Croesus rejoined, "of a house
friendly to mine, and thou art come to friends.
Thou shalt want for nothing so long as thou
abidest in my dominions. Bear thy misfortune
as easily as thou mayest, so will it go best with
thee." Thenceforth Adrastus lived in the pal-
ace of the king.

36. It chanced that at this very same time
there was in the Mysian Olympus a huge mon-
ster of a boar, which went forth often from this
mountain country, and wasted the corn-fields
of the Mysians. Many a time had the Mysians
collected to hunt the beast, but instead of doing
him any hurt, they came off always with some
loss to themselves. At length they sent ambas-
sadors to Croesus, who delivered their message
to him in these words: "Oh! king, a mighty
monster of a boar has appeared in our parts,
and destroys the labour of our hands. We do
our best to take him, but in vain. Now there-
fore we beseech thee to let thy son accompany
us back, with some chosen youths and hounds,
that we may rid our country of the animal."
Such was the tenor of their prayer.

But Croesus bethought him of his dream, and
answered, "Say no more of my son going with
you; that may not be in any wise. He is but just
joined m wedlock, and is busy enough with
that. I will grant you a picked band of Lydi-
ans, and all my huntsmen and hounds; and I
will charge those whom I send to use all zeal
in aiding you to rid your country of the brute."

37. With this reply the Mysians were con-
tent; but the king's son, hearing what the
prayer of the Mysians was, came suddenly in,
and on the refusal of Croesus to let him go with
them, thus addressed his father: "Formerly,
my father, it was deemed the noblest and most
suitable thing for me to frequent the wars and
hunting-parties, and win myself glory in them;
but now thou keepest me away from both, al-
though thou hast never beheld in me either
cowardice or lack of spirit. What face mean-
while must I wear as I walk to the forum or
return from it? What must the citizens, what
must my young bride think of me? What sort
of man will she suppose her husband to be?
Either, therefore, let me go to the chase of this
boar, or give me a reason why it is best for me
to do according to thy wishes."

38. Then Croesus answered, "My son, it is
not because I have seen in thee either coward-
ice or aught else which has displeased me
that I keep thee back; but because a vision

33-45]

which came before me in a dream as I slept,
warned me that thou wert doomed to die
young, pierced by an iron weapon. It was this
which first led me to hasten on thy wedding,
and now it hinders me from sending thee upon
this enterprise. Fain would I keep watch over
thee, if by any means I may cheat fate of thee
during my own lifetime. For thou art the one
and only son that I possess; the other, whose
hearing is destroyed, I regard as if he were
not."

39. "Ah! father," returned the youth, "I
blame thee not for keeping watch over me after
a dream so terrible; but if thou mistakest, if
thou dost not apprehend the dream aright, 'tis
no blame for me to show thee wherein thou
errest. Now the dream, thou saidst thyself,
foretold that I should die stricken by an iron
weapon. But what hands has a boar to strike
with? What iron weapon does he wield ? Yet
this is what thou fearest for me. Had the
dream said that I should die pierced by a tusk,
then thou hadst done well to keep me away;
but it said a weapon. Now here we do not com-
bat men, but a wild animal. I pray thee, there-
fore, let me go with them."

40. "There thou hast me, my son," said
Croesus, "thy interpretation is better than
mine. I yield to it, and change my mind, and
consent to let thee go."

41. Then the king sent for Adrastus, the
Phrygian, and said to him, "Adrastus, when
thou wert smitten with the rod of affliction —
no reproach, my friend — I purified thee, and
have taken thee to live with me in my palace,
and have been at every charge. Now, therefore,
it behoves thee to requite the good offices
which thou hast received at my hands by con-
senting to go with my son on this hunting
party, and to watch over him, if perchance you
should be attacked upon the road by some band
of daring robbers. Even apart from this, it
were right for thee to go where thou mayest
make thyself famous by noble deeds. They are
the heritage of thy family, and thou too art so
stalwart and strong."

42. Adrastus answered, "Except for thy re-
quest, Oh! king, I would rather have kept
away from this hunt; for methinks it ill be-
seems a man under a misfortune such as mine
to consort with his happier compeers; and be-
sides, I have no heart to it. On many grounds I
had stayed behind; but, as thou urgest it, and I
am bound to pleasure thee (for truly it does
behove me to requite thy good offices), I am
content to do as thou wishest. For thy son,

THE HISTORY

whom thou givest into my charge, be sure
thou shalt receive him back safe and sound,
so far as depends upon a guardian's care-
fulness."

43. Thus assured, Croesus let them depart,
accompanied by a band of picked youths, and
well provided with dogs of chase. When they
reached Olympus, they scattered in quest of
the animal; he was soon found, and the hunters,
drawing round him in a circle, hurled their
weapons at him. Then the stranger, the man
who had been purified of blood, whose name
was Adrastus, he also hurled his spear at the
boar, but missed his aim, and struck Atys.
Thus was the son of Croesus slain by the point
of an iron weapon, and the warning of the
vision was fulfilled. Then one ran to Sardis to
bear the tidings to the king, and he came and
informed him of the combat and of the fate
that had befallen his son.

44. If it was a heavy blow to the father to
learn that his child was dead, it yet more
strongly affected him to think that the very
man whom he himself once purified had clone
the deed. In the violence of his grief he called
aloud on Jupiter Catharsius to be a witness of
what he had suffered at the stranger's hands.
Afterwards he invoked the same god as Jupiter
Ephistius and Hetarreus — using the one term
because he had unwittingly harboured in his
house the man who had now slain his son; and
the other, because the stranger, who had been
sent as his child's guardian, had turned out his
most cruel enemy.

45. Presently the Lydians arrived, bearing
the body of the youth, and behind them fol-
lowed the homicide. He took his stand in front
of the corse, and, stretching forth his hands to
Croesus, delivered himself into his power with
earnest entreaties that he would sacrifice him
upon the body of his son — "his former misfor-
tune was burthen enough; now that he had
added to it a second, and had brought ruin on
the man who purified him, he could not bear
to live." Then Croesus, when he heard these
words, was moved with pity towards Adrastus,
notwithstanding the bitterness of his own ca-
lamity; and so he answered, "Enough, my
friend; I have all the revenge that I require,
since thou givest sentence of death against thy-
self. But in sooth it is not thou who hast in-
jured me, except so far as thou hast unwit-
tingly dealt the blow. Some god is the author
of my misfortune, and I was forewarned of it
a long time ago." Crasus after this buried the
body of his son, with such honours as befitted

10

HERODOTUS

[ BOOK i

the occasion. Adrastus* son of Gordias, son of
Midas, the destroyer of his brother in time
past, the destroyer now of his purifier, regard-
ing himself as the most unfortunate wretch
whom he had ever known, so soon as all was
quiet about the place, slew himself upon the
tomb. Croesus, bereft of his son, gave himself
up to mourning for two full years.

46. At the end of this time the grief of Croe-
sus was interrupted by intelligence from
abroad. He learnt that Cyrus, the son of Cam-
by scs, had destroyed the empire of Astyages,
the son of Cyaxares; and that the Persians were
becoming daily more powerful. This led him
to consider with himself whether it were possi-
ble to check the growing power of that people
before it came to a head. With this design he
resolved to make instant trial of the several ora-
cles in Greece, and ot the one in Libya. So he
sent his messengers in different directions,
some to Delphi, some to Abae in Phocis, and
some to Dodona; others to the oracle of Am-
phiaraus; others to that of Trophonius; others,
again, to Branchidse in Milesia. These were the
Greek oracles which he consulted. To Libya he
sent another embassy, to consult the oracle of
Ammon. These messengers were sent to test
the knowledge of the oracles, that, if they were
found really to return true answers, he might
send a second time, and inquire if he ought to
attack the Persians.

47. The messengers who were despatched to
make trial of the oracles were given the follow-
ing instructions: they were to keep count of
the days from the time of their leaving Sardis,
and, reckoning from that date, on the hun-
dredth day they were to consult the oracles,
and to inquire of them what Croesus the son of
Alyattes, king of Lydia, was doing at that mo-
ment. The answers given them were to be
taken down in writing, and brought back to
him. None of the replies remain on record ex-
cept that of the oracle at Delphi. There, the
moment that the Lydians entered the sanctu-
ary, and before they put their questions, the
Pythoness thus answered them in hexameter
verse: —

/ cun count the sands, and I can measutc the

ocean,
1 have ears for the silent, and l(now what the

dumb man mcaneth;
Lo! on my sense there stn^eth the smell of a

shell-covered tortoise,
Boiling now on a fire, with the flesh of a lamb,

in a cauldron —
Brass is the vessel below, and brass the cover

above it.

48. These words the Lydians wrote down at
the mouth of the Pythoness as she prophesied,
and then set off on their return to Sardis.
When all the messengers had come back with
the answers which they had received, Croesus
undid the rolls, and read what was written in
each. Only one approved itself to him, that of
the Delphic oracle. This he had no sooner
heard than he instantly made an act of adora-
tion, and accepted it as true, declaring that the
Delphic was the only really oracular shrine, the
only one that had discovered in what way he
was in fact employed. For on the departure of
his messengers he had set himself to think what
was most impossible for any one to conceive of
his doing, and then, waiting till the day agreed
on came, he acted as he had determined. He
took a tortoise and a lamb, and cutting them
in pieces with his own hands, boiled them both
together in a brazen cauldron, covered over
with a lid which was also of brass.

49. Such then was the answer returned to
Croesus from Delphi. What the answer was
which the Lydians who went to the shrine of
Amphiaraus and performed the customary
rites obtained of the oracle there, I have it not
in my power to mention, for there is no record
of it. All that is known is that Croesus be-
lieved himself to have found there also an ora-
cle which spoke the truth.

50. After this Croesus, having resolved to
propitiate the Delphic god with a magnificent
sacrifice, offered up three thousand of every
kind of sacrificial beast, and besides made a
huge pile, and placed upon it couches coated
with silver and with gold, and golden goblets,
and robes and vests of purple; all which he
burnt in the hope of thereby making himself
more secure of the favour of the god. Further
he issued his orders to all the people of the land
to offer a sacrifice according to their means.
When the sacrifice was ended, the king melted
down a vast quantity of gold, and ran it into
ingots, making them six palms long, three
palms broad, and one palm in thickness. The
number of ingots was a hundred and seven-
teen, four being of refined gold, in weight two
talents and a half; the others of pale gold, and
in weight two talents. He also caused a statue
of a lion to be made in refined gold, the weight
of which was ten talents. At the time when the
temple of Delphi was burnt to the ground, this
lion fell from the ingots on which it was
placed; it now stands in the Corinthian treas-
ury, and weighs only six talents and a half,
having lost three talents and a half by the fire.

46-56]

5 1 . On the completion of these works Croe-
sus sent them away to Delphi, and with them
two bowls of an enormous size, one of gold, the
other of silver, which used to stand, the latter
upon the right, the former upon the left, as one
entered the temple. They too were moved at
the time of the fire; and now the golden one is
in the Clazomenian treasury, and weighs eight
talents and forty-two minae; the silver one
stands in the corner of the ante-chapel, and
holds six hundred amphorae. This is known
because the Delphians fill it at the time of the
Theophama. It is said by the Delphians to be a
work of Theodore the Samian, and I think that
they say true, for assuredly it is the work of no
common artist. Cro?sus sent also four silver
casks, which are in the Corinthian treasury,
and two lustral vases, a golden and a silver one.
On the former is inscribed the name of the
Lacedemonians, and they claim it as a gift of
theirs, but wrongly, since it was really given by
Croesus. The inscription upon it was cut by a
Delphian, who wished to pleasure the Lace-
daemonians. His name is known to me, but I
forbear to mention it. The boy, through whose
hand the water runs, is (I confess) a Lacedae-
monian gift, but they did not give either of the
lustral vases. Besides these various offerings,
Croesus sent to Delphi many others of less ac-
count, among the rest a number of round silver
basins. Also he dedicated a female figure in
gold, three cubits high, which is said by the
Delphians to be the statue of his baking-
woman; and further, he presented the necklace
and the girdles of his wife.

52. These were the offerings sent by Croesus
to Delphi. To the shrine of Amphiaraus, with
whose valour and misfortune he was ac-
quainted, he sent a shield entirely of gold, and
a spear, also of solid gold, both head and shaft.
They were still existing in my day at Thebes,
laid up in the temple of Ismenian Apollo.

53. The messengers who had the charge of
conveying these treasures to the shrines, re-
ceived instructions to ask the oracles whether
Croesus should go to war with the Persians,
and if so, whether he should strengthen him-
self by the forces of an ally. Accordingly, when
they had reached their destinations and pre-
sented the gifts, they proceeded to consult the
oracles in the following terms: — "Croesus,
king of Lydia and other countries, believing
that these are the only real oracles in all the
world, has sent you such presents as your dis-
coveries deserved, and now inquires of you
whether he shall go to war with the Persians,

THE HISTORY

11

and if so, whether he shall strengthen himself
by the forces of a confederate." Both the ora-
cles agreed in the tenor of their reply, which
was in each case a prophecy that if Croesus at-
tacked the Persians, he would destroy a mighty
empire, and a recommendation to him to look
and see who were the most powerful of the
Greeks, and to make alliance with them.

54. At the receipt of these oracular replies
Croesus was overjoyed, and feeling sure now
that he would destroy the empire of the Per-
sians, he sent once more to Pytho, and present-
ed to the Delphians, the number of whom he
had ascertained, two gold staters apiece. In re-
turn for this the Delphians granted to Croesus
and the Lydians the privilege of precedency in
consulting the oracle, exemption from all
charges, the most honourable seat at the festi-
vals, and the perpetual right of becoming at
pleasure citizens of their town.

55. After sending these presents to the Del-
phians, Croesus a third time consulted the ora-
cle, for having once proved its truthfulness, he
wished to make constant use of it. The ques-
tion whereto he now desired an answer was —
"Whether his kingdom would be of long dura-
tion?" The following was the reply of the
Pythoness: —

Wait till the time shall come when a mule is

monarch of Media,
Then, thou delicate Lydian, away to the pebbles

of Hermus,
Haste, oh I haste thec awayt nor blush to behave

lit(e a coward.

56. Of all the answers that had reached him,
this pleased him far the best, for it seemed in-
credible that a mule should ever come to be
king of the Mcdes, and so he concluded that
the sovereignty would never depart from him-
self or his seed after him. Afterwards he turned
his thoughts to the alliance which he had been
recommended to contract, and sought to ascer-
tain by inquiry which was the most powerful
of the Grecian states. His inquiries pointed out
to him two states as pre-eminent above the rest.
These were the Lacedaemonians and the Athe-
nians, the former of Doric, the latter of Ionic
blood. And indeed these two nations had held
from very early times the most distinguished
place in Greece, the one being a Pelasgic, the
other a Hellenic people, and the one having
never quitted its original seats, while the other
had been excessively migratory; for during the
reign of Deucalion, Phthiotis was the country
in which the Hellenes dwelt, but under Dorus,

12

HERODOTUS

f BOOR i

the son of Hellcn, they moved to the tract at
the base of Ossa and Olympus, which is called
Histixotis; forced to retire from that region by
the Cadmeians,1 they settled, under the name of
Macedni, in the chain of Pindus. Hence they
once more removed and came to Dryopis; and
from Dryopis having entered the Peloponnese
in this way, they became known as Dorians.

57. What the language of the Pelasgi was I
cannot say with any certainty. If, however, we
may form a conjecture from the tongue spoken
by the Pelasgi of the present day — those, for
instance, who live at Creston above the Tyrr-
henians, who formerly dwelt in the district
named Thessaliotis, and were neighbours of
the people now called the Dorians — or those
again who founded Placia and Scylacd upon
the Hellespont, who had previously dwelt for
some time with the Athenians — or those, in
short, of any other of the cities which have
dropped the name but are in fact Pelasgian; if,
I say, we are to form a conjecture from any of
these, we must pronounce that the Pelasgi
spoke a barbarous language. If this were really
so, and the entire Pelasgic race spoke the same
tongue, the Athenians, who were certainly Pe-
lasgi, must have changed their language at the
same time that they passed into the Hellenic
body; for it is a certain fact that the people of
Creston speak a language unlike any of their
neighbours, and the same is true ot the Placi-
anians, while the language spoken by these two
people is the same; which shows that they both
retain the idiom which they brought with
them into the countries where they are now
settled.

58. The Hellenic race has never, since its
first origin, changed its speech. This at least
seems evident to me. It was a branch of the
Pelasgic, which separated from the main body,
and at first was scanty in numbers and of little
power; but it gradually spread and increased to
a multitude of nations, chiefly by the voluntary
entrance into its ranks of numerous tribes of
barbarians. The Pelasgi, on the other hand,
were, as I think, a barbarian race which never
greatly multiplied.

59. On inquiring into the condition of these
two nations, Croesus found that one, the Athe-
nian, was in a state of grievous oppression and
distraction under Pisistratus, the son of Hippo-
crates, who was at that time tyrant of Athens.

1 The race (their name merely signifying "the
Easterns'1) who, in the ante-Trojan times, occu-
pied the country which was afterwards called
Bocotia.

Hippocrates, when he was a private citizen, is
said to have gone once upon a time to Olympia
to see the Games, when a wonderful prodigy
happened to him. As he was employed in sacri-
ficing, the cauldrons which stood near, full of
water and of the flesh of the victims, began to
boil without the help of fire, so that the water
overflowed the pots. Chilon the Lacedaemoni-
an, who happened to be there and to witness
the prodigy, advised Hippocrates, if he were
unmarried, never to take into his house a wife
who could bear him a child; if he already had
one, to send her back to her friends; if he had
a son, to disown him. Chilon's advice did not
at all please Hippocrates, who disregarded it,
and some time after became the father of Pisis-
tratus. This Pisistratus, at a time when there
was civil contention in Attica between the par-
ty of the Sea-coast headed by Megacles the son
of Alcmaeon, and that of the Plain headed by
Lycurgus, one of the Anstolaids, formed the
project of making himself tyrant, and with this
view created a third party. Gathering together
a band of partisans, and giving himself out for
the protector of the Highlanders, he contrived
the following stratagem. He wounded himself
and his mules, and then drove his chariot into
the market-place, professing to have just es-
caped an attack of his enemies, who had at-
tempted his life as he was on his way into the
country. He besought the people to assign him
a guard to protect his person, reminding them
of the glory which he had gained when he led
the attack upon the Megarians, and took the
town of Nisxa, at the same time performing
many other exploits. The Athenians, deceived
by his story, appointed him a band of citizens
to serve as a guard, who were to carry clubs in-
stead of spears, and to accompany him wher-
ever he went. Thus strengthened, Pisistratus
broke into revolt and seized the citadel. In this
way he acquired the sovereignty of Athens,
which he continued to hold without disturbing
the previously existing offices or altering any of
the laws. He administered the state according
to the established usages, and his arrangements
were wise and salutary.

60. However, after a little time, the partisans
of Megacles and those of Lycurgus agreed to
forget their differences, and united to drive
him out. So Pisistratus, having by the means
described first made himself master of Athens,
lost his power again before it had time to take
root. No sooner, however, was he departed
than the factions which had driven him out
quarrelled anew, and at last Megacles, wearied

57-^3]

with the struggle, sent a herald to Pisistratus,
with an offer to re-establish him on the throne
if he would marry his daughter. Pisistratus
consented, and on these terms an agreement
was concluded between the two, after which
they proceeded to devise the mode of his resto-
ration. And here the device on which they hit
was the silliest that I find on record, more es-
pecially considering that the Greeks have been
from very ancient times distinguished from the
barbarians by superior sagacity and freedom
from foolish simpleness, and remembering
that the persons &i whom this trick was played
were not only Greeks but Athenians, who have
the credit of surpassing all other Greeks in
cleverness. There was in the Paeanian district a
woman named Phya, whose height only fell
short of four cubits by three fingers' breadth,
and who was altogether comely to look upon.
This woman they clothed in complete armour,
and, instructing her as to the carriage which
she was to maintain in order to beseem her
part, they placed her in a chariot and drove to
the city. Heralds had been sent forward to pre-
cede her, and to make proclamation to this ef-
fect: "Citizens of Athens, receive again Pisis-
tratus with friendly minds. Minerva, who of all
men honours him the most, herself conducts
him back to her own citadel." This they pro-
claimed in all directions, and immediately the
rumour spread throughout the country dis-
tricts that Minerva was bringing back her fa-
vourite. They of the city also, fully persuaded
that the woman was the veritable goddess,
prostrated themselves before her, and received
Pisistratus back.

61. Pisistratus, having thus recovered the
sovereignty, married, according to agreement,
the daughter of Megacles. As, however, he had
already a family of grown up sons, and the
Alcmaronidae were supposed to be under a
curse, he determined that there should be no
issue of the marriage. His wife at first kept this
matter to herself, but after a time, either her
mother questioned her, or it may be that she
told it of her own accord. At any rate, she in-
formed her mother, and so it reached her fa-
ther's ears. Megacles, indignant at receiving an
affront from such a quarter, in his anger in-
stantly made up his differences with the oppo-
site faction, on which Pisistratus, aware of
what was planning against him, took himself
out of the country. Arrived at Eretria, he held
a council with his children to decide what was
to be done. The opinion of Hippias prevailed,
and it was agreed to aim at regaining the sov-

THE HISTORY

13

ereignty. The first step was to obtain advances
of money from such states as were under obli-
gations to them. By these means they collected
large sums from several countries, especially
from the Thebans, who gave them far more
than any of the rest. To be brief, time passed,
and all was at length got ready for their return.
A band of Argive mercenaries arrived from the
Peloponnese, and a certain Naxian named
Lygdamis, who volunteered his services, was
particularly zealous in the cause, supplying
both men and money.

62. In the eleventh year of their exile the
family of Pisistratus set sail from Eretria on
their return home. They made the coast of At-
tica, near Marathon, where they encamped,
and were joined by their partisans from the
capital and by numbers from the country dis-
tricts, who loved tyranny better than freedom.
At Athens, while Pisistratus was obtaining
funds, and even after he landed at Marathon,
no one paid any attention to his proceedings.
When, however, it became known that he had
left Marathon, and was marching upon the
city, preparations were made for resistance, the
whole force of the state was levied, and led
against the returning exiles. Meantime the
army of Pisistratus, which had broken up from
Marathon, meeting their adversaries near the
temple of the Palienian Minerva, pitched their
camp opposite them. Here a certain soothsayer,
Amphilytus by name, an Acarnanian, moved
by a divine impulse, came into the presence of
Pisistratus, and approaching him uttered thi>
prophecy in the hexameter measure: —

Now has the cast been made, the net is out-spread

in the water,
Through the moonshiny night the tunnies will

enter the meshes.

63. Such was the prophecy uttered under a
divine inspiration. Pisistratus, apprehending
its meaning, declared that he accepted the ora-
cle, and instantly led on his army. The Athe-
nians from the city had just finished their mid-
day meal, after which they had betaken them-
selves, some to dice, others to sleep, when Pisis-
tratus with his troops fell upon them and put
them to the rout. As soon as the flight began,
Pisistratus bethought himself of a most wise
contrivance, whereby the Athenians might be
induced to disperse and not unite in a body any
more. He mounted his sons on horseback and
sent them on in front to overtake the fugitives,
and exhort them to be of good cheer, and re-
turn each man to his home. The Athenians

14

HERODOTUS

[ BOOK i

took the advice, and Pisistratus became for the
third time master of Athens.

64. Upon this he set himself to root his
power more firmly, by the aid of a numerous
body of mercenaries, and by keeping up a full
exchequer, partly supplied from native sources,
partly from the countries about the river Stry-
mon. He also demanded hostages from many
of the Athenians who had remained at home,
and not left Athens at his approach; and these
he sent to Naxos, which he had conquered by
force of arms, and given over into the charge of
Lygdamis. Farther, he purified the island of
Delos, according to the injunctions of an ora-
cle, after the following fashion. All the dead
bodies which had been interred within sight of
the temple he dug up, and removed to another
part of the isle. Thus was the tyranny of Pisis-
tratus established at Athens, many of the Athe-
nians having fallen in the battle, and many
others having fled the country together with
the son of Alcmeon.

65. Such was the condition of the Athenians
when Croesus made inquiry concerning them.
Proceeding to seek information concerning the
Lacedemonians, he learnt that, after passing
through a period of great depression, they had
lately been victorious in a war with the people
ot Tegea; for, during the joint reign of Leo and
Agasicles, kings of Sparta, the Lacedemon-
ians, successful in all their other wars, suffered
continual defeat at the hands of the Tegeans.
At a still earlier period they had been the very
worst governed people in Greece, as well in
matters of internal management as in their re-
lations towards foreigners, from whom they
kept entirely aloof. The circumstances which
led to their being well governed were the fol-
lowing:— Lycurgus, a man of distinction
among the Spartans, had gone to Delphi, to
visit the oracle. Scarcely had he entered into
the inner fane, when the Pythoness exclaimed
aloud,

Oh1 thou great Lycurgus, that com'st to my

heautijul dwelling,
Dear to fore, and to all who sit in the halls

of Olympus,
Whether to hail thee a god I t^now not. ot only

a mortal,
But my hope is strong that a god thou wilt

prove, Lycurgus.

Some report besides, that the Pythoness de-
livered to him the entire system of laws which
are still observed by the Spartans. The Lace-
demonians, however, themselves assert that Ly-

curgus, when he was guardian of his nephew,
Labotas, king of Sparta, and regent in his
room, introduced them from Crete; for as soon
as he became regent, he altered the whole of
the existing customs, substituting new ones,
which he took care should be observed by all.
After this he arranged whatever appertained
to war, establishing the Enomotie, Triacades,
and Syssitia, besides which he instituted the
senate,1 and the ephoralty. Such was the way
in which the Lacedemonians became a well-
governed people.

66. On the death of Lycurf us they built him
a temple, and ever since they have worshipped
him with the utmost reverence. Their soil be-
ing good and the population numerous, they
sprang up rapidly to power, and became a
flourishing people. In consequence they soon
ceased to be satisfied to stay quiet; and, regard-
ing the Arcadians as very much their inferiors,
they sent to consult the oracle about conquer-
ing the whole of Arcadia. The Pythoness thus
answered them:

Ctavest thou Atcady? Bold is thy ciating. I shall

not content it.
Many the men that in Arcady dwell, whose food

is the acorn —
They will nevet allow thee. It is not I that am

niggard.
1 will give thee to dance in Tegea, with noisy

foot-jail,
And with the measunng line mete out the glon-

ous champaign.

When the Lacedemonians received this reply,
leaving the rest of Arcadia untouched, they
marched against the Tegeans, carrying with
them fetters, so confident had this oracle
(which was, in truth, but of base metal) made
them that they would enslave the Tegeans.
The battle, However, went against them, and
many fell into the enemy's hands. Then these
persons, wearing the fetters which they had
themselves brought, and fastened together in a
string, measured the Tegean plain as they exe-
cuted their labours. The fetters in which they
worked were still, in my day, preserved at
Tegea where they hung round the walls of the
temple of Minerva Alea.

67. Throughout the whole of this early con-
test with the Tegeans, the Lacedemonians met
with nothing but defeats; but in the time of

1 It is quite inconceivable that Lycurgus should
in any sense have instituted the senate. Lycurgus
appears to have made scarcely any changes in the
constitution. What he did was to alter the cus-
toms and habits of the people.

64-69]

THE HISTORY

Croesus, under the kings Anaxand rides and
Aristo, fortune had turned in their favour, in
the manner which I will now relate. Having
been worsted in every engagement by their
enemy, they sent to Delphi, and inquired of
the oracle what god they must propitiate to pre-
vail in the war against the Tegeans. The an-
swer of the Pythoness was that before they
could prevail, they must remove to Sparta the
bones of Orestes, the son of Agamemnon. Un-
able to discover his burial-place, they sent a
second time, and asked the god where the body
of the hero had been laid. The following was
the answer they received: —

Le vel and smooth is the plain where Arcadian

Tegea standcth;
There two winds are ever, by strong necessity,

blowing,
Counter-strode answers strode, and evil lies upon

evil.
There all-teeming Earth doth harbour the son of

Atndes;
Bring thou him to thy city, and then be Tegea9 s

master.

After this reply, the Lacedemonians were no
nearer discovering the burial-place than before,
though they continued to search for it dili-
gently; until at last a man named Lichas, one
of the Spartans called Agathoergi, found it.
The Agathoergi are citizens who have just
served their time among the knights. The five
eldest of the knights go out every year, and are
bound during the year after their discharge to
go wherever the State sends them, and actively
employ themselves in its service.

68. Lichas was one of this body when, partly
by good luck, partly by his own wisdom, he
discovered the burial-place. Intercourse be-
tween the two States existing just at this time,
he went to Tegea, and, happening to enter into
the workshop of a smith, he saw him forging
some iron. As he stood marvelling at what
he beheld,1 he was observed by the smith
who, leaving off his work, went up to him
and said,

"Certainly, then, you Spartan stranger, you
would have been wonderfully surprised if you
had seen what I have, since you make a marvel
even of the working in iron. I wanted to make
myself a well in this room, and began to dig it,
when what think you? I came upon a coffin
seven cubits long. I had never believed that
men were taller in the olden times than they
are now, so I opened the coffin. The body inside

1 Herodotus means to represent that the forging
of iron was a novelty at the time.

was of the same length: I measured it, and
filled up the hole again."

Such was the man's account of what he had
seen. The other, on turning the matter over in
his mind, conjectured that this was the body
of Orestes, of which the oracle had spoken. He
guessed so, because he observed that the smithy
had two bellows, which he understood to be
the two winds, and the hammer and anvil
would do for the stroke and the counterstroke,
and the iron that was being wrought for the
evil lying upon evil. This he imagined might
be so because iron had been discovered to the
hurt of man. Full of these conjectures, he sped
back to Sparta and laid the whole matter be-
fore his countrymen. Soon after, by a concerted
plan, they brought a charge against him, and
began a prosecution. Lichas betook himself to
Tegea, and on his arrival acquainted the smith
with his misfortune, and proposed to rent his
room of him. The smith refused for some
time; but at last Lichas persuaded him, and
took up his abode in it. Then he opened the
grave, and collecting the bones, returned with
them to Sparta. From henceforth, whenever
the Spartans and the Tegeans made trial of
each other's skill in arms, the Spartans always
had greatly the advantage; and by the time to
which we are now come they were masters of
most of the Peloponncse.

69. Croesus, informed of all these circum-
stances, sent messengers to Sparta, with gifts
in their hands, who were to ask the Spartans
to enter into alliance with him. They received
strict injunctions as to what they should say,
and on their arrival at Sparta spake as fol-
lows:—

"Croesus, king of the Lydians and of other
nations, has sent us to speak thus to you: 'Oh!
Lacedaemonians, the god has bidden me to
make the Greek my friend; I therefore apply to
you, in conformity with the oracle, knowing
that you hold the first rank in Greece, and de-
sire to become your friend and ally in all true
faith and honesty/ "

Such was the message which Croesus sent by
his heralds. The Lacedaemonians, who were
aware beforehand of the reply given him by the
oracle, were full of joy at the coming of the
messengers, and at once took the oaths of
friendship and alliance: this they did the more
readily as they had previously contracted cer-
tain obligations towards him. They had sent
to Sardis on one occasion to purchase some
gold, intending to use it on a statue of Apollo
— the statue, namely, which remains to this

16

HERODOTUS

[ BOOK i

day at Thornax in Laconia, when Croesus,
hearing of the matter, gave them as a gift the
gold which they wanted.

70. This was one reason why the Lacedae-
monians were so willing to make the alliance:
another was, because Croesus had chosen them
for his friends in preference to all the other
Greeks. They therefore held themselves in
readiness to come at his summons, and not con-
tent with so doing, they further had a huge
vase made in bronze, covered with figures of
animals all round the outside of the rim, and
large enough to contain three hundred am-
phora:, which they sent to Croesus as a return
for his presents to them. The vase, however,
never reached Sardis. Its miscarriage is ac-
counted for in two quite different ways. The
Lacedaemonian story is that when it reached
Samos, on its way towards Sardis, the Samians
having knowledge of it, put to sea in their
ships of war and made it their prize. But the
Samians declare that the Lacedarmonians who
had the vase in charge, happening to arrive too
late, and learning that Sardis had fallen and
that Croesus was a prisoner, sold it in their
island, and the purchasers (who were, they say,
private persons) made an offering of it at the
shrine of Juno: the sellers were very likely on
their return to Sparta to have said that they
had been robbed of it by the Samians. Such,
then, was the fate of the vase.

71. Meanwhile Croesus, taking the oracle in
a wrong sense, led his forces into Cappadocia,
fully expecting to defeat Cyrus and destroy the
empire of the Persians. While he was still en-
gaged in making preparations for his attack,
a Lydian named Sandanis, who had always
been looked upon as a wise man, but who after
this obtained a very great name indeed among
his countrymen, came forward and counselled
the king in these words:

"Thou art about, oh! king, to make war
against men who wear leathern trousers, and
have all their other garments of leather; who
feed not on what they like, but on what they
can get from a soil that is sterile and unkindly;
who do not indulge in wine, but drink water;
who possess no figs nor anything else that is
good to eat. If, then, thou conquerest them,
what canst thou get from them, seeing that
they have nothing at all? But if they conquer
thee, consider how much that is precious thou
wilt lose: if they once get a taste of our pleasant
things, they will keep such hold of them that
we shall never be able to make them loose their
grasp. For my part, I am thankful to the gods

that they have not put it into the hearts of the
Persians to invade Lydia."

Croesus was not persuaded by this speech,
though it was true enough; for before the con-
quest of Lydia, the Persians possessed none of
the luxuries or delights of life.

72. The Cappadocians are known to the
Greeks by the name of Syrians. Before the rise
of the Persian power, they had been subject to
the Medes; but at the present time they were
within the empire of Cyrus, for the boundary
between the Median and the Lydian empires
was the river Halys. This stream, which rises
in the mountain country of Armenia, runs
first through Cilicia; afterwards it flows for a
while with the Matieni on the right, and the
Phrygians on the left: then, when they are
passed, it proceeds with a northern course, sep-
arating the Cappadocian Syrians from the
Paphlagonians, who occupy the left bank, thus
forming the boundary of almost the whole of
Lower Asia, from the sea opposite Cyprus to
the Euxine. Just there is the neck of the penin-
sula, a journey of five days across for an active
walker.

73. There were two motives which led Croe-
sus to attack Cappadocia: firstly, he coveted
the land, which he wished to add to his own
dominions; but the chief reason was that he
wanted to revenge on Cyrus the wrongs of
Astyages, and was made confident by the ora-
cle of being able so to do: for Astyages, son
of Cyaxares and king of the Medes, who had
been dethroned by Cyrus, son of Cambyses,
was Croesus* brother by marriage. This mar-
riage had taken place under circumstances
which I will now relate. A band of Scythian
nomads, who had left their own land on occa-
sion of some disturbance, had taken refuge in
Media. Cyaxares, son of Phraortes, and grand-
son of Deioces, was at that time king of the
country. Recognising them as suppliants, he
began by treating them with kindness, and
coming presently to esteem them highly, he in-
trusted to their care a number of boys, whom
they were to teach their language and to in-
struct in the use of the bow. Time passed, and
the Scythians employed themselves, day after
day, in hunting, and always brought home
some game; but at last it chanced that one day
they took nothing. On their return to Cyaxares
with empty hands, that monarch, who was
hot-tempered, as he showed upon the occasion,
received them very rudely and insultingly. In
consequence of this treatment, which they did
not conceive themselves to have deserved, the

TO-;?]

Scythians determined to take one of the boys
whom they had in charge, cut him in pieces,
and then dressing the flesh as they were wont
to dress that of the wild animals, serve it up to
Cyaxares as game: after which they resolved to
convey themselves with all speed to Sardis, to
the court of Alyattes, the son of Sadyattes. The
plan was carried out: Cyaxares and his guests
ate of the flesh prepared by the Scythians, and
they themselves, having accomplished their
purpose, fled to Alyattes in the guise of suppli-
ants.

74. Afterwards, on the refusal of Alyattes to
give up his suppliants when Cyaxares sent to
demand them of him, war broke out between
the Lydians and the Medes, and continued for
five years, with various success. In the course
of it the Medes gained many victories over the
Lydians, and the Lydians also gained many
victories over the Medes. Among their other
battles there was one night engagement. As,
however, the balance had not inclined in fa-
vour of either nation, another combat took
place in the sixth year, in the course of which,
just as the battle was growing warm, day was
on a sudden changed into night. This event
had been foretold by Thales, the Milesian, who
forewarned the lonians of it, fixing for it the
very year in which it actually took place. The
Medes and Lydians, when they observed the
change, ceased fighting, and were alike anx-
ious to have terms of peace agreed on. Syen-
nesis of Cilicia, and Labynetus of Babylon,
were the persons who mediated between the
parties, who hastened the taking of the oaths,
and brought about the exchange of espousals.
It was they who advised that Alyattes should
give his daughter Aryenis in marriage to Asty-
ages, the son of Cyaxares, knowing, as they
did, that without some sure bond of strong ne-
cessity, there is wont to be but little security in
men's covenants. Oaths are taken by these peo-
ple in the same way as by the Greeks, except
that they make a slight flesh wound in their
arms, from which each sucks a portion of the
other's blood.

75. Cyrus had captured this Astyages, who
was his mother's father, and kept him prison-
er, for a reason which I shall bring forward in
another part of my history. This capture
formed the ground of quarrel between Cyrus
and Croesus, in consequence of which Croesus
sent his servants to ask the oracle if he should
attack the Persians; and when an evasive an-
swer came, fancying it to be in his favour, car-
ried his arms into the Persian territory. When

THE HISTORY

17

he reached the river Halys, he transported his
army across it, as I maintain, by the bridges
which exist there at the present day; but, ac-
cording to the general belief of the Greeks, by
the aid of Thales the Milesian. The tale is that
Croesus was in doubt how he should get his
army across, as the bridges were not made at
that time, and that Thales, who happened to
be in the camp, divided the stream and caused
it to flow on both sides of the army instead of
on the left only. This he effected thus: — Begin-
ning some distance above the camp, he dug a
deep channel, which he brought round in a
semicircle, so that it might pass to rearward of
the camp; and that thus the river, diverted
from its natural course into the new channel at
the point where this left the stream, might flow
by the station of the army, and afterwards fall
again into the ancient bed. In this way the
river was split into two streams, which were
both easily fordable. It is said by some that the
water was entirely drained off from the natural
bed of the river. But I am of a different opin-
ion; for I do not see how, in that case, they
could have crossed it on their return.

76. Having passed the Halys with the forces
under his command, Croesus entered the dis-
trict of Cappadocia which is called Ptena. It
lies in the neighbourhood of the city of Sinope'
upon the Euxine, and is the strongest position
in the whole country thereabouts. Here Croe-
sus pitched his camp, and began to ravage the
fields of the Syrians. He besieged and took the
chief city of the Pterians, and reduced the in-
habitants to slavery: he likewise made himself
master of the surrounding villages. Thus he
brought ruin on the Syrians, who were guilty
of no offence towards him. Meanwhile, Cyrus
had levied an army and marched against Croe-
sus, increasing his numbers at every step by
the forces of the nations that lay in his way.
Before beginning his march he had sent her-
alds to the lonians, with an invitation to them
to revolt from the Lydian king: they, however,
had refused compliance. Cyrus, notwithstand-
ing, marched against the enemy, and en-
camped opposite them in the district of Pteria,
where the trial of strength took place between
the contending powers. The combat was hot
and bloody, and upon both sides the number
of the slain was great; nor had victory declared
in favour of either party, when night came
down upon the battle-field. Thus both armies
fought valiantly.

77. Croesus laid the blame of his ill success
on the number of his troops, which fell very

18

HERODOTUS

[BOOK i

short of the enemy; and as on the next day Cy-
rus did not repeat the attack, he set off on his
return to Sardis, intending to collect his allies
and renew the contest in the spring. He meant
to call on the Egyptians to send him aid, ac-
cording to the terms of the alliance which he
had concluded with Amasis, previously to his
league with the Lacedemonians. He intended
also to summon to his assistance the Baby-
lonians, under their king Labynetus, for they
too were bound to him by treaty: and further,
he meant to send word to Sparta, and appoint
a day for the coming of their succours. Hav-
ing got together these forces in addition to his
own, he would, as soon as the winter was past
and springtime come, march once more
against the Persians. With these intentions
Croesus, immediately on his return, despatched
heralds to his various allies, with a request that
they would join him at Sardis in the course of
the fifth month from the time of the departure
of his messengers. He then disbanded the army
— consisting of mercenary troops — which had
been engaged with the Persians and had since
accompanied him to his capital, and let them
depart to their homes, never imagining that
Cyrus, after a battle in which victory had been
so evenly balanced, would venture to march
upon Sardis.

78. While Croesus was still in this mind, all
the suburbs of Sardis were found to swarm
with snakes, on the appearance ot which the
horses left feeding in the pasture-grounds, and
flocked to the suburbs to eat them. The king,
who witnessed the unusual sight, regarded it
very rightly as a prodigy. He therefore in-
stantly sent messengers to the soothsayers of
Telmessus, to consult them upon the matter.
His messengers reached the city, and obtained
from the Telmessians an explanation of what
the prodigy portended, but tate did not allow
them to inionn their lord; for ere they entered
Sardis on their return, Croesus was a prisoner.
What the Telmessians had declared was that
Croesus must look for the entry of an army of
foreign invaders into his country, and that
when they came they would subdue the native
inhabitants; since the snake, said they, is a
child of earth, and the horse a warrior and a
foreigner. Croesus was already a prisoner when
the Telmessians thus answered his inquiry,
but they had no knowledge of what was taking
place at Sardis, or of the fate of the monarch.

79. Cyrus, however, when Croesus broke up
so suddenly from his quarters after the battle
at Pteria, conceiving that he had marched

away with the intention of disbanding his
army, considered a little, and soon saw that it
was advisable for him to advance upon Sardis
with all haste, before the Lydians could get
their forces together a second time. Having
thus determined, he lost no time in carrying
out his plan. He marched forward with such
speed that he was himself the first to announce
his coming to the Lydian king. That monarch,
placed in the utmost difficulty by the turn of
events which had gone so entirely against all
his calculations, nevertheless led out the Lydi-
ans to battle. In all Asia there was not at that
time a braver or more warlike people. Their
manner of fighting was on horseback; they car-
ried long lances, and were clever in the man-
agement of their steeds.

80. The two armies met in the plain before
Sardis. It is a vast flat, bare of trees, watered
by the Hyllus and a number of other streams,
which all flow into one larger than the rest,
called the Hcrmus. This river rises in the sa-
cred mountain of the Dindymenian Mother,
and falls into the sea near the town of Phocaea.

When Cyrus beheld the Lydians arranging
themselves in order of battle on this plain,
fearful of the strength of their cavalry, he
adopted a device which Harpagus, one of the
Medes, suggested to him. He collected together
all the camels that had come in the train of his
army to carry the provisions and the baggage,
and taking off their loads, he mounted riders
upon them accoutred as horsemen. These he
commanded to advance in front of his other
troops against the Lydian horse; behind them
were to follow the foot soldiers, and last of all
the cavalry. When his arrangements were com-
plete, he gave his troops orders to slay all the
other Lydians who came in their way without
mercy, but to spare Croesus and not kill him,
even if he should be seized and offer resistance.
The reason why Cyrus opposed his camels to
the enemy's horse was because the horse has a
natural dread of the camel, and cannot abide
either the sight or the smell of that animal. By
this stratagem he hoped to make Croesus's
horse useless to him, the horse being what he
chiefly depended on for victory. The two ar-
mies then joined battle, and immediately the
Lydian war-horses, seeing and smelling the
camels, turned round and galloped off; and so
it came to pass that all Croesus's hopes with-
ered away. The Lydians, however, behaved
manfully. As soon as they understood what
was happening, they leaped off their horses,
and engaged with the Persians on foot. The

7»-84]

THE HISTORY

19

combat was long; but at last, after a great
slaughter on both sides, the Lydians turned
and fled. They were driven within their walls,
and the Persians laid siege to Sardis.

81. Thus the siege began. Meanwhile Croe-
sus, thinking that the place would hold out no
inconsiderable time, sent off fresh heralds to
his allies from the beleaguered town. His for-
mer messengers had been charged to bid them
assemble at Sardis in the course of the fifth
month; they whom he now sent were to say
that he was already besieged, and to beseech
them to come to his aid with all possible speed.
Among his other allies Croesus did not omit to
send to Lacedaemon.

82. It chanced, however, that the Spartans
were themselves just at this time engaged in a
quarrel with the Argives about a place called
Thyrea, which was within the limits of Argo-
lis, but had been seized on by the Lacedae-
monians. Indeed, the whole country westward,
as far as Cape Malca, belonged once to the
Argives, and not only that entire tract upon
the mainland, but also Cythera, and the other
islands. The Argives collected troops to resist
the seizure of Thyrea, but before any battle
was fought, the two parties came to terms, and
it was agreed that three hundred Spartans and
three hundred Argives should meet and fight
for the place, which should belong to the na-
tion with whom the victory rested. It was stip-
ulated also that the other troops on each side
should return home to their respective coun-
tries, and not remain to witness the combat, as
there was danger, if the armies stayed, that
cither the one or the other, on seeing their
countrymen undergoing defeat, might hasten
to their assistance. These terms being agreed
on, the two armies marched off, leaving three
hundred picked men on each side to fight for
the territory. The battle began, and so equal
were the combatants, that at the close of the
day, when night put a stop to the fight, of the
whole six hundred only three men remained
alive, two Argives, Alcanor and Chromius,
and a single Spartan, Othryadas. The two Ar-
gives, regarding themselves as the victors, hur-
ried to Argos. Othryadas, the Spartan, re-
mained upon the field, and, stripping the bod-
ies of the Argives who had fallen, carried their
armour to the Spartan camp. Next day the two
armies returned to learn the result. At first
they disputed, both parties claiming the vic-
tory, the one, because they had the greater
number of survivors; the other, because their
man remained on the field, and stripped the

bodies of the slain, whereas the two men of
the other side ran away; but at last they fell
from words to blows, and a battle was fought,
in which both parties suffered great loss, but
at the end the Lacedaemonians gained the vic-
tory. Upon this the Argives, who up to that
time had worn their hair long, cut it off
close, and made a law, to which they attached
a curse, binding themselves never more to
let their hair grow, and never to allow their
women to wear gold, until they should recover
Thyrea. At the same time the Lacedemonians
made a law the very reverse of this, namely, to
wear their hair long, though they had always
before cut it close. Othryadas himself, it is
said, the sole survivor of the three hundred,
prevented by a sense of shame from returning
to Sparta after all his comrades had fallen, laid
violent hands upon himself in Thyrea.

83. Although the Spartans were engaged
with these matters when the herald arrived
from Sardis to entreat them to come to the as-
sistance of the besieged king, yet, notwith-
standing, they instantly set to work to afford
him help. They had completed their prepara-
tions, and the ships were just ready to start,
when a second message informed them that
the place had already fallen, and that Croesus
was a prisoner. Deeply grieved at his misfor-
tune, the Spartans ceased their efforts.

84. The following is the way in which Sar-
dis was taken. On the fourteenth day of the
siege Cyrus bade some horsemen ride about his
lines, and make proclamation to the whole
army that he would give a reward to the man
who should first mount the wall. After this he
made an assault, but without success. His
troops retired, but a certain Mardian, Hyroea-
des by name, resolved to approach the citadel
and attempt it at a place where no guards were
ever set. On this side the rock was so precipi-
tous, and the citadel (as it seemed) so impreg-
nable, that no fear was entertained of its being
carried in this place. Here was the only portion
of the circuit round which their old king Meles
did not carry the lion which his leman bore to
him. For when the Tclmessians had declared
that if the lion were taken round the defences,
Sardis would be impregnable, and Meles, in
consequence, carried it round the rest of the
fortress where the citadel seemed open to at-
tack, he scorned to take it round this side,
which he looked on as a sheer precipice, and
therefore absolutely secure. It is on that side of
the city which faces Mount Tmolus. Hyroea-
des, however, having the day before observed

20

HERODOTUS

[BOOK

a Lydian soldier descend the rock after a hel-
met that had rolled down from the top, and
having seen him pick it up and carry it back,
thought over what he had witnessed, and
formed his plan. He climbed the rock himself,
and other Persians followed in his track, until a
large number had mounted to the top. Thus was
Sardis taken, and given up entirely to pillage.

85. With respect to Croesus himself, this is
what befell him at the taking of the town. He
had a son, of whom I made mention above, a
worthy youth, whose only defect was that he
was deaf and dumb. In the days of his prosper-
ity Croesus had done the utmost that he could
for him, and among other plans which he had
devised, had sent to Delphi to consult the ora-
cle on his behalf. The answer which he had re-
ceived from the Pythoness ran thus: —

Lydian, wide-ruling monarch, thou wondrous

simple Croesus,
Wish not ever to hear in thy palace the voice thou

hast prayed for
Uttcnng intelligent sounds. Far better thy son

should be silent I
Ah! woe worth the day when thine ear shall first

list to his accents.

When the town was taken, one of the Per-
sians was just going to kill Croesus, not know-
ing who he was. Croesus saw the man coming,
but under the pressure of his affliction, did not
care to avoid the blow, not minding whether
or no he died beneath the stroke. Then this
son of his, who was voiceless, beholding the
Persian as he rushed towards Croesus, in the
agony of his fear and grief burst into speech,
and said, "Man, do not kill Croesus." This was
the first time that he had ever spoken a word,
but afterwards he retained the power of speech
for the remainder of his life.

86. Thus was Sardis taken by the Persians,
and Croesus himself fell into their hands, after
having reigned fourteen years, and been be-
sieged in his capital fourteen days; thus too did
Croesus fulfill the oracle, which said that he
should destroy a mighty empire — by destroy-
ing his own. Then the Persians who had made
Croesus prisoner brought him before Cyrus.
Now a vast pile had been raised by his orders,
and Croesus, laden with fetters, was placed
upon it, and with him twice seven of the sons
of the Lydians. I know not whether Cyrus was
minded to make an offering of the first-fruits
to some god or other, or whether he had vowed
a vow and was performing it, or whether, as
may well be, he had heard that Croesus was a
holy man, and so wished to see if any of the

heavenly powers would appear to save him
from being burnt alive. However it might be,
Cyrus was thus engaged, and Croesus was al-
ready on the pile, when it entered his mind
in the depth of his woe that there was a divine
warning in the words which had come to him
from the lips of Solon, "No one while he lives
is happy." When this thought smote him he
fetched a long breath, and breaking his deep
silence, groaned out aloud, thrice uttering the
name of Solon. Cyrus caught the sounds, and
bade the interpreters inquire of Croesus who it
was he called on. They drew near and asked
him, but he held his peace, and for a long time
made no answer to their questionings, until at
length, forced to say something, he exclaimed,
"One I would give much to see converse with
every monarch." Not knowing what he meant
by this reply, the interpreters begged him to
explain himself; and as they pressed for an an-
swer, and grew to be troublesome, he told
them how, a long time before, Solon, an Athen-
ian, had come and seen all his splendour, and
made light of it; and how whatever he had
said to him had fallen out exactly as he fore-
showed, although it was nothing that especial-
ly concerned him, but applied to all mankind
alike, and most to those who seemed to them-
selves happy. Meanwhile, as he thus spoke, the
pile was lighted, and the outer portion began
to blaze. Then Cyrus, hearing from the inter-
preters what Croesus had said, relented, be-
thinking himself that he too was a man, and
that it was a fellow-man, and one who had
once been as blessed by fortune as himself, that
he was burning alive; afraid, moreover, of ret-
ribution, and full of the thought that whatever
is human is insecure. So he bade them quench
the blazing fire as quickly as they could, and
take down Croesus and the other Lydians,
which they tried to do, but the flames were not
to be mastered.

87. Then, the Lydians say that Croesus, per-
ceiving by the efforts made to quench the fire
that Cyrus had relented, and seeing also that
all was in vain, and that the men could not get
the fire under, called with a loud voice upon
the god Apollo, and prayed him, if he ever re-
ceived at his hands any acceptable gift, to come
to his aid, and deliver him from his present
danger. As thus with tears he besought the
god, suddenly, though up to that time the sky
had been clear and the day without a breath of
wind, dark clouds gathered, and the storm
burst over their heads with rain of such vio-
lence, that the flames were speedily extm-

85-91]

THE HISTORY

2i

guished. Cyrus, convinced by this that Croesus
was a good man and a favourite of heaven,
asked him after he was taken off the pile,
"Who it was that had persuaded him to lead
an army into his country, and so become his
foe rather than continue his friend?" to which
Croesus made answer as follows: "What I did,
oh! king, was to thy advantage and to my own
loss. If there be blame, it rests with the god of
the Greeks, who encouraged me to begin the
war. No one is so foolish as to prefer war to
peace, in which, instead of sons burying their
fathers, fathers bury their sons. But the gods
willed it so."

88. Thus did Croesus speak. Cyrus then ord-
ered his fetters to be taken off, and made him
sit down near himself, and paid him much re-
spect, looking upon him, as did also the cour-
tiers, with a sort of wonder. Croesus, wrapped
in thought, uttered no word. After a while,
happening to turn and perceive the Persian
soldiers engaged in plundering the town, he
said to Cyrus, "May I now tell thee, oh! king,
what I have in my mind, or is silence best?"
Cyrus bade him speak his mind boldly. Then
he put this question: "What is it, oh! Cyrus,
which those men yonder are doing so busily?"
"Plundering thy city," Cyrus answered, "and
carrying off thy riches." "Not my city," re-
joined the other, "nor my riches. They are not
mine any more. It is thy wealth which they are
pillaging."

89. Cyrus, struck by what Croesus had said,
bade all the court to withdraw, and then asked
Croesus what he thought it best for him to do
as regarded the plundering. Croesus answered,
"Now that the gods have made me thy slave,
oh! Cyrus, it seems to me that it is my part, if
I see anything to thy advantage, to show it to
thee. Thy subjects, the Persians, are a poor peo-
ple with a proud spirit. If then thou lettest
them pillage and possess themselves of great
wealth, I will tell thee what thou hast to expect
at their hands. The man who gets the most,
look to having him rebel against thee. Now
then, if my words please thee, do thus, oh!
king: — Let some of thy bodyguards be placed
as sentinels at each of the city gates, and let
them take their booty from the soldiers as they
leave the town, and tell them that they do so
because the tenths are due to Jupiter. So wilt
thou escape the hatred they would feel if the
plunder were taken away from them by force;
and they, seeing that what is proposed is just,
will do it willingly."

90. Cyrus was beyond measure pleased with

this advice, so excellent did it seem to him. He
praised Croesus highly, and gave orders to his
bodyguard to do as he had suggested. Then,
turning to Croesus, he said, "Oh! Croesus, I see
that thou are resolved both in speech and act
to show thyself a virtuous prince: ask me,
therefore, whatever thou wilt as a gift at this
moment." Croesus replied, "Oh! my lord, if
thou wilt suffer me to send these fetters to the
god of the Greeks, whom I once honoured
above all other gods, and ask him if it is his
wont to deceive his benefactors — that will be
the highest favour thou canst confer on me."
Cyrus upon this inquired what charge he had
to make against the god. Then Croesus gave
him a full account of all his projects, and ot the
answers of the oracle, and of the offerings
which he had sent, on which he dwelt espe-
cially, and told him how it was the encourage-
ment given him by the oracle which had led
him to make war upon Persia. All this he re-
lated, and at the end again besought permis-
sion to reproach the god with his behaviour.
Cyrus answered with a laugh, "This I readily
grant thee, and whatever else thou shah at any
time ask at my hands." Croesus, finding his re-
quest allowed, sent certain Lydians to Delphi,
enjoining them to lay his fetters upon the
threshold of the temple, and ask the god, "If he
were not ashamed of having encouraged him,
as the destined destroyer of the empire of Cy-
rus, to begin a war with Persia, of which such
were the first-fruits?" As they said this they
were to point to the fetters; and further they
were to inquire, "If it was the wont of the
Greek gods to be ungrateful?"

91. The Lydians went to Delphi and de-
livered their message, on which the Pythoness
is said to have replied — "It is not possible even
for a god to escape the decree of destiny. Croe-
sus has been punished for the sin of his fifth
ancestor, who, when he was one of the body-
guard of the Heraclides, joined in a woman's
fraud, and, slaying his master, wrongfully
seized the throne. Apollo was anxious that the
fall of Sardis should not happen in the lifetime
of Croesus, but be delayed to his son's days; he
could not, however, persuade the Fates. All
that they were willing to allow he took and
gave to Croesus. Let Croesus know that Apollo
delayed the taking of Sardis three full years,
and that he is thus a prisoner three years later
than was his destiny. Moreover it was Apollo
who saved him from the burning pile. Nor has
Croesus any right to complain with respect to
the oracular answer which he received. For

22

HERODOTUS

[BOOK

when the god told him that, if he attacked the
Persians, he would destroy a mighty empire, he
ought, if he had been wise, to have sent again
and inquired which empire was meant, that
of Cyrus or his own; but if he neither under-
stood what was said, nor took the trouble to
seek for enlightenment, he has only himself to
blame for the result. Besides, he had misunder-
stood the last answer which had been given
him about the mule. Cyrus was that mule. For
the parents of Cyrus were of different races,
and of different conditions — his mother a
Median princess, daughter of King Astyages,
and his father a Persian and a subject, who,
though so far beneath her in all respects, had
married his royal mistress."

Such was the answer of the Pythoness. The
Lydians returned to Sardis and communicated
it to Croesus, who confessed, on hearing it,
that the fault was his, not the god's. Such was
the way in which Ionia was first conquered,
and so was the empire of Crcesus brought to
a close.

92. Besides the offerings which have been
already mentioned, there are many others in
various parts of Greece presented by Crcesus;
as at Thebes in Bceotia, where there is a golden
tripod, dedicated by him to Ismeman Apollo;
at Ephesus, where the golden heifers, and most
of the columns are his gift; and at Delphi, in
the temple of Pronaia, where there is a huge
shield in gold, which he gave. All these offer-
ings were still in existence in my day; many
others have perished: among them those which
he dedicated at Branchida; in Milesia, equal
in weight, as I am informed, and in all respects
like to those at Delphi. The Delphian presents,
and those sent to Amphiaraiis, came from his
own private property, being the first-iruits of
the fortune which he inherited from his father;
his other offerings came from the riches of an
enemy, who, before he mounted the throne,
headed a party against him, with the view of
obtaining the crown of Lydia for Pantaleon.
This Pantaleon was a son of Alyattes, but by
a different mother from Croesus; for the
mother of Croesus was a Carian woman, but
the mother of Pantaleon an Ionian. When, by
the appointment of his father, Croesus ob-
tained the kingly dignity, he seized the man
who had plotted against him, and broke him
upon the wheel. His property, which he had
previously devoted to the service of the gods,
Crcesus applied in the way mentioned above.
This is all I shall say about his offerings.

93. Lydia, unlike most other countries,

scarcely offers any wonders for the historian to
describe, except the gold-dust which is washed
down from the range of Tmolus. It has, how-
ever, one structure of enormous size, only in-
ferior to the monuments of Egypt and Baby-
lon. This is the tomb of Alyattes, the father of
Crcesus, the base of which is formed of im-
mense blocks of stone, the rest being a vast
mound of earth. It was raised by the joint la-
bour of the tradesmen, handicraftsmen, and
courtesans of Sardis, and had at the top five
stone pillars, which remained to my day, with
inscriptions cut on them, showing how much
of the work was done by each class of work-
people. It appeared on measurement that the
portion of the courtesans was the largest. The
daughters of the common people in Lydia, one
and all, pursue this traffic, wishing to collect
money for their portions. They continue the
practice till they marry; and are wont to con-
tract themselves in marriage. The tomb is six
stades and two plethra in circumference; its
breadth is thirteen plethra. Close to the tomb
is a large lake, which the Lydians say is never
dry. They call it the Lake Gygaca.

94. The Lydians have very nearly the same
customs as the Greeks, with the exception that
these last do not bring up their girls in the same
way. So far as we have any knowledge, they
were the first nation to introduce the use of
gold and silver coin, and the first who sold
goods by retail. They claim also the invention
of all the games which are common to them
with the Greeks. These they declare that they
invented about the time when they colonised
Tyrrhema, an event of which they give the
following account. In the days of Atys, the son
of Manes, there was great scarcity through the
whole land of Lydia. For some time the Lyd-
ians bore the affliction patiently, but finding
that it did not pass away, they set to work to
devise remedies for the evil. Various expedi-
ents were discovered by various persons; dice,
and huckle-bones, and ball, and all such games
were invented, except tables, the invention of
which they do not claim as theirs. The plan
adopted against the famine was to engage in
games one day so entirely as not to feel any
craving for food, and the next day to eat and
abstain from games. In this way they passed
eighteen years. Still the affliction continued
and even became more grievous. So the king
determined to divide the nation in half, and to
make the two portions draw lots, the one to
stay, the other to leave the land. He would
continue to reign over those whose lot it should

92-98]

THE HISTORY

23

be to remain behind; the emigrants should
have his son Tyrrhenus for their leader. The
lot was cast, and they who had to emigrate
went down to Smyrna, and built themselves
ships, in which, after they had put on board all
needful stores, they sailed away in search of
new homes and better sustenance. After sailing
past many countries they came to Umbna,
where they built cities for themselves, and fixed
their residence. Their former name of Lydians
they laid aside, and called themselves after the
name of the king's son, who led the colony,
Tyrrhenians.

95. Thus far I have been engaged in show-
ing how the Lydians were brought under the
Persian yoke. The course of my history now
compels me to inquire who this Cyrus was by
whom the Lydian empire was destroyed, and
by what means the Persians had become the
lords paramount of Asia. And herein I shall
follow those Persian authorities whose object
it appears to be not to magnify the exploits of
Cyrus, but to relate the simple truth. I know
besides three ways m which the story of Cyrus
is told, all differing from my own narrative.

The Assyrians had held the Empire of Up-
per Asia for the space of five hundred and
twenty years, when the Medes set the example
of revolt from their authority. They took arms
for the recovery of their freedom, and fought
a battle with the Assyrians, in which they be-
haved with such gallantry as to shake off the
yoke of servitude, and to become a free people.
Upon their success the other nations also re-
volted and regained their independence.

96. Thus the nations over that whole extent
of country obtained the blessing of self-gov-
ernment, but they fell again under the sway of
kings, in the manner which I will now relate.
There was a certain Mede named Deioces, son
of Phraortes, a man of much wisdom, who had
conceived the desire of obtaining to himself the
sovereign power. In furtherance of his ambi-
tion, therefore, he formed and carried into ex-
ecution the following scheme. As the Medes at
that time dwelt in scattered villages without
any central authority, and lawlessness in con-
sequence prevailed throughout the land, Deio-
ces, who was already a man of mark in his
own village, applied himself with greater zeal
and earnestness than ever before to the practice
of justice among his fellows. It was his con-
viction that justice and injustice are engaged in
perpetual war with one another. He therefore
began his course of conduct, and presently the
men of his village, observing his integrity,

chose him to be the arbiter of all their disputes.
Bent on obtaining the sovereign power, he
showed himself an honest and an upright
judge, and by these means gained such credit
with his fellow-citizens as to attract the atten-
tion of those who lived in the surrounding vil-
lages. They had long been suffering from un-
just and oppressive judgments; so that, when
they heard of the singular uprightness of Deio-
ces, and of the equity of his decisions, they joy-
fully had recourse to him in the various quar-
rels and suits that arose, until at last they came
to put confidence in no one else.

97. The number of complaints brought be-
fore him continually increasing, as people
learnt more and more the fairness of his judg-
ments, Deioces, feeling himself now all impor-
tant, announced that he did not intend any
longer to hear causes, and appeared no more
in the seat in which he had been accustomed
to sit and administer justice. "It did not square
with his interests," he said, "to spend the
whole day in regulating other men's affairs to
the neglect of his own." Hereupon robbery and
lawlessness broke out afresh, and prevailed
through the country even more than hereto-
fore; wherefore the Medes assembled from all
quarters, and held a consultation on the state
of affairs. The speakers, as I think, were chiefly
friends of Deioces. "We cannot possibly," they
said, "go on living in this country if things
continue as they now are; let us therefore set a
king over us, that so the land may be well gov-
erned, and we ourselves may be able to attend
to our own affairs, and not be forced to quit
our country on account of anarchy." The as-
sembly was persuaded by these arguments, and
resolved to appoint a king.

98. It followed to determine who should be
chosen to the office. When this debate began
the claims of Deioces and his praises were at
once in every mouth; so that presently all
agreed that he should be king. Upon this he
required a palace to be built for him suitable
to his rank, and a guard to be given him for
his person. The Medes complied, and built him
a strong and large palace, on a spot which he
himself pointed out, and likewise gave him
liberty to choose himself a bodyguard from the
whole nation. Thus settled upon the throne, he
further required them to build a single great
city, and, disregarding the petty towns in
which they had formerly dwelt, make the new
capital the object of their chief attention. The
Medes were again obedient, and built the city
now called Agbatana, the walls of which are of

24

HERODOTUS

[ BOOK i

great size and strength, rising in circles one
within the other. The plan of the place is that
each of the walls should out-top the one be-
yond it by the battlements. The nature of the
ground, which is a gentle hill, favours this ar-
rangement in some degree, but it was mainly
effected by art. The number of the circles is
seven, the royal palace and the treasuries stand-
ing within the last. The circuit of the outer
wall is very nearly the same with that of Ath-
ens. Of this wall the battlements are white, of
the next black, of the third scarlet, of the fourth
blue, of the fifth orange; all these are coloured
with paint. The two last have their battlements
coated respectively with silver and gold.

99. All these fortifications Deioces caused to
be raised for himself and his own palace. The
people were required to build their dwellings
outside the circuit of the walls. When the town
was finished, he proceeded to arrange the cere-
monial. He allowed no one to have direct ac-
cess to the person of the king, but made all
communication pass through the hands of mes-
sengers, and forbade the king to be seen by his
subjects. He also made it an offence for any one
whatsoever to laugh or spit in the royal pres-
ence. This ceremonial, of which he was the
first inventor, Deioces established tor his own
security, fearing that his compeers, who were
brought up together with him, and were of as
good family as he, and no whit inferior to him
in manly qualities, if they saw him frequently
would be pained at the sight, and would there-
fore be likely to conspire against him; whereas
if they did not see him, they would think him
quite a different sort of being from themselves.

joo. After completing these arrangements,
and firmly settling himself upon the throne,
Deioces continued to administer justice with
the same strictness as before. Causes were stat-
ed in writing, and sent in to the king, who
passed his judgment upon the contents, and
transmitted his decisions to the parties con-
cerned: besides which he had spies and eaves-
droppers in all parts of his dominions, and if he
heard ot any act of oppression, he sent for the
guilty party, and awarded him the punishment
meet for his offence.

101. Thus Deioces collected the Medes into
a nation, and ruled over them alone. Now these
are the tribes of which they consist: the Busae,
the Paretacem, the Struchates, the Arizanti, the
Budii, and the Magi.

102. Having reigned three-and-fifty years,
Deioces was at his death succeeded by his son
Phraortes. This prince, not satisfied with a do-

minion which did not extend beyond the single
nation of the Medes, began by attacking the
Persians; and marching an army into their
country, brought them under the Median yoke
before any other people. After this success, be-
ing now at the head of two nations, both of
them powerful, he proceeded to conquer Asia,
overrunning province after province. At last
he engaged in war with the Assyrians — those
Assyrians, I mean, to whom Nineveh belonged,
who were formerly the lords of Asia. At pres-
ent they stood alone by the revolt and desertion
of their allies, yet still their internal condition
was as flourishing as ever. Phraortes attacked
them, but perished in the expedition with the
greater part of his army, after having reigned
over the Medes two-and-twenty years.

103. On the death of Phraortes his son Cy-
axares ascended the throne. Of him it is report-
ed that he was still more war-like than any of
his ancestors, and that he was the first who
gave organisation to an Asiatic army, dividing
the troops into companies, and forming dis-
tinct bodies of the spearmen, the archers, and
the cavalry, who before his time had been min-
gled in one mass, and confused together. He it
was who fought against the Lydians on the oc-
casion when the day was changed suddenly
into night, and who brought under his domin-
ion the whole of Asia beyond the Halys. This
prince, collecting together all the nations
which owned his sway, marched against Nine-
veh, resolved to avenge his father, and cherish-
ing a hope that he might succeed in taking the
town. A battle was fought, in which the Assyr-
ians suffered a defeat, and Cyaxares had al-
ready begun the siege of the place, when a nu-
merous horde of Scyths, under their king Mad-
yes, son of Prtotohyes, burst into Asia in pursuit
of the Cimmerians whom they had driven out
of Europe, and entered the Median territory.

104. The distance from the Palus Maeotis to
the river Phasis and the Colchians is thirty
days' journey for a lightly-equipped traveller.
From Colchis to cross into Media does not take
long — there is only a single intervening nation,
the Saspinans, passing whom you find your-
self in Media. This however was not the road
followed by the Scythians, who turned out of
the straight course, and took the upper route,
which is much longer, keeping the Caucasus
upon their right. The Scythians, having thus
invaded Media, were opposed by the Medes,
who gave them battle, but, being defeated, lost
their empire. The Scythians became masters
of Asia.

99-109]

THE HISTORY

25

105. After this they marched forward with
the design of invading Egypt. When they had
reached Palestine, however, Psammetichus the
Egyptian king met them with gifts and pray-
ers, and prevailed on them to advance no fur-
ther. On their return, passing through Asca-
lon, a city of Syria, the greater part of them
went their way without doing any damage;
but some few who lagged behind pillaged the
temple of Celestial Venus. I have inquired and
find that the temple at Ascalon is the most an-
cient of all the temples to this goddess; for the
one in Cyprus, as the Cyprians themselves ad-
mit, was built in imitation of it; and that in
Cythera was erected by the Phoenicians, who
belong to this part of Syria. The Scythians who
plundered the temple were punished by the
goddess with the female sickness, which still
attaches to their posterity. They themselves
confess that they are afflicted with the disease
for this reason, and travellers who visit Scythia
can see what sort of a disease it is. Those who
suffer from it are called Enarees.

106. The dominion of the Scythians over
Asia lasted eight-and-twenty years, during
which time their insolence and oppression
spread ruin on every side. For besides the regu-
lar tribute, they exacted from the several na-
tions additional imposts, which they fixed at
pleasure; and further, they scoured the country
and plundered every one of whatever they
could. At length Cyaxares and the Medes in-
vited the greater part of them to a banquet, and
made them drunk with wine, after which they
were all massacred. The Medes then recovered
their empire, and had the same extent of do-
minion as before. They took Nineveh — I will
relate how in another history — and conquered
all Assyria except the district of Babylonia. Aft-
er this Cyaxares died, having reigned over the
Medes, if we include the time of the Scythian
rule, forty years.

107. Astyages, the son of Cyaxares, succeed-
ed to the throne. He had a daughter who was
named Mandane concerning whom he had a
wonderful dream. He dreamt that from her
such a stream of water flowed forth as not only
to fill his capital, but to flood the whole of
Asia. This vision he laid before such of the
Magi as had the gift of interpreting dreams,
who expounded its meaning to him in full,
whereat he was greatly terrified. On this ac-
count, when his daughter, was now of ripe age,
he would not give her in marriage to any of
the Medes who were of suitable rank, lest the
dream should be accomplished; but he married

her to a Persian of good family indeed, but of
a quiet temper, whom he looked on as much
inferior to a Mede of even middle condition.

1 08. Thus Cambyses (for so was the Persian
called) wedded Mandane*, and took her to his
home, after which, in the very first year, Asty-
ages saw another vision. He fancied that a
vine grew from the womb of his daughter, and
overshadowed the whole of Asia. After this
dream, which he submitted also to the inter-
preters, he sent to Persia and fetched away
Mandane, who was now with child, and was
not far from her time. On her arrival he set a
watch over her, intending to destroy the child
to which she should give birth; for the Magian
interpreters had expounded the vision to fore-
show that the offspring of his daughter would
reign over Asia in his stead. To guard against
this, Astyages, as soon as Cyrus was born, sent
for Harpagus, a man of his own house and the
most faithful of the Medes, to whom he was
wont to entrust all his affairs, and addressed
him thus — "Harpagus, I beseech thce neglect
not the business with which I am about to
charge thee; neither betray thou the interests of
thy lord for others' sake, lest thou bring de-
struction on thine own head at some future
time. Take the child born of Mandane my
daughter; carry him with thee to thy home
and slay him there. Then bury him as thou
wilt." "Oh! king/' replied the other, "never in
time past did Harpagus disoblige thee in any-
thing, and be sure that through all future time
he will be careful in nothing to offend. If there-
fore it be thy will that this thing be done, it is
for me to serve thee with all diligence."

109. When Harpagus had thus answered,
the child was given into his hands, clothed in
the garb of death, and he hastened weeping to
his home. There on his arrival he found his
wife, to whom he told all that Astyages had
said. "What then," said she, "is it now in thy
heart to do?" "Not what Astyages requires,"
he answered; "no, he may be madder and more
frantic still than he is now, but I will not be
the man to work his will, or lend a helping
hand to such a murder as this. Many things
forbid my slaying him. In the first place the
boy is my own kith and km; and next Astyages
is old, and has no son. If then when he dies the
crown should go to his daughter — that daugh-
ter whose child he now wishes to slay by my
hand — what remains for me but danger of the
fearfullest kind? For my own safety, indeed,
the child must die; but some one belonging to
Astyages must take his life, not I or mine."

26

HERODOTUS

[BOOK i

1 10. So saying he sent off a messenger to
fetch a certain Mitradates, one of the herdsmen
of Astyages, whose pasturages he knew to be
the fittest for his purpose, lying as they did
among mountains infested with wild beasts.
This man was married to one of the king's fe-
male slaves, whose Median name was Spaco,
which is in Greek Cyno, since in the Median
tongue the word "Spaca" means a bitch. The
mountains, on the skirts of which his cattle
grazed, lie to the north of Agbatana, towards
the Euxine. That part of Media which borders
on the Saspinans is an elevated tract, very
mountainous, and covered with torests, while
the rest of the Median territory is entirely level
ground. On the arrival of the herdsman, who
came at the hasty summons, Harpagus said to
him — "Astyages requires thce to take this child
and lay him in the wildest part of the hills,
where he will be sure to die speedily. And he
bade me tell thee, that if thou dost not kill the
boy, but anyhow allowest him to escape, he
will put thee to the most painful of deaths. I
myself am appointed to see the child exposed."

in. The herdsman on hearing this took the
child in his arms, and went back the way he
had come till he reached the folds. There, prov-
identially, his wife, who had been expecting
daily to be put to bed, had just, during the ab-
sence of her husband, been delivered of a child.
Both the herdsman and his wife were uneasy
on each other's account, the former fearful be-
cause his wife was so near her time, the woman
alarmed because it was a new thing for her
husband to be sent for by Harpagus. When
therefore he came into the house upon his re-
turn, his wife, seeing him arrive so unexpected-
ly, was the first to speak, and begged to know
why Harpagus had sent for him in such a hur-
ry. "Wife," said he, "when I got to the town I
saw and heard such things as I would to heaven
I had never seen — such things as I would to
heaven had never happened to our masters.
Every one was weeping in Harpagus's house.
It quite frightened me, but I went in. The mo-
ment I stepped inside, what should I see but a
baby lying on the floor, panting and whimper-
ing, and all covered with gold, and wrapped in
clothes of such beautiful colours. Harpagus
saw me, and directly ordered me to take the
child in my arms and carry him off, and what
was I to do with him, think you? Why, to lay
him in the mountains, where the wild beasts
are most plentiful. And he told me it was the
king himself that ordered it to be done, and he
threatened me with such dreadful things if I

failed. So I took the child up in my arms, and
carried him along. I thought it might be the
son of one of the household slaves. I did won-
der certainly to see the gold and the beautiful
baby-clothes, and I could not think why there
was such a weeping in Harpagus's house.
Well, very soon, as I came along, I got at the
truth. They sent a servant with me to show me
the way out of the town, and to leave the baby
in my hands; and he told me that the child's
mother is the king's daughter Mandane, and
his father Cambyses, the son of Cyrus; and that
the king orders him to be killed; and look, here
the child is."

112. With this the herdsman uncovered the
infant, and showed him to his wife, who, when
she saw him, and observed how fine a child
and how beautiful he was, burst into tears, and
clinging to the knees of her husband, besought
him on no account to expose the babe; to
which he answered, that it was not possible for
him to do otherwise, as Harpagus would be
sure to send persons to see and report to him,
and he was to suffer a most cruel death if he
disobeyed. Failing thus in her first attempt to
persuade her husband, the woman spoke a sec-
ond time, saying, "If then there is no persuad-
ing thee, and a child must needs be seen ex-
posed upon the mountains, at least do thus.
The child of which I have just been delivered
is stillborn; take it and lay it on the hills, and
let us bring up as our own the child of the
daughter of Astyages. So shalt thou not be
charged with unfaithfulness to thy lord, nor
shall we have managed badly for ourselves.
Our dead babe will have a royal funeral, and
this living child will not be deprived of life."

113. It seemed to the herdsman that this ad-
vice was the best under the circumstances. He
therefore followed it without loss of time. The
child which he had intended to put to death he
gave over to his wife, and his own dead child
he put in the cradle wherein he had carried
the other, clothing it first in all the other's cost-
ly attire, and taking it in his arms he laid it in
the wildest place of all the mountain-range.
When the child had been three days exposed,
leaving one of his helpers to watch the body,
he started off for the city, and going straight to
Harpagus's house, declared himself ready to
show the corpse of the boy. Harpagus sent cer-
tain of his bodyguard, on whom he had the
firmest reliance, to view the body for him, and,
satisfied with their seeing it, gave orders for
the funeral. Thus was the herdsman's child
buried, and the other child, who was after-

1 10-117]

wards known by the name of Cyrus, was taken
by the herdsman's wife, and brought up under
a different name.

1 14. When the boy was in his tenth year, an
accident which I will now relate, caused it to
be discovered who he was. He was at play one
day in the village where the folds of the cattle
were, along with the boys of his own age, in
the street. The other boys who were playing
with him chose the cowherd's son, as he was
called, to be their king. He then proceeded to
order them about — some he set to build him
houses, others he made his guards, one of them
was to be the king's eye, another had the office
of carrying his messages; all had some task or
other. Among the boys there was one, the son
of Artembares, a Mede of distinction, who re-
fused to do what Cyrus had set him. Cyrus
told the other boys to take him into custody,
and when his orders were obeyed, he chastised
him most severely with the whip. The son of
Artembares, as soon as he was let go, full of
rage at treatment so little befitting his rank,
hastened to the city and complained bitterly to
his father of what had been done to him by
Cyrus. He did not, of course, say "Cyrus," by
which name the boy was not yet known, but
called him the son of the king's cowherd. Ar-
tembares, in the heat of his passion, went to
Astyages, accompanied by his son, and made
complaint of the gross injury which had been
done him. Pointing to the boy's shoulders, he
exclaimed, "Thus, oh! king, has thy slave, the
son of a cowherd, heaped insult upon us."

115. At this sight and these words Astyages,
wishing to avenge the son of Artembares for
his father's sake, sent for the cowherd and his
boy. When they came together into his pres-
ence, fixing his eyes on Cyrus, Astyages said,
"Hast thou then, the son of so mean a fellow
as that, dared to behave thus rudely to the son
of yonder noble, one of the first in my court?"
"My lord," replied the boy, "I only treated him
as he deserved. I was chosen king in play by
the boys of our village, because they thought
me the best for it. He himself was one of the
boys who chose me. All the others did accord-
ing to my orders; but he refused, and made
light of them, until at last he got his due re-
ward. If for this I deserve to suffer punishment,
here I am ready to submit to it."

116. While the boy was yet speaking Asty-
ages was struck with a suspicion who he was.
He thought he saw something in the character
of his face like his own, and there was a noble-
ness about the answer he had made; besides

THE HISTORY

27

which his age seemed to tally with the time
when his grandchild was exposed. Astonished
at all this, Astyages could not speak for a while.
At last, recovering himself with difficulty, and
wishing to be quit of Artembares, that he
might examine the herdsman alone, he said to
the former, "I promise thee, Artembares, so to
settle this business that neither thou nor thy
son shall have any cause to complain." Artem-
bares retired from his presence, and the at-
tendants, at the bidding of the king, led Cyrus
into an inner apartment. Astyages then being
left alone with the herdsman, inquired of him
where he had got the boy, and who had given
him to him; to which he made answer that the
lad was his own child, begotten by himself,
and that the mother who bore him was still
alive with him in his house. Astyages re-
marked that he was very ill-advised to bring
himself into such great trouble, and at the
same time signed to his bodyguard to lay hold
of him. Then the herdsman, as they were drag-
ging him to the rack, began at the beginning,
and told the whole story exactly as it happened,
without concealing anything, ending with en-
treaties and prayers to the king to grant him
forgiveness.

117. Astyages, having got the truth of the
matter from the herdsman, was very little fur-
ther concerned about him, but with Harpagus
he was exceedingly enraged. The guards were
bidden to summon him into the presence, and
on his appearance Astyages asked him, "By
what death was it, Harpagus, that thou slewest
the child of my daughter whom I gave into thy
hands?" Harpagus, seeing the cowherd in the
room, did not betake himself to lies, lest he
should be confuted and proved false, but re-
plied as follows: — "Sire, when thou gavest the
child into my hands I instantly considered with
myself how I could contrive to execute thy
wishes, and yet, while guiltless of any unfaith-
fulness towards thee, avoid imbruing my
hands in blood which was in truth thy daugh-
ter's and thine own. And this was how I con-
trived it. I sent for this cowherd, and gave the
child over to him, telling him that by the king's
orders it was to be put to death. And in this I
told no lie, for thou hadst so commanded.
Moreover, when I gave him the child, I en-
joined him to lay it somewhere in the wilds of
the mountains, and to stay near and watch till
it was dead; and I threatened him with all
manner of punishment if he failed. After-
wards, when he had done according to all that
I commanded him, and the child had died, I

28

HERODOTUS

[BOOK i

sent some of the most trustworthy of my eu-
nuchs, who viewed the body for me, and then I
had the child buried. This, sire, is the simple
truth, and this is the death by which the child
died."

1 1 8. Thus Harpagus related the whole story
in a plain, straightforward way; upon which
Astyages, letting no sign escape him of the
anger that he felt, began by repeating to him all
that he had just heard from the cowherd, and
then concluded with saying, "So the boy is
alive, and it is best as it is. For the child's fate
was a great sorrow to me, and the reproaches
of my daughter went to my heart. Truly for-
tune has played us a good turn in this. Go thou
home then, and send thy son to be with the
new comer, and to-night, as I mean to sacrifice
thank-offerings for the child's safety to the
gods to whom such honour is due, I look to
have thee a guest at the banquet."

119. Harpagus, on hearing this, made obeis-
ance, and went home rejoicing to find that his
disobedience had turned out so fortunately,
and that, instead of being punished, he was in-
vited to a banquet given in honour of the hap-
py occasion. The moment he reached home he
called for his son, a youth of about thirteen, the
only child of his parents, and bade him go to
the palace, and do whatever Astyages should
direct. Then, in the gladness of his heart, he
went to his wife and told her all that had hap-
pened. Astyages, meanwhile, took the son of
Harpagus, and slew him, after which he cut
him in pieces, and roasted some portions be-
fore the fire, and boiled others; and when all
were duly prepared, he kept them ready for
use. The hour for the banquet came, and Har-
pagus appeared, and with him the other guests,
and all sat down to the feast. Astyages and the
rest of the guests had joints of meat served up
to them; but on the table of Harpagus, nothing
was placed except the flesh of his own son. This
was all put before him, except the hands and
feet and head, which were laid by themselves
in a covered basket. When Harpagus seemed
to have eaten his fill, Astyages called out to
him to know how he had enjoyed the repast.
On his reply that he had enjoyed it excessively,
they whose business it was brought him the
basket, in which were the hands and feet and
head of his son, and bade him open it, and take
out what he pleased. Harpagus accordingly un-
covered the basket, and saw within it the re-
mains of his son. The sight, however, did not
scare him, or rob him of his self-possession. Be-
ing asked by Astyages if he knew what beast's

flesh it was that he had been eating, he an-
swered that he knew very well, and that what-
ever the king did was agreeable. After this re-
ply, he took with him such morsels of the flesh
as were uneaten, and went home, intending,
as I conceive, to collect the remains and bury
them.

120. Such was the mode in which Astyages
punished Harpagus: afterwards, proceeding to
consider what he should do with Cyrus, his
grandchild, he sent for the Magi, who formerly
interpreted his dream in the way which
alarmed him so much, and asked them how
they had expounded it. They answered, with-
out varying from what they had said before,
that "the boy must needs be a king if he grew
up, and did not die too soon." Then Astyages
addressed them thus: "The boy has escaped,
and lives; he has been brought up in the coun-
try, and the lads of the village where he lives
have made him theii king. All that kings com-
monly do he has done. He has had his guards,
and his doorkeepers, and his messengers, and
all the other usual officers. Tell me, then, to
what, think you, does all this tend?" The Magi
answered, "If the boy survives, and has ruled
as a king without any craft or contrivance, in
that case we bid thee cheer up, and feel no
more alarm on his account. He will not reign
a second time. For we have found even oracles
sometimes fulfilled in an unimportant way;
and dreams, still oftener, have wondrous-
ly mean accomplishments." "It is what I my-
self most incline to think," Astyages rejoined;
"the boy having been already king, the dream
is out, and I have nothing more to fear from
him. Nevertheless, take good heed and counsel
me the best you can for the safety of my house
and your own interests." "Truly," said the
Magi in reply, "it very much concerns our in-
terests that thy kingdom be firmly established;
for if it went to this boy it would pass into for-
eign hands, since he is a Persian: and then we
Medes should lose our freedom, and be quite
despised by the Persians, as being foreigners.
But so long as thou, our fellow-countryman,
art on the throne, all manner of honours are
ours, and we are even not without some share
in the government. Much reason therefore
have we to forecast well for thee and for thy
sovereignty. If then we saw any cause for pres-
ent fear, be sure we would not keep it back
from thee. But truly we are persuaded that the
dream has had its accomplishment in this
harmless way; and so our own fears being at
rest, we recommend thee to banish thine. As

118-125]

THE HISTORY

29

for the boy, our advice is that thou send him
away to Persia, to his father and mother."

121. Astyages heard their answer with pleas-
ure, and calling Cyrus into his presence, said
to him, "My child, I was led to do thee a wrong
by a dream which has come to nothing: from
that wrong thou wert saved by thy own good
fortune. Go now with a light heart to Persia; I
will provide thy escort. Go, and when thou get-
test to thy journey 's end, thou wilt behold thy
father and thy mother, quite other people from
Mitradates the cowherd and his wife."

122. With these words Astyages dismissed
his grandchild. On his arrival at the house of
Cambyses, he was received by his parents, who,
when they learnt who he was, embraced him
heartily, having always been convinced that he
died almost as soon as he was born. So they
asked him by what means he had chanced to
escape; and he told them how that till lately he
had known nothing at all about the matter, but
had been mistaken — oh! so widely! — and how
that he had learnt his history by the way, as he
came from Media. He had been quite sure that
he was the son of the king's cowherd, but on
the road the king's escort had told him all the
truth; and then he spoke of the cowherd's wife
who had brought him up, and filled his whole
talk with her praises; in all that he had to tell
them about himself, it was always Cyno —
Cyno was everything. So it happened that his
parents, catching the name at his mouth, and
wishing to persuade the Persians that there
was a special providence in his preservation,
spread the report that Cyrus, when he was ex-
posed, was suckled by a bitch. This was the
sole origin of the rumour.

123. Afterwards, when Cyrus grew to man-
hood, and became known as the bravest and
most popular of all his compeers, Harpagus,
who was bent on revenging himself upon As-
tyages, began to pay him court by gifts and
messages. His own rank was too humble for
him to hope to obtain vengeance without some
foreign help. When therefore he saw Cyrus,
whose wrongs were so similar to his own,
growing up expressly (as it were) to be the
avenger whom he needed, he set to work to
procure his support and aid in the matter. He
had already paved the way for his designs, by
persuading, severally, the great Median nobles,
whom the harsh rule of their monarch had
offended, that the best plan would be to put
Cyrus at their head, and dethrone Astyages.
These preparations made, Harpagus, being
now ready for revolt, was anxious to make

known his wishes to Cyrus, who still lived in
Persia; but as the roads between Media and
Persia were guarded, he had to contrive a
means of sending word secretly, which he did
in the following way. He took a hare, and cut-
ting open its belly without hurting the fur, he
slipped in a letter containing what he wanted
to say, and then carefully sewing up the
paunch, he gave the hare to one of his most
faithful slaves, disguising him as a hunter with
nets, and sent him off to Persia to take the
game as a present to Cyrus, bidding him tell
Cyrus, by word of mouth, to paunch the ani-
mal himself, and let no one be present at the
time.

124. All was done as he wished, and Cyrus,
on cutting the hare open, found the letter in-
side, and read as follows: — "Son of Cambyses,
the gods assuredly watch over thee, or never
wouidst thou have passed through thy many
wonderful adventures — now is the time when
thou mayst avenge thyself upon Astyages, thy
murderer. He willed thy death, remember; to
the gods and to me thou owest that thou art
still alive. I think thou art not ignorant of what
he did to thee, nor of what I suffered at his
hands because I committed thee to the cow-
herd, and did not put thee to death. Listen now
to me, and obey my words, and all the empire
of Astyages shall be thine. Raise the standard
of revolt in Persia, and then march straight on
Media. Whether Astyages appoint me to com-
mand his forces against thee, or whether he
appoint any other of the princes of the Medes,
all will go as thou couldst wish. They will be
the first to fall away from him, and joining thy
side, exert themselves to overturn his power.
Be sure that on our part all is ready; wherefore
do thou thy part, and that speedily."

125. Cyrus, on receiving the tidings con-
tained in this letter, set himself to consider how
he might best persuade the Persians to revolt.
After much thought, he hit on the following as
the most expedient course: he wrote what he
thought proper upon a roll, and then calling
an assembly of the Persians, he unfolded the
roll, and read out of it that Astyages appointed
him their general. "And now," said he, "since
it is so, I command you to go and bring each
man his reaping-hook." With these words he
dismissed the assembly.

Now the Persian nation is made up of many
tribes. Those which Cyrus assembled and per-
suaded to revolt from the Medes were the
principal ones on which all the others are de-
pendent. These are the Pasargadae, the Mara-

30

HERODOTUS

[ BOOK i

phians, and the Maspians, of whom the Pasar-
gadae arc the noblest. The Achaemenidae, from
which spring all the Perseid kings, is one of
their clans. The rest of the Persian tribes are
the following: the Panthialxans, the Deru-
siaeans, the Germanians, who are engaged in
husbandry; the Daans, the Mardians, the Drop-
icans, and the Sagartians, who are nomads.

126. When, in obedience to the orders which
they had received, the Persians came with their
reaping-hooks, Cyrus led them to a tract of
ground, about eighteen or twenty furlongs
each way, covered with thorns, and ordered
them to clear it before the day was out. They
accomplished their task; upon which he issued
a second order to them, to take the bath the
day following, and again come to him. Mean-
while he collected together all his father's
flocks, both sheep and goats, and all his oxen,
and slaughtered them, and made ready to give
an entertainment to the entire Persian army.
Wine, too, and bread of the choicest kinds were
prepared for the occasion. When the morrow
came, and the Persians appeared, he bade them
recline upon the grass, and enjoy themselves.
After the feast was over, he requested them to
tell him "which they liked best, to-day's work,
or yesterday's ?" They answered that "the con-
trast was indeed strong: yesterday brought
them nothing but what was bad, to-day every-
thing that was good." Cyrus instantly seized
on their reply, and laid bare his purpose in
these words: "Ye men of Persia, thus do mat-
ters stand with you. If you choose to hearken
to my words, you may enjoy these and ten
thousand similar delights, and never conde-
scend to any slavish toil; but if you will not
hearken, prepare yourselves for unnumbered
toils as hard as yesterday's. Now therefore fol-
low my bidding, and be free. For myselt I feel
that I am destined by Providence to undertake
your liberation; and you, I am sure, are no whit
inferior to the Medes in anything, least of all
in bravery. Revolt, therefore, from Astyages,
without a moment's delay."

127. The Persians, who had long been impa-
tient of the Median dominion, now that they
had found a leader, were delighted to shake
off the yoke. Meanwhile Astyages, informed
of the doings of Cyrus, sent a messenger to
summon him to his presence. Cyrus replied,
"Tell Astyages that I shall appear in his pres-
ence sooner than he will like." Astyages, when
he received this message, instantly armed all
his subjects, and, as if God had deprived him
of his senses, appointed Harpagus to be their

general, forgetting how greatly he had injured
him. So when the two armies met and en-
gaged, only a few of the Medes, who were not
in the secret, fought; others deserted openly to
the Persians; while the greater number coun-
terfeited fear, and fled.

128. Astyages, on learning the shameful
flight and dispersion of his army, broke out
into threats against Cyrus, saying, "Cyrus shall
nevertheless have no reason to rejoice"; and di-
rectly he seized the Magian interpreters, who
had persuaded him to allow Cyrus to escape,
and impaled them; after which, he armed all
the Medes who had remained in the city, both
young and old; and leading them against the
Persians, fought a battle, in which he was ut-
terly defeated, his army being destroyed, and
he himself falling into the enemy's hands.

129. Harpagus then, seeing him a prisoner,
came near, and exulted over him with many
jibes and jeers. Among other cutting speeches
which he made, he alluded to the supper where
the flesh of his son was given him to eat, and
asked Astyages to answer him now, how he en-
joyed being a slave instead of a king? Astyages
looked in his face, and asked him in return,
why he claimed as his own the achievements
of Cyrus? "Because," said Harpagus, "it was
my letter which made him revolt, and so I am
entitled to all the credit of the enterprise."
Then Astyages declared that "in that case he
was at once the silliest and the most unjust of
men: the silliest, if when it was in his power to
put the crown on his own head, as it must as-
suredly have been, if the revolt was entirely his
doing, he had placed it on the head of another;
the most unjust, if on account of that supper he
had brought slavery on the Medes. For, sup-
posing that he was obliged to invest another
with the kingly power, and not retain it him-
self, yet justice required that a Mede, rather
than a Persian, should receive the dignity.
Now, however, the Medes, who had been no
parties to the wrong of which he complained,
were made slaves instead of lords, and slaves
moreover of those who till recently had been
their subjects."

130. Thus after a reign of thirty-five years,
Astyages lost his crown, and the Medes, in con-
sequence of his cruelty, were brought under
the rule of the Persians. Their empire over the
parts of Asia beyond the Halys had lasted one
hundred and twenty-eight years, except dur-
ing the time when the Scythians had the do-
minion. Afterwards the Medes repented of
their submission, and revolted from Darius,

126-134]

THE HISTORY

31

but were defeated in battle, and again reduced
to subjection. Now, however, in the time of
Astyages, it was the Persians who under Cyrus
revolted from the Medes, and became thence-
forth the rulers of Asia. Cyrus kept Astyages
at his court during the remainder of his life,
without doing him any further injury. Such
then were the circumstances of the birth and
bringing up of Cyrus, and such were the steps
by which he mounted the throne. It was at a
later date that he was attacked by Croesus, and
overthrew him, as I have related in an earlier
portion of this history. The overthrow of Croe-
sus made him master of the whole of Asia.

131. The customs which I know the Per-
sians to observe are the following: they have
no images of the gods, no temples nor altars,
and consider the use of them a sign of folly.
This comes, I think, from their not believing
the gods to have the same nature with men, as
the Greeks imagine. Their wont, however, is
to ascend the summits of the loftiest moun-
tains, and there to offer sacrifice to Jupiter,
which is the name they give to the whole cir-
cuit of the firmament. They likewise offer to
the sun and moon, to the earth, to fire, to
water, and to the winds. These are the only
gods whose worship has come down to them
from ancient times. At a later period they be-
gan the worship of Urania, which they bor-
rowed from the Arabians and Assyrians. My-
litta is the name by which the Assyrians know
this goddess, whom the Arabians call Alitta,
and the Persians Mitra.1

132. To these gods the Persians offer sacri-
fice in the following manner: they raise no
altar, light no fire, pour no libations; there is
no sound of the flute, no putting on of chaplets,
no consecrated barley-cake; but the man who
wishes to sacrifice brings his victim to a spot of
ground which is pure from pollution, and
there calls upon the name of the god to whom
he intends to offer. It is usual to have the tur-
ban encircled with a wreath, most commonly
of myrtle. The sacrificer is not allowed to pray
for blessings on himself alone, but he prays for
the welfare of the king, and of the whole Per-
sian people, among whom he is of necessity in-
cluded. He cuts the victim in pieces, and hav-
ing boiled the flesh, he lays it out upon the
tenderest herbage that he can find, trefoil es-
pecially. When all is ready, one of the Magi
comes forward and chants a hymn, which they

1 This identification is altogether a mistake. The
Persians, like their Vedic brethren, worshipped the
sun under the name of Mithra.

say recounts the origin of the gods. It is not
lawful to offer sacrifice unless there is a Magus
present. After waiting a short time the sacri-
ficer carries the flesh of the victim away with
him, and makes whatever use of it he may
please.

133. Of all the days in the year, the one
which they celebrate most is their birthday. It
is customary to have the board furnished on
that day with an ampler supply than common.
The richer Persians cause an ox, a horse, a
camel, and an ass to be baked whole and so
served up to them: the poorer classes use in-
stead the smaller kinds of cattle. They eat little
solid food but abundance of dessert, which is
set on table a few dishes at a time; this it is
which makes them say that "the Greeks, when
they eat, leave off hungry, having nothing
worth mention served up to them after the
meats; whereas, if they had more put before
them, they would not stop eating." They are
very fond of wine, and drink it in large quan-
tities. To vomit or obey natural calls in the
presence of another is forbidden among them.
Such are their customs in these matters.

It is also their general practice to deliberate
upon affairs of weight when they are drunk;
and then on the morrow, when they are sober,
the decision to which they came the night be-
fore is put before them by the master of the
house in which it was made; and if it is then
approved of, they act on it; if not, they set it
aside. Sometimes, however, they are sober at
their first deliberation, but in this case they al-
ways reconsider the matter under the influence
of wine.

134. When they meet each other in the
streets, you may know if the persons meeting
are of equal rank by the following token: if
they are, instead of speaking, they kiss each
other on the lips. In the case where one is a
little inferior to the other, the kiss is given on
the cheek; where the difference of rank is
great, the inferior prostrates himself upon the
ground. Of nations, they honour most their
nearest neighbours, whom they esteem next to
themselves; those who live beyond these they
honour in the second degree; and so with the
remainder, the further they are removed, the
less the esteem in which they hold them. The
reason is that they look upon themselves as
very greatly superior in all respects to the rest
of mankind, regarding others as approaching
to excellence in proportion as they dwell near-
er to them; whence it comes to pass that those
who are the farthest off must be the most de-

32

HERODOTUS

f BOOK i

graded of mankind.1 Under the dominion of
the Medcs, the several nations of the empire
exercised authority over each other in this or-
der. The Medes were lords over all, and gov-
erned the nations upon their borders, who in
their turn governed the States beyond, who
likewise bore rule over the nations which ad-
joined on them.2 And this is the order which
the Persians also follow in their distribution of
honour; for that people, like the Medes, has a
progressive scale of administration and govern-
ment.

135. There is no nation which so readily
adopts foreign customs as the Persians. Thus,
they have taken the dress of the Medes, consid-
ering it superior to their own; and in war they
wear the Egyptian breastplate. As soon as they
hear of any luxury, they instantly make it their
own: and hence, among other novelties, they
have learnt unnatural lust from the Greeks.
Each of them has several wives, and a still
larger number of concubines.

136. Next to prowess in arms, it is regarded
as the greatest proof of manly excellence to be
the father of many sons. Every year the king
sends rich gifts to the man who can show the
largest number: for they hold that number is
strength. Their sons arc carefully instructed
from their fifth to their twentieth year, in three
things alone, — to ride, to draw the bow, and to
speak the truth. Until their fifth year they are
not allowed to come into the sight of their
father, but pass their lives with the women.
This is done that, if the child die young, the
father may not be afflicted by its loss.

137. To my mind it is a wise rule, as also
is the following — that the king shall not put
any one to death for a single iault, and that
none of the Persians shall visit a single fault in
a slave with any extreme penalty; but in every

1 In an early stage of geographical knowledge
each nation regards itself as occupying the centre
of the earth. Herodotus tacitly assumes that
Greece is the centre.

2 It is quite inconceivable that there should have
been any such system of government either in
Media or Persia, as Herodotus here indicates. With
respect to Persia, we know that the most distant
satrapies were held as directly of the crown as
the nearest. The utmost that can be said with truth
is that in the Persian and Median, as in the Ro-
man empire, there were three grades; first, the rul-
ing nation*, secondly, the conquered provinces;
thirdly, the nations on the frontier, governed by
their own laws and princes, but owning the su-
premacy of the imperial power, and reckoned
among its tributaries.

case the services of the offender shall be set
against his misdoings; and, if the latter be
found to outweigh the former, the aggrieved
party shall then proceed to punishment.

138. The Persians maintain that never yet
did any one kill his own father or mother; but
in all such cases they are quite sure that, if
matters were sifted to the bottom, it would be
found that the child was either a changeling
or else the fruit of adultery; for it is not likely,
they say, that the real father should perish by
the hands of his child.

139. They hold it unlawful to talk of any-
thing which it is unlawful to do. The most dis-
graceful thing in the world, they think, is to
tell a lie; the next worst, to owe a debt: be-
cause, among other reasons, the debtor is
obliged to tell lies. If a Persian has the leprosy
he is not allowed to enter into a city, or to have
any dealings with the other Persians; he must,
they say, have sinned against the sun. Foreign-
ers attacked by this disorder, are forced to leave
the country: even white pigeons are often driv-
en away, as guilty of the same offence. They
never defile a river with the secretions of their
bodies, nor even wash their hands in one; nor
will they allow others to do so, as they have
a great reverence for rivers. There is another
peculiarity, which the Persians themselves
have never noticed, but which has not escaped
my observation. Their names, which are ex-
pressive of some bodily or mental excellence,
all end with the same letter — the letter which
is called San by the Dorians, and Sigma by the
lonians. Any one who examines will find that
the Persian names, one and all without excep-
tion, end with this letter.3

140. Thus much I can declare of the Per-
sians with entire certainty, from my own actual
knowledge. There is another custom which is
spoken of with reserve, and not openly, con-
cerning their dead. It is said that the body of a
male Persian is never buried, until it has been
torn either by a dog or a bird of prey. That the
Magi have this custom is beyond a doubt, for
they practise it without any concealment. The
dead bodies are covered with wax, and then
buried in the ground.

3 Here Herodotus was again mistaken. The Per-
sian names of men which terminate with a conso-
nant end indeed invariably with the letter s, or
rather sht as Kurush (Cyrus), Daryavush (Dari-
us). But a large number of Persian names of men
were pronounced with a vowel termination, not
expressed in writing, and in these the last conso-
nant might be almost any letter.

THE HISTORY

33

The Magi are a very peculiar race, different
entirely from the Egyptian priests, and indeed
from all other men whatsoever. The Egyptian
priests make it a point of religion not to kill
any live animals except those which they oiler
in sacrifice. The Magi, on the contrary, kill ani-
mals of all kinds with their own hands, ex-
cepting dogs and men. They even seem to take
a delight in the employment, and kill, as read-
ily as they do other animals, ants and snakes,
and such like flying or creeping things. How-
ever, since this has always been their custom,
let them keep to it. I return to my former nar-
rative.

141. Immediately after the conquest of
Lydia by the Persians, the Ionian and /Rolian
Greeks sent ambassadors to Cyrus at Sardis,
and prayed to become his lieges on the footing
which they had occupied under Croesus. Cyrus
listened attentively to their proposals, and an-
swered them by a fable. "There was a certain
piper," he said, "who was walking one day by
the seaside, when he espied some fish; so he be-
gan to pipe to them, imagining they would
come out to him upon the land. But as he
found at last that his hope was vain, he took a
net, and enclosing a great draught of fishes,
drew them ashore. The fish then began to leap
and dance; but the piper said, 'Cease your
dancing now, as you did not choose to come
and dance when I piped to you.' " Cyrus gave
this answer to the lonians and Cohans, be-
cause, when he urged them by his messengers
to revolt from Croesus, they refused; but now,
when his work was done, they came to offer
their allegiance. It was in anger, therefore,
that he made them this reply. The lonians, on
hearing it, set to work to fortify their towns,
and held meetings at the Panionmm, which
were attended by all excepting the Milesians,
with whom Cyrus had concluded a separate
treaty, by which he allowed them the terms
they had formerly obtained from Croesus. The
other lonians resolved, with one accord, to send
ambassadors to Sparta to implore assistance.

142. Now the lonians of Asia, who meet at
the Panionium, have built their cities in a re-
gion where the air and climate are the most
beautiful in the whole world: for no other re-
gion is equally blessed with Ionia, * neither
above it nor below it, nor east nor west of it.
For in other countries either the climate is over
cold and damp, or else the heat and drought
are sorely oppressive. The lonians do not all
speak the same language, but use in different
places four different dialects. Towards the

south their first city is Miletus, next to which
lie Myus and Priene; all these three are in
Caria and have the same dialect. Their cities
in Lydia are the following: Ephesus, Colo-
phon, Lebcdus, Teos, Clazomenae, and Pho-
c«a. The inhabitants of these towns have none
of the peculiarities of speech which belong to
the three first-named cities, but use a dialect of
their own. There remain three other Ionian
towns, two situate in isles, namely, Samos and
Chios; and one upon the mainland, which is
Erythra?. Of these Chios and Erythrx have the
same dialect, while Samos possesses a language
peculiar to itself. Such are the four varieties of
which I spoke.

143. Of the lonians at this period, one peo-
ple, the Milesians, were in no danger of attack,
as Cyrus had received them into alliance. The
islanders also had as yet nothing to fear, since
Phoenicia was still independent of Persia, and
the Persians themselves were not a seafaring
people. The Milesians had separated from the
common cause solely on account of the ex-
treme weakness of the lonians: for, feeble as
the power of the entire Hellenic race was at
that time, of all its tribes the Ionic was by far
the feeblest and least esteemed, not possessing
a single State of any mark excepting Athens.
The Athenians and most of the other Ionic
States over the world, went so far in their dis-
like of the name as actually to lay it aside; and
even at the present day the greater number of
them seem to me to be ashamed of it. But the
twelve cities in Asia have always gloried in the
appellation; they gave the temple which they
built for themselves the name of the Panio-
nium, and decreed that it should not be open
to any of the other Ionic States; no State,
however, except Smyrna, has craved admission
to it.

144. In the same way the Dorians of the re-
gion which is now called the Pentapolis, but
which was formerly known as the Doric Hexa-
polis, exclude all their Dorian neighbours from
their temple, theTriopium: nay, they have even
gone so far as to shut out from it certain of
their own body who were guilty of an offence
against the customs of the place. In the games
which were anciently celebrated in honour of
the Triopian Apollo, the prizes given to the
victors were tripods of brass; and the rule was
that these tripods should not be carried away
from the temple, but should then and there be
dedicated to the god. Now a man of Halicar-
nassus, whose name was Agasicles, being de-
clared victor in the games, in open contempt of

34

HERODOTUS

[BOOK i

the law, took the tripod home to his own house
and there hung it against the wall. As a pun-
ishment for this fault, the five other cities, Lin-
dus, lalyssus, Cameirus, Cos, and Cnidus, de-
prived the sixth city, Halicarnassus, of the
right of entering the temple.

145. The lonians founded twelve cities in
Asia, and refused to enlarge the number, on ac-
count (as I imagine) of their having been di-
vided into twelve States when they lived in the
Peloponnese; just as the Achaeans, who drove
them out, are at the present day. The first city
of the Achaeans after Sicyon, is Pellene, next to
which are /Egeira, ^Egae upon the Crathis, a
stream which is never dry, and from which the
Italian Crathis received its name, — Bura, He-
lice — where the lonians took refuge on their
defeat by the Achxan invaders — yEgium, Rhy-
pes, Patreis, Phareis, Olenus on the Peirus,
which is a large river — Dym^ and Tritaeeis,
all sea-port towns except the last two, which lie
up the country.

146. These arc the twelve divisions of what
is now Achaca, and was formerly Ionia; and it
was owing to their coming from a country so
divided that the lonians, on reaching Asia,
founded their twelve States: for it is the height
of folly to maintain that these lonians are more
Ionian than the rest, or in any respect better
born, since the truth is that no small portion of
them were Abantians from Euboea, who are
not even lonians in name; and, besides, there
were mixed up with the emigration Minyae
from Orchomenus, Cadmeians, Dryopians,
Phocians from the several cities of Phocis, Mo-
lossians, Arcadian Pelasgi, Dorians from Epi-
daurus, and many other distinct tribes. Even
those who came from the Prytancum of Ath-
ens, and reckon themselves the purest lonians
of all, brought no wives with them to the new
country, but married Carian girls, whose fa-
thers they had slain. Hence these women made
a law, which they bound themselves by an oath
to observe, and which they handed down to
their daughters after them, "That none should
ever sit at meat with her husband, or call him
by his name"; because the invaders slew their
fathers, their husbands, and their sons, and
then forced them to become their wives. It was
at Miletus that these events took place.

147. The kings, too, whom they set over
them, were either Lycians, of the blood of
Glaucus, son of Hippolochus, or Pylian Cau-
cons of the blood of Codrus, son of Mel an thus;
or else from both those families. But since these
lonians set more store by the name than any of

the others, let them pass for the pure-bred lon-
ians; though truly all are lonians who have
their origin from Athens, and keep the Apa-
turia. This is a festival which all the lonians
celebrate, except the Ephesians and the Colo-
phonians, whom a certain act of bloodshed ex-
cludes from it.

148. The Panionium is a place in Mycale,
facing the north, which was chosen by the
common voice of the lonians and made sacred
to Heliconian Neptune. Mycale itself is a pro-
montory of the mainland, stretching out west-
ward towards Samos, in which the lonians as-
semble from all their States to keep the feast
of the Panionia. The names of festivals, not
only among the lonians but among all the
Greeks, end, like the Persian proper names, in
one and the same letter.

149. The above-mentioned, then, are the
twelve towns of the lonians. The ALolic cities
are the following: — Cyme, called also Phri-
conis, Larissa, Neonteichus, Temnus, Cilia,
Notium, ^Egiroessa, Pitane, jEgaea.-, Mynna,
and Gryneia. These are the eleven ancient ci-
ties of the ^olians. Originally, indeed, they
had twelve cities upon the mainland, like the
lonians, but the lonians deprived them of
Smyrna, one of the number. The soil of JEolis
is better than that of Ionia, but the climate is
less agreeable.

150. The following is the way in which the
loss of Smyrna happened. Certain men of Col-
ophon had been engaged in a sedition there,
and being the weaker party, were driven by the
others into banishment. The Smyrnaeans re-
ceived the fugitives, who, after a time, watch-
ing their opportunity, while the inhabitants
were celebrating a feast to Bacchus outside the
walls, shut to the gates, and so got possession of
the town. The Cohans of the other States came
to their aid, and terms were agreed on between
the parties, the lonians consenting to give up
all the moveables, and the ^Eolians making a
surrender of the place. The expelled Smyrnae-
ans were distributed among the other States of
the ^Bolians, and were everywhere admitted to
citizenship.

151. These, then, were all the ^Eolic cities
upon the mainland, with the exception of those
about Mount Ida, which made no part of this
confederacy. As for the islands, Lesbos contains
five cities. Arisba, the sixth, was taken by the
Methymnaeans, their kinsmen, and the inhabi-
tants reduced to slavery. Tenedos contains one
city, and there is another which is built on what
are called the Hundred Isles. The ^Eolians of

145-156]

THE HISTORY

35

Lesbos and Tencdos, like the Ionian islanders,
had at this time nothing to fear. The other ^Eo-
lians decided in their common assembly to fol-
low the lonians, whatever course they should
pursue.

152. When the deputies of the lonians and
Cohans, who had journeyed with all speed to
Sparta, reached the city, they chose one of their
number, Pythermus, a Phocacan, to be their
spokesman. In order to draw together as large
an audience as possible, he clothed himself in
a purple garment, and so attired stood forth to
speak. In a long discourse he besought the Spar-
tans to come to the assistance of his country-
men, but they were not to be persuaded, and
voted against sending any succour. The depu-
ties accordingly went their way, while the La-
cedaemonians, notwithstanding the refusal
which they had given to the prayer of the depu-
tation, despatched a penteconter to the Asiatic
coast with certain Spartans on board, for the
purpose, as I think, of watching Cyrus and Io-
nia. These men, on their arrival at Phocaea, sent
to Sardis Lacrines, the most distinguished of
their number, to prohibit Cyrus, in the name of
the Lacedaemonians, from offering molestation
to any city of Greece, since they would not al-
low it.

153. Cyrus is said, on hearing the speech of
the herald, to have asked some Greeks who
were standing by, "Who these Lacedaemonians
were, and what was their number, that they
dared to send him such a notice?" When he
had received their reply, he turned to the Spar-
tan herald and said, "I have never yet been
afraid of any men, who have a set place in the
middle of their city, where they come together
to cheat each other and forswear themselves. If
I live, the Spartans shall have troubles enough
of their own to talk of, without concerning
themselves about the lonians." Cyrus intended
these words as a reproach against all the
Greeks, because of their having market-places
where they buy and sell, which is a custom un-
known to the Persians, who never make pur-
chases in open marts, and indeed have not in
their whole country a single market-place.

After this interview Cyrus quitted Sardis,
leaving the city under the charge of Tabalus, a
Persian, but appointing Pactyas, a native, to
collect the treasure belonging to Croesus and
the other Lydians, and bring it after him. Cy-
rus himself proceeded towards Agbatana, car-
rying Croesus along with him, not regarding
the lonians as important enough to be his im-
mediate object. Larger designs were in his

mind. He wished to war in person against Ba-
bylon, the Bactrians, the Sacae, and Egypt; he
therefore determined to assign to one of his
generals the task of conquering the lonians.

154. No sooner, however, was Cyrus gone
from Sardis than Pactyas induced his country-
men to rise in open revolt against him and his
deputy Tabalus. With the vast treasures at his
disposal he then went down to the sea, and cm-
ployed them in hiring mercenary troops, while
at the same time he engaged the people of the
coast to enrol themselves in his army. He then
marched upon Sardis, where he besieged Taba-
lus, who shut himself up in the citadel.

155. When Cyrus, on his way to Agbatana,
received these tidings, he returned to Croesus
and said, "Where will all this end, Croesus,
thinkest thou? It seemeth that these Lydians
will not cease to cause trouble both to them-
selves and others. I doubt me if it were not best
to sell them all for slaves. Methinks what I
have now done is as if a man were to 'kill the
father and then spare the child.' Thou, who
wert something more than a father to thy
people, I have seized and carried off, and to
that people I have entrusted their city. Can I
then feel surprise at their rebellion?" Thus did
Cyrus open to Croesus his thoughts; whereat
the latter, full of alarm lest Cyrus should lay
Sardis in ruins, replied as follows: "Oh! my
king, thy words are reasonable; but do not, I
beseech thee, give full vent to thy anger, nor
doom to destruction an ancient city, guiltless
alike of the past and of the present trouble. I
caused the one, and in my own person now pay
the forfeit. Pactyas has caused the other, he to
whom thou gavest Sardis in charge; let him
bear the punishment. Grant, then, forgiveness
to the Lydians, and to make sure of their never
rebelling against thee, or alarming thee more,
send and forbid them to keep any weapons of
war, command them to wear tunics under their
cloaks, and to put buskins upon their legs, and
make them bring up their sons to cithern-play-
ing, harping, and shop-keeping. So wilt thou
soon see them become women instead of men,
and there will be no more fear of their revolt-
ing from thee."

156. Croesus thought the Lydians would
even so be better off than if they were sold for
slaves, and therefore gave the above advice to
Cyrus, knowing that, unless he brought for-
ward some notable suggestion, he would not
be able to persuade him to alter his mind. He
was likewise afraid lest, after escaping the dan-
ger which now pressed, the Lydians at some fu-

36

HERODOTUS

[ BOOK i

turc time might revolt from the Persians and
so bring themselves to ruin. The advice pleased
Cyrus, who consented to forego his anger and
do as Croesus had said. Thereupon he sum-
moned to his presence a certain Mede, Mazares
by name, and charged him to issue orders to
the Lydians in accordance with the terms of
Cra'sus' discourse. Further, he commanded
him to sell for slaves all who had joined the
Lydians in their attack upon Sardis, and above
aught else to be sure that he brought Pactyas
with him alive on his return. Having given
these orders Cyrus continued his journey to-
wards the Persian territory.

157. Pactyas, when news came of the near
approach of the army sent against him, fled in
terror to Cyme. Mazares, therefore, the Median
general, who had marched on Sardis with a de-
tachment of the army of Cyrus, finding on his
arrival that Pactyas and his troops were gone,
immediately entered the town. And first of all
he forced the Lydians to obey the orders of his
master, and change (as they did from that
time) their entire manner of living. Next, he
despatched messengers to Cyme, and required
to have Pactyas delivered up to him. On this
the Cymxans resolved to send to Branchidx
and ask the advice of the god. Branchidx is
situated in the territory ot Miletus, above the
port of Panormus. There was an oracle there,
established in very ancient times, which both
the lonians and /Eolians were wont often to
consult.

158. Hither therefore the Cymxans sent
their deputies to make inquiry at the shrine,
"What the gods would like them to do with
the Lydian, Pactyas?" The oracle told them, in
reply, to give him up to the Persians. With this
answer the messengers returned, and the peo-
ple of Cyme* were ready to surrender him ac-
cordingly; but as they were preparing to do so,
Anstodicus, son of Heraclides, a citizen of dis-
tinction, hindered them. He declared that he
distrusted the response, and believed that the
messengers had reported it falsely; until at last
another embassy, of which Anstodicus himself
made part, was despatched, to repeat the for-
mer inquiry concerning Pactyas.

159. On their arrival at the shrine of the
god, Anstodicus, speaking on behalf of the
whole body, thus addressed the oracle: "Oh!
king, Pactyas the Lydian, threatened by the
Persians with a violent death, has come to us
for sanctuary, and lo, they ask him at our
hands, calling upon our nation to deliver him
up. Now, though we greatly dread the Persian

power, yet have we not been bold to give up
our suppliant, till we have certain knowledge
of thy mind, what thou wouldst have us to do."
The oracle thus questioned gave the same an-
swer as before, bidding them surrender Pactyas
to the Persians; whereupon Anstodicus, who
had come prepared for such an answer, pro-
ceeded to make the circuit of the temple, and
to take all the nests of young sparrows and
other birds that he could find about the build-
ing. As he was thus employed, a voice, it is
said, came forth from the inner sanctuary, ad-
dressing Aristodicus in these words: "Most im-
pious of men, what is this thou hast the face to
do? Dost thou tear my suppliants from my
temple?" Anstodicus, at no loss for a reply, re-
joined, "Oh, king, art thou so ready to protect
thy suppliants, and dost thou command the
Cymxans to give up a suppliant?" "Yes," re-
turned the god, "I do command it, that so for
the impiety you may the sooner perish, and
not come here again to consult my oracle about
the surrender of suppliants."

1 60. On the receipt of this answer the Cy-
mxans, unwilling to bring the threatened de-
struction on themselves by giving up the man,
and afraid of having to endure a siege if they
continued to harbour him, sent Pactyas away
to Mytilene. On this Mazarcs despatched en-
voys to the Mytilenxans to demand the fugitive
of them, and they were preparing to give him
up for a reward (I cannot say with certainty
how large, as the bargain was not completed),
when the Cymxans, hearing what the Myti-
lenxans were about, sent a vessel to Lesbos, and
conveyed away Pactyas to Chios. From hence
it was that he was surrendered. The Chians
dragged him from the temple of Minerva Po-
liuchus and gave him up to the Persians, on
condition of receiving the district of Atarneus,
a tract of Mysia opposite to Lesbos, as the price
of the surrender. Thus did Pactyas fall into the
hands of his pursuers, who kept a strict watch
upon him that they might be able to produce
him before Cyrus. For a long time afterwards
none of the Chians would use the barley of
Atarneus to place on the heads of victims, or
make sacrificial cakes of the corn grown there,
but the whole produce of the land was exclud-
ed from all their temples.

161. Meanwhile Mazares, after he had re-
covered Pactyas from the Chians, made war
upon those who had taken part in the attack
on Tabalus, and in the first place took Priene*
and sold the inhabitants for slaves, after which
he overran the whole plain of the Mxander and

i57-i66]

THE HISTORY

37

the district of Magnesia, both of which he gave
up for pillage to the soldiery. He then suddenly
sickened and died.

162. Upon his death Harpagus was sent
down to the coast to succeed to his command.
He also was of the race of the Medes, being the
man whom the Median king, Astyages, feasted
at the unholy banquet, and who lent his aid to
place Cyrus upon the throne. Appointed by Cy-
rus to conduct the war in these parts, he en-
tered Ionia, and took the cities by means of
mounds. Forcing the enemy to shut themselves
up within their defences, he heaped mounds of
earth against their walls, and thus carried the
towns. Phocaea was the city against which he
directed his first attack.

163. Now the Phocaeans were the first of the
Greeks who performed long voyages, and it
was they who made the Greeks acquainted
with the Adriatic and with Tyrrhenia, with
Iberia, and the city of Tartessus. The vessel
which they used in their voyages was not the
round-built merchant-ship, but the long pente-
conter. On their arrival at Tartessus, the king
of the country, whose name was Arganthonius,
took a liking to them. This monarch reigned
over the Tartessians for eighty years, and lived
to be a hundred and twenty years old. He re-
garded the Phocaeans with so much favour as,
at first, to beg them to quit Ionia and settle in
whatever part of his country they liked. After-
wards, finding that he could not prevail upon
them to agree to this, and hearing that the
Mcde was growing great in their neighbour-
hood, he gave them money to build a wall
about their town, and certainly he must have
given it with a bountiful hand, for the town is
many furlongs in circuit, and the wall is built
entirely of great blocks of stone skilfully fitted
together. The wall, then, was built by his aid.

164. Harpagus, having advanced against
the Phocaeans with his army, laid siege to their
city, first, however, offering them terms. "It
would content him," he said, "if the Phocae-
ans would agree to throw down one of their
battlements, and dedicate one dwelling-house
to the king." The Phocaeans, sorely vexed at
the thought of becoming slaves, asked a single
day to deliberate on the answer they should re-
turn, and besought Harpagus during that day
to draw off his forces from the walls. Harpagus
replied, "that he understood well enough what
they were about to do, but nevertheless he
would grant their request." Accordingly the
troops were withdrawn, and the Phocaeans
forthwith took advantage of their absence to

launch their penteconters, and put on board
their wives and children, their household
goods, and even the images of their gods, with
all the votive offerings from the fanes, except
the paintings and the works in stone or brass,
which were left behind. With the rest they em-
barked, and putting to sea, set sail for Chios.
The Persians, on their return, took possession
of an empty town.

165. Arrived at Chios, the Phocxans made
offers for the purchase of the islands called the
CEnuss#, but the Chians refused to part with
them, fearing lest the Phocaeans should estab-
lish a factory there, and exclude their mer-
chants from the commerce of those seas. On
their refusal, the Phocaeans, as Arganthonius
was now dead, made up their minds to sail to
Cyrnus (Corsica), where, twenty years before,
following the direction of an oracle, they had
founded a city, which was called Alalia. Before
they set out, however, on this voyage, they
sailed once more to Phocaea, and surprising the
Persian troops appointed by Harpagus to gar-
rison the town, put them all to the sword. After
this they laid the heaviest curses on the man
who should draw back and forsake the arma-
ment; and having dropped a heavy mass of
iron into the sea, swore never to return to Pho-
caea till that mass reappeared upon the surface.
Nevertheless, as they were preparing to depart
for Cyrnus, more than half of their number
were seized with such sadness and so great a
longing to see once more their city and their
ancient homes, that they broke the oath by
which they had bound themselves and sailed
back to Phocara.

1 66. The rest of the Phocaeans, who kept
their oath, proceeded without stopping upon
their voyage, and when they came to Cyrnus
established themselves along with the earlier
settlers at Alalia and built temples in the place.
For five years they annoyed their neighbours
by plundering and pillaging on all sides, until
at length the Carthaginians and Tyrrhenians
leagued against them, and sent each a fleet of
sixty ships to attack the town. The Phocaeans,
on their part, manned all their vessels, sixty in
number, and met their enemy on the Sardinian
sea. In the engagement which followed the
Phocaeans were victorious, but their success
was only a sort of Cadmeian victory.1 They
lost forty ships in the battle, and the twenty
which remained came out of the engagement
with beaks so bent and blunted as to be no

1 A Cadmeian victory was one frpm which the
victor received more hurt than profit.

38

HERODOTUS

[BOOK i

longer serviceable. The Phocaeans therefore
sailed back again to Alalia, and taking their
wives and children on board, with such por-
tion of their goods and chattels as the vessels
could bear, bade adieu to Cyrnus and sailed to
Rhegium.

167. The Carthaginians and Tyrrhenians,
who had got into their hands many more than
the Phocitans from among the crews of the
forty vessels that were destroyed, landed their
captives upon the coast after the fight, and
stoned them all to death. Afterwards, when
sheep, or oxen, or even men of the district of
Agylla passed by the spot where the murdered
Phocxans lay, their bodies became distorted, or
they were seized with palsy, or they lost the
use of some of their limbs. On this the people
of Agylla sent to Delphi to ask the oracle how
they might expiate their sin. The answer of the
Pythoness required them to institute the cus-
tom, which they still observe, of honouring the
dead Phocxans with magnificent funeral rites,
and solemn games, both gymmc and equestri-
an. Such, then, was the fate that befell the Pho-
cacan prisoners. The other Phocarans, who had
fled to Rhegium, became after a while the
founders of the city called Vela, in the district
of (Enotria. This city they colonised, upon the
showing of a man of Posidonia, who suggested
that the oracle had not meant to bid them set
up a town in Cyrnus the island, but set up the
worship of Cyrnus the hero.

168. Thus fared it with the men of the city
of Phoc.va in [onia. They of Teos did and suf-
fered almost the same; for they too, when Har-
pagus had raised his mound to the height of
their defences, took ship, one and all, and sail-
ing across the sea to Thrace, founded there the
city of Abdcra. The site was one which Ti-
mesius of Clazomenx had previously tried to
colonise, but without any lasting success, for he
was expelled by the Thracians. Still the Teians
of Abdcra worship him to this day as a hero.

169. Of all the lonians these two states alone,
rather than submit to slavery, forsook their
fatherland. The others (I except Miletus) re-
sisted Harpagus no less bravely than those who
fled their country, and performed many feats
of arms, each fighting in their own defence,
but one after another they suffered defeat; the
cities were taken, and the inhabitants submit-
ted, remaining in their respective countries,
and obeying the behests of their new lords. Mi-
letus, as I have already mentioned, had made
terms with Cyrus, and so continued at peace.
Thus was continental Ionia once more reduced

to servitude; and when the lonians of the is-
lands saw their brethren upon the mainland
subjugated, they also, dreading the like, gave
themselves up to Cyrus.

170. It was while the lonians were in this
distress, but still, amid it all, held their meet-
ings, as of old, at the Panionium, that Bias of
Priene, who was present at the festival, recom-
mended (as I am informed) a project of the
very highest wisdom, which would, had it been
embraced, have enabled the lonians to become
the happiest and most flourishing of the
Greeks. He exhorted them "to join in one body,
set sail for Sardinia, and there found a single
Pan-Ionic city; so they would escape from slav-
ery and rise to great fortune, being masters of
the largest island in the world, exercising do-
minion even beyond its bounds; whereas if
they stayed in Ionia, he saw no prospect of their
ever recovering their lost freedom." Such was
the counsel which Bias gave the lonians in
their affliction. Before their misfortunes began,
Thales, a man of Miletus, of Phoenician de-
scent, had recommended a different plan. He
counselled them to establish a single seat of
government, and pointed out Teos as the fittest
place for it; "for that," he said, "was the centre
of Ionia. Their other cities might still continue
to enjoy their own laws, just as if they were in-
dependent states." This also was good advice.

171. After conquering the lonians, Harpa-
gus proceeded to attack the Carians, the Cau-
nians, and the Lycians. The lonians and /£oh-
ans were forced to serve in his army. Now, of
the above nations the Carians are a race who
came into the mainland from the islands. In
ancient times they were subjects of king Minos,
and went by the name of Leleges, dwelling
among the isles, and, so far as I have been able
to push my inquiries, never liable to give trib-
ute to any man. They served on board the ships
of king Minos whenever he required; and thus,
as he was a great conqueror and prospered in
his wars, the Carians were in his day the most
famous by far of all the nations of the earth.
They likewise were the inventors of three
things, the use of which was borrowed from
them by the Greeks; they were the first to fas-
ten crests on helmets and to put devices on
shields, and they also invented handles for
shields. In the earlier times shields were with-
out handles, and their wearers managed them
by the aid of a leathern thong, by which they
were slung round the neck and left shoulder.
Long after the time of Minos, the Carians were
driven from the islands by the lonians and

167-175]

THE HISTORY

39

Dorians, and so settled upon the mainland.
The above is the account which the Cretans
give of the Carians: the Carians themselves say
very differently. They maintain that they are
the aboriginal inhabitants of the part of the
mainland where they now dwell, and never
had any other name than that which they still
bear; and in proof of this they show an ancient
temple of Carian Jove in the country of the
Mylasians, in which the Mysians and Lydians
have the right of worshipping, as brother races
to the Carians: for Lydus and Mysus, they say,
were brothers of Car. These nations, therefore,
have the aforesaid right; but such as are of a
different race, even though they have come to
use the Carian tongue, are excluded from this
temple.

172. The Caumans, in my judgment, arc ab-
originals; but by their own account they came
from Crete. In their language, either they have
approximated to the Carians, or the Carians to
them — on this point I cannot speak with cer-
tainty. In their customs, however, they differ
greatly from the Carians, and not only so, but
from all other men. They think it a most hon-
ourable practice for friends or persons of the
same age, whether they be men, women, or
children, to meet together in large companies,
for the purpose of drinking wine. Again, on
one occasion they determined that they would
no longer make use of the foreign temples
which had been long established among them,
but would worship their own old ancestral
gods alone. Then their whole youth took arms,
and striking the air with their spears, marched
to the Calyndic frontier, declaring that they
were driving out the foreign gods.

173. The Lycians are in good truth anciently
from Crete; which island, in former clays, was
wholly peopled with barbarians. A quarrel
arising there between the two sons of Europa,
Sarpedon and Minos, as to which of them
should be king, Minos, whose party prevailed,
drove Sarpedon and his followers into banish-
ment. The exiles sailed to Asia, and landed on
the Milyan territory. Milyas was the ancient
name of the country now inhabited by the Ly-
cians: the Milyac of the present day were, in
those times, called Solymi. So long as Sarpedon
reigned, his followers kept the name which
they brought with them from Crete, and were
called Termilae, as the Lycians still are by those
who live in their neighbourhood. But after Ly-
cus, the son of Pandion, banished from Athens
by his brother ^geus, had found a refuge with
Sarpedon in the country of these Termilae, they

came, in course of time, to be called from him
Lycians. Their customs are partly Cretan, part-
ly Carian. They have, however, one singular
custom in which they differ from every other
nation in the world. They take the mother's
and not the father's name. Ask a Lyaan who
he is, and he answers by giving his own name,
that of his mother, and so on in the female line.
Moreover, if a free woman marry a man who
is a slave, their children are full citizens; but if
a free man marry a foreign woman, or live
with a concubine, even though he be the first
person in the State, the children foricit all the
rights of citizenship.

174. Ot these nations, the Carians submitted
to Harpagus without pertorming any brilliant
exploits. Nor did the Greeks who dwelt in
Caria behave with any greater gallantry.
Among them were the Cnidians, colonists from
Laceda:mon, who occupy a district facing the
sea, which is called Triopium. This region ad-
joins upon the Bybassian Chersonese; and, ex-
cept a very small space, is surrounded by the
sea, being bounded on the north by the Cera-
mic Gulf, and on the south by the channel to-
wards the islands of Syme and Rhodes. While
Harpagus was engaged in the conquest of Io-
nia, the Cmdians, wishing to make their coun-
try an island, attempted to cut through this nar-
row neck of land, which was no more than five
furlongs across from sea to sea. Their whole ter-
ritory lay inside the isthmus; tor where Cmdia
ends towards the mainland, the isthmus begins
which they were now seeking to cut through.
The work had been commenced, and many
hands were employed upon it, when it was ob-
served that there seemed to be something un-
usual and unnatural in the number ol wounds
that the workmen received, especially about
their eyes, from the splintering of the rock. The
Cnidians, therefore, sent to Delphi, to inquire
what it was that hindered their efforts; and re-
ceived, according to their own account, the fol-
lowing answer from the oracle: —

Fence not the isthmus off, nor dig it through —
Jove would have made an island, had he wished.

So the Cnidians ceased digging, and when
Harpagus advanced with his army, they gave
themselves up to him without striking a blow.

175. Above Halicarnassus, and further from
the coast, were the Pedasians. With this people,
when any evil is about to befall either them-
selves or their neighbours, the priestess of Mi-
nerva grows an ample beard. Three tunes has
this marvel happened. They alone, of all the

40

HERODOTUS

[BOOK

dwellers in Caria, resisted Harpagus for a
while, and gave him much trouble, maintain-
ing themselves in a certain mountain called
Lida, which they had fortified; but in course of
time they also were forced to submit.

176. When Harpagus, after these successes,
led his forces into the Xanthian plain, the Ly-
cians of Xanthus went out to meet him in the
field: though but a small band against a numer-
ous host, they engaged in battle, and performed
many glorious exploits. Overpowered at last,
and forced within their walls, they collected
into the citadel their wives and children, all
their treasures, and their slaves; and having so
done, fired the building, and burnt it to the
ground. After this, they bound themselves to-
gether by dreadful oaths, and sallying forth
against the enemy, died sword in hand, not
one escaping. Those Lycians who now claim to
be Xanthians, are foreign immigrants, except
eighty families, who happened to be absent
from the country, and so survived the others.
Thus was Xanthus taken by Harpagus, and
Caunus fell in like manner into his hands; for
the Caunians in the main followed the exam-
ple of the Lycians.

177. While the lower parts of Asia were in
this way brought under by Harpagus, Cyrus in
person subjected the upper regions, conquering
every nation, and not suffering one to escape.
Of these conquests I shall pass by the greater
portion, and give an account of those only
which gave him the most trouble, and are the
worthiest of mention. When he had brought all
the rest of the continent under his sway, he
made war on the Assyrians.

1 78. Assyria possesses a vast number of great
cities, whereof the most renowned and strong-
est at this time was Babylon, whither, after the
fall of Nineveh, the seat of government had
been removed. The following is a description
of the place: — The city stands on a broad
plain, and is an exact square, a hundred and
twenty furlongs in length each way, so that the
entire circuit is four hundred and eighty fur-
longs. While such is its size, in magnificence
there is no other city that approaches to it. It is
surrounded, in the first place, by a broad and
deep moat, full of water, behind which rises a
wall fifty royal cubits in width, and two hun-
dred in height. (The royal cubit is longer by
three fingers' breadth than the common cubit.)

179. And here I may not omit to tell the use
to which the mould dug out of the great moat
was turned, nor the manner wherein the wall
was wrought. As fast as they dug the moat the

soil which they got from the cutting was made
into bricks, and when a sufficient number were
completed they baked the bricks in kilns. Then
they set to building, and began with bricking
the borders of the moat, after which they pro-
ceeded to construct the wall itself, using
throughout for their cement hot bitumen, and
interposing a layer of wattled reeds at every
thirtieth course of the bricks. On the top, along
the edges of the wall, they constructed build-
ings of a single chamber facing one another,
leaving between them room for a four-horse
chariot to turn. In the circuit of the wall are a
hundred gates, all of brass, with brazen lintels
and side-posts. The bitumen used in the work
was brought to Babylon from the Is, a small
stream which flows into the Euphrates at the
point where the city of the same name stands,
eight days' journey from Babylon. Lumps of
bitumen are found in great abundance in this
river.

1 80. The city is divided into two portions by
the river which runs through the midst of it.
This river is the Euphrates, a broad, deep,
swift stream, which rises in Armenia, and emp-
ties itself into the Erythraean sea. The city wall
is brought clown on both sides to the edge of
the stream: thence, from the corners of the
wall, there is carried along each bank of the
river a fence of burnt bricks. The houses are
mostly three and four stories high; the streets
all run in straight lines, not only those parallel
to the river, but also the cross streets which
lead down to the water-side. At the river end
of these cross streets are low gates in the fence
that skirts the stream, which are, like the great
gates in the outer wall, of brass, and open on
the water.

181. The outer wall is the main defence of
the city. There is, however, a second inner
wall, of less thickness than the first, but very
little inferior to it in strength. The centre of
each division of the town was occupied by a
fortress. In the one stood the palace of the
kings, surrounded by a wall of great strength
and size: in the other was the sacred precinct
of Jupiter Belus, a square enclosure two fur-
longs each way, with gates of solid brass;
which was also remaining in my time. In the
middle of the precinct there was a tower of
solid masonry, a furlong in length and breadth,
upon which was raised a second tower, and on
that a third, and so on up to eight. The ascent
to the top is on the outside, by a path which
winds round all the towers. When one is about
half-way up, one finds a resting-place and seats,

176-185]

THE HISTORY

41

where persons are wont to sit some time on
their way to the summit. On the topmost tower
there is a spacious temple, and inside the tem-
ple stands a couch of unusual size, richly
adorned, with a golden table by its side. There
is no statue of any kind set up in the place, nor
is the chamber occupied of nights by any one
but a single native woman, who, as the Chal-
daeans, the priests of this god, affirm, is chosen
for himself by the deity out of all the women
of the land.

182. They also declare — but I for my part do
not credit it — that the god comes down in per-
son into this chamber, and sleeps upon the
couch. This is like the story told by the Egyp-
tians of what takes place in their city of Thebes,
where a woman always passes the night in
the temple of the Theban Jupiter.1 In each case
the woman is said to be debarred all inter-
course with men. It is also like the custom of
Patara, in Lycia, where the priestess who de-
livers the oracles, during the time that she is
so employed — for at Patara there is not always
an oracle — is shut up in the temple every night.

183. Below, in the same precinct, there is a
second temple, in which is a sitting figure of
Jupiter, all of gold. Before the figure stands a
large golden table, and the throne whereon it
sits, and the base on which the throne is placed,
are likewise of gold. The Chaldaeans told me
that all the gold together was eight hundred
talents' weight. Outside the temple are two al-
tars, one of solid gold, on which it is only law-
ful to offer sucklings; the other a common al-
tar, but of great size, on which the full-grown
animals are sacrificed. It is also on the great al-
tar that the Chaldaeans burn the frankincense,
which is offered to the amount of a thousand
talents' weight, every year, at the festival of the
God. In the time of Cyrus there was likewise in
this temple a figure of a man, twelve cubits
high, entirely of solid gold. I myself did not see
this figure, but I relate what the Chaldeans re-
port concerning it. Darius, the son of Hystas-
pes, plotted to carry the statue off, but had not
the hardihood to lay his hands upon it. Xerxes,
however, the son of Darius, killed the priest
who forbade him to move the statue, and took
it away. Besides the ornaments which I have
mentioned, there are a large number of private
offerings in this holy precinct.

184. Many sovereigns have ruled over this
city of Babylon, and lent their aid to the build-

1 The Theban Jupiter, or god worshipped as the
Supreme Being in the city of Thebes, was Ammon
(Amun).

ing of its walls and the adornment of its tem-
ples, of whom I shall make mention in my As-
syrian history. Among them two were women.
Of these, the earlier, called Semiramis, held the
throne five generations before the later prin-
cess. She raised certain embankments well
worthy of inspection, in the plain near Baby-
lon, to control the river, which, till then, used
to overflow, and flood the whole country round
about.

185. The later of the two queens, whose
name was Nitocns, a wiser princess than her
predecessor, not only left behind her, as mem-
orials of her occupancy of the throne, the
works which I shall presently describe, but also,
observing the great power and restless enter-
prise of the Medes, who had taken so large a
number of cities, and among them Nineveh,
and expecting to be attacked in her turn, made
all possible exertions to increase the defences
of her empire. And first, whereas the river Eu-
phrates, which traverses the city, ran formerly
with a straight course to Babylon, she, by cer-
tain excavations which she made at some dis-
tance up the stream, rendered it so winding
that it comes three several times in sight of the
same village, a village in Assyria, which is
called Ardericca; and to this day, they who
would go from our sea to Babylon, on descend-
ing to the river touch three times, and on three
different days, at this very place. She also made
an embankment along each side of the Eu-
phrates, wonderful both for breadth and
height, and dug a basin for a lake a great way
above Babylon, close alongside of the stream,
which was sunk everywhere to the point where
they came to water, and was of such breadth
that the whole circuit measured four hundred
and twenty furlongs. The soil dug out of this
basin was made use of in the embankments
along the waterside. When the excavation was
finished, she had stones brought, and bordered
with them the entire margin of the reservoir.
These two things were done, the river made to
wind, and the lake excavated, that the stream
might be slacker by reason of the number of
curves, and the voyage be rendered circuitous,
and that at the end of the voyage it might be
necessary to skirt the lake and so make a long
round. AH these works were on that side of
Babylon where the passes lay, and the roads
into Media were the straightest, and the aim of
the queen in making them was to prevent the
Medes from holding intercourse with the Bab-
ylonians, and so to keep them in ignorance of
her affairs.

42

HERODOTUS

[BOOK i

1 86. While the soil from the excavation was
being thus used for the defence of the city, Ni-
tocris engaged also in another undertaking, a
mere by-work compared with those we have
already mentioned. The city, as I said, was di-
vided by the river into two distinct portions.
Under the former kings, if a man wanted to
pass from one of these divisions to the other,
he had to cross in a boat; which must, it seems
to me, have been very troublesome. According-
ly, while she was digging the lake, Nitocris be-
thought herself of turning it to a use which
should at once remove this inconvenience, and
enable her to leave another monument of her
reign over Babylon. She gave orders for the
hewing of immense blocks of stone, and when
they were ready and the basin was excavated,
she turned the entire stream of the Euphrates
into the cutting, and thus for a time, while the
basin was filling, the natural channel of the riv-
er was left dry. Forthwith she set to work, and
in the first place lined the banks of the stream
within the city with quays of burnt brick, and
also bricked the landing-places opposite the
river-gates, adopting throughout the same
fashion of brickwork which had been used in
the town wall; after which, with the materials
which had been prepared, she built, as near the
middle of the town as possible, a stone bridge,
the blocks whereof were bound together with
iron and lead. In the daytime square wooden
platforms were laid along from pier to pier, on
which the inhabitants crossed the stream; but
at night they were withdrawn, to prevent peo-
ple passing from side to side in the dark to com-
mit robberies. When the river had filled the
cutting, and the bridge was finished, the Eu-
phrates was turned back again into its ancient
bed; and thus the basin, transformed suddenly
into a lake, was seen to answer the purpose for
which it was made, and the inhabitants, by
help of the basin, obtained the advantage of a
bridge.

187. It was this same princess by whom a re-
markable deception was planned. She had her
tomb constructed in the upper part of one of
the principal gateways of the city, high above
the heads of the passers by, with this inscrip-
tion cut upon it: — "If there be one among my
successors on the throne of Babylon who is in
want of treasure, let him open my tomb, and
take as much as he chooses — not, however, un-
less he be truly in want, for it will not be for
his good/' This tomb continued untouched un-
til Darius came to the kingdom. To him it
seemed a monstrous thing that he should be un-

able to use one of the gates of the town, and
that a sum of money should be lying idle, and
moreover inviting his grasp, and he not seize
upon it. Now he could not use the gate, be-
cause, as he drove through, the dead body
would have been over his head. Accordingly he
opened the tomb; but instead of money, found
only the dead body, and a writing which said —
"Hadst thou not been insatiate of pelf, and
careless how thou gottest it, thou wouldst not
have broken open the sepulchres of the dead."

1 88. The expedition of Cyrus was under-
taken against the son of this princess, who bore
the same name as his father Labynetus, and
was king of the Assyrians. The Great King,
when he goes to the wars, is always supplied
with provisions carefully prepared at home,
and with cattle of his own. Water too from the
river Choaspes, which flows by Susa, is taken
with him for his drink, as that is the only
water which the kings of Persia taste. Wher-
ever he travels, he is attended by a number of
four-wheeled cars drawn by mules, in which
the Choaspes water, ready boiled for use, and
stored in flagons of silver, is moved with him
from place to place.

189. Cyrus on his way to Babylon came to
the banks of the Gyndes, a stream which, ris-
ing in the Matieman mountains, runs through
the country of the Dardamans, and empties it-
self into the river Tigris. The Tigris, after re-
ceiving the Gyndes, flows on by the city of
Opis, and discharges its waters into the Ery-
thraean sea. When Cyrus reached this stream,
which could only be passed in boats, one of the
sacred white horses accompanying his march,
full of spirit and high mettle, walked into the
water, and tried to cross by himself; but the
current seized him, swept him along with it,
and drowned him in its depths. Cyrus, enraged
at the insolence of the river, threatened so to
break its strength that in future even women
should cross it easily without wetting their
knees. Accordingly he put off for a time his at-
tack on Babylon, and, dividing his army into
two parts, he marked out by ropes one hundred
and eighty trenches on each side of the Gyndes,
leading off from it in all directions, and setting
his army to dig, some on one side of the river,
some on the other, he accomplished his threat
by the aid of so great a number of hands, but
not without losing thereby the whole summer

season.

190. Having, however, thus wreaked his
vengeance on the Gyndes, by dispersing it
through three hundred and sixty channels, Cy-

186-193]

THE HISTORY

43

rus, with the first approach of the ensuing
spring, marched forward against Babylon. The
Babylonians, encamped without their walls,
awaited his coming. A battle was fought at a
short distance from the city, in which the Bab-
ylonians were defeated by the Persian king,
whereupon they withdrew within their de-
fences. Here they shut themselves up, and
made light of his siege, having laid in a store
of provisions for many years in preparation
against this attack; for when they saw Cyrus
conquering nation after nation, they were con-
vinced that he would never stop, and that their
turn would come at last.

191. Cyrus was now reduced to great per-
plexity, as time went on and he made no prog-
ress against the place. In this distress either
some one made the suggestion to him, or he
bethought himself of a plan, which he proceed-
ed to put in execution. He placed a portion of
his army at the point where the river enters the
city, and another body at the back of the place
where it issues forth, with orders to march into
the town by the bed of the stream, as soon as
the water became shallow enough: he then
himself drew off with the unwarlike portion of
his host, and made for the place where Nito-
cns dug the basin for the river, where he did
exactly what she had done formerly: he turned
the Euphrates by a canal into the basin, which
was then a marsh, on which the river sank to
such an extent that the natural bed of the
stream became fordable. Hereupon the Per-
sians who had been left for the purpose at Bab-
ylon by the river-side, entered the stream,
which had now sunk so as to reach about mid-
way up a man's thigh, and thus got into the town.
Had the Babylonians been apprised of what
Cyrus was about, or had they noticed their dan-
ger, they would never have allowed the Per-
sians to enter the city, but would have de-
stroyed them utterly; for they would have
made fast all the street-gates which gave upon
the river, and mounting upon the walls along
both sides of the stream, would so have caught
the enemy, as it were, in a trap. But, as it was,
the Persians came upon them by surprise and
so took the city. Owing to the vast size of the
place, the inhabitants of the central parts (as
the residents at Babylon declare) long after the
outer portions of the town were taken, knew
nothing of what had chanced, but as they were
engaged in a festival, continued dancing and
revelling until they learnt the capture but too
certainly. Such, then, were the circumstances
of the first taking of Babylon.

192. Among many proofs which I shall
bring forward of the power and resources of
the Babylonians, the following is of special ac-
count. The whole country under the dominion
of the Persians, besides paying a fixed tribute,
is parcelled out into divisions, which have to
supply food to the Great King and his army
during different portions of the year. Now out
of the twelve months which go to a year, the
district of Babylon furnishes food during four,
the other regions of Asia during eight; by
which it appears that Assyria, in respect of re-
sources, is one-third of the whole of Asia. Of
all the Persian governments, or satrapies as
they are called by the natives, this is by far the
best. When Tritantaechmes, son of Artabazus,
held it of the king, it brought him in an artaba
of silver every day. The artaba is a Persian mea-
sure, and holds three chcenixes more than the
medimnus of the Athenians. He also had, be-
longing to his own private stud, besides war-
horses, eight hundred stallions and sixteen
thousand mares, twenty to each stallion. Be-
sides which he kept so great a number of In-
dian hounds, that four large villages of the
plain were exempted from all other charges on
condition of finding them in food.

193. But little rain falls in Assyria, enough,
however, to make the corn begin to sprout, aft-
er which the plant is nourished and the ears
formed by means of irrigation from the river.
For the river does not, as in Egypt, overflow
the corn-lands of its own accord, but is spread
over them by the hand, or by the help of en-
gines. The whole of Babylonia is, like Egypt,
intersected with canals. The largest of them all,
which runs towards the winter sun, and is im-
passable except in boats, is carried from the
Euphrates into another stream, called the Ti-
gris, the river upon which the town of Nineveh
formerly stood. Of all the countries that we
know there is none which is so fruitful in
grain. It makes no pretension indeed of grow-
ing the fig, the olive, the vine, or any other
tree of the kind; but in grain it is so fruitful as
to yield commonly two-hundred-fold, and
when the production is the greatest, even three-
hundred-fold. The blade of the wheat-plant
and barley-plant is often four fingers in
breadth. As for the millet and the sesame, I
shall not say to what height they grow, though
within my own knowledge; for I am not igno-
rant that what I have already written concern-
ing the fruitfulness of Babylonia must seem in-
credible to those who have never visited the
country. The only oil they use is made from

44

HERODOTUS

[ BOOK i

the sesame-plant. Palm-trees grow in great
numbers over the whole of the flat country,
mostly of the kind which bears fruit, and this
fruit supplies them with bread, wine, and hon-
ey. They are cultivated like the fig-tree in all
respects, among others in this. The natives tie
the fruit of the male-palms, as they are called
by the Greeks, to the branches of the date-bear-
ing palm, to let the gall-fly enter the dates and
ripen them, and to prevent the fruit from fall-
ing of!. The male-palms, like the wild fig-trees,
have usually the gall-fly in their fruit.

194. But that which surprises me most in the
land, after the city itself, I will now proceed
to mention. The boats which come down the
river to Babylon are circular, and made of
skins. The frames, which are of willow, are cut
in the country of the Armenians above Assyria,
and on these, which serve for hulls, a covering
of skins is stretched outside, and thus the boats
are made, without cither stem or stern, quite
round like a shield. They are then entirely
filled with straw, and their cargo is put on
board, after which they are suffered to float
down the stream. Their chief freight is wine,
stored in casks made of the wood of the palm-
tree. They are managed by two men who stand
upright in them, each plying an oar, one pull-
ing and the other pushing. The boats are of
various sizes, some larger, some smaller; the
biggest reach as high as five thousand talents'
burthen. Each vessel has a live ass on board;
those of larger size have more than one. When
they reach Babylon, the cargo is landed and
offered for sale; after which the men break
up their boats, sell the straw and the frames,
and loading their asses with the skins, set
of! on their way back to Armenia. The current
is too strong to allow a boat to return up-
stream, for which reason they make their boats
of skins rather than wood. On their return to
Armenia they build fresh boats for the next
voyage.

195. The dress of the Babylonians is a linen
tunic reaching to the feet, and above it another
tunic made in wool, besides which they have a
short white cloak thrown round them, and
shoes of a peculiar fashion, not unlike those
worn by the Boeotians. They have long hair,
wear turbans on their heads, and anoint their
whole body with perfumes. Every one carries a
seal, and a walking-stick, carved at the top into
the form of an apple, a rose, a lily, an eagle, or
something similar; for it is not their habit to
use a stick without an ornament.

196. Of their customs, whereof I shall now

proceed to give an account, the following
(which I understand belongs to them in com-
mon with the Illyrian tribe of the Eneti) is the
wisest in my judgment. Once a year in each vil-
lage the maidens of age to marry were collected
all together into one place; while the men stood
round them in a circle. Then a herald called up
the damsels one by one, and offered them for
sale. He began with the most beautiful. When
she was sold for no small sum of money, he
offered for sale the one who came next to her
in beauty. All of them were sold to be wives.
The richest of the Babylonians who wished to
wed bid against each other for the loveliest
maidens, while the humbler wife-seekers, who
were indifTerent about beauty, took the more
homely damsels with marriage-portions. For
the custom was that when the herald had gone
through the whole number of the beautiful
damsels, he should then call up the ugliest — a
cripple, if there chanced to be one — and offer
her to the men, asking who would agree to
take her with the smallest marriage-portion.
And the man who offered to take the smallest
sum had her assigned to him. The marriage-
portions were furnished by the money paid for
the beautiful damsels, and thus the fairer maid-
ens portioned out the uglier. No one was al-
lowed to give his daughter in marriage to the
man of his choice, nor might any one carry
away the damsel whom he had purchased
without finding bail really and truly to make
her his wife; if, however, it turned out that
they did not agree, the money might be paid
back. All who liked might come even from dis-
tant villages and bid for the women. This was
the best of all their customs, but it has now
fallen into disuse. They have lately hit upon a
very different plan to save their maidens from
violence, and prevent their being torn from
them and carried to distant cities, which is to
bring up their daughters to be courtesans. This
is now done by all the poorer of the common
people, who since the conquest have been mal-
treated by their lords, and have had ruin
brought upon their families.

197. The following custom seems to me the
wisest of their institutions next to the one late-
ly praised. They have no physicians, but when
a man is ill, they lay him in the public square,
and the passers-by come up to him, and if they
have ever had his disease themselves or have
known any one who has suffered from it, they
give him advice, recommending him to do
whatever they found good in their own case,
or in the case known to them; and no one is al-

194-203]

THE HISTORY

45

lowed to pass the sick man in silence without
asking him what his ailment is.

198. They bury their dead in honey, and
have funeral lamentations like the Egyptians.
When a Babylonian has consorted with his
wife, he sits down before a censer of burning
incense, and the woman sits opposite to him.
At dawn of day they wash; for till they are
washed they will not touch any of their com-
mon vessels. This practice is observed also by
the Arabians.

199. The Babylonians have one most shame-
ful custom. Every woman born in the country
must once in her life go and sit down in the
precinct of Venus, and there consort with a
stranger. Many of the wealthier sort, who are
too proud to mix with the others, drive in cov-
ered carriages to the precinct, followed by a
goodly train of attendants, and there take their
station. But the larger number seat themselves
within the holy enclosure with wreaths of
string about their heads — and here there is al-
ways a great crowd, some coming and others
going; lines of cord mark out paths in all di-
rections among the women, and the strangers
pass along them to make their choice. A wo-
man who has once taken her seat is not al-
lowed to return home till one of the strangers
throws a silver com into her lap, and takes her
with him beyond the holy ground. When he
throws the coin he says these words — "The
goddess Mylitta prosper thee." (Venus is called
Myhtta by the Assyrians.) The silver coin may
be of any size; it cannot be refused, for that is
forbidden by the law, since once thrown it is
sacred. The woman goes with the first man
who throws her money, and rejects no one.
When she has gone with him, and so satisfied
the goddess, she returns home, and from that
time forth no gift however great will prevail
with her. Such of the women as are tall and
beautiful are soon released, but others who are
ugly have to stay a long time before they can
fulfil the law. Some have waited three or four
years in the precinct. A custom very much like
this is found also in certain parts of the island
of Cyprus.

200. Such are the customs of the Babylon-
ians generally. There are likewise three tribes
among them who eat nothing but fish. These
are caught and dried in the sun, after which
they are brayed in a mortar, and strained
through a linen sieve. Some prefer to make
cakes of this material, while others bake it into
a kind of bread.

301. When Cyrus had achieved the conquest

of the Babylonians, he conceived the desire of
bringing the Massagetx under his dominion.
Now the Massagetse are said to be a great and
warlike nation, dwelling eastward, toward the
rising of the sun, beyond the river Araxes, and
opposite the Issedonians. By many they are re-
garded as a Scythian race.

202. As for the Araxes, it is, according to
some accounts, larger, according to others
smaller than the Ister (Danube). It has islands
in it, many of which arc said to be equal in size
to Lesbos. The men who inhabit them feed
during the summer on roots of all kinds, which
they dig out of the ground, while they store up
the fruits, which they gather from the trees at
the fitting season, to serve them as food in the
winter-time. Besides the trees whose fruit they
gather for this purpose, they have also a tree
which bears the strangest produce. When they
are met together in companies they throw some
of it upon the fire round which they are sitting,
and presently, by the mere smell of the fumes
which it gives out in burning, they grow
drunk, as the Greeks do with wine. More of
the fruit is then thrown on the fire, and, their
drunkenness increasing, they often jump up
and begin to dance and sing. Such is the ac-
count which I have heard of this people.

The river Araxes, like the Gyndes, which
Cyrus dispersed into three hundred and sixty
channels, has its source in the country of the
Matiemans. It has forty mouths, whereof all,
except one, end in bogs and swamps. These
bogs and swamps are said to be inhabited by a
race of men who feed on raw fish, and clothe
themselves with the skins of seals. The other
mouth of the river flows with a clear course
into the Caspian Sea.1

203. The Caspian is a sea by itself, having no
connection with any other. The sea frequented
by the Greeks, that beyond the Pillars of Her-
cules, which is called the Atlantic, and also the
Erythraran, are all one and the same sea. But
the Caspian is a distinct sea, lying by itself, in
length fifteen days' voyage with a row-boat, in
breadth, at the broadest part, eight days' voy-
age. Along its western shore runs the chain of
the Caucasus, the most extensive and loftiest
of all mountain-ranges. Many and various are
the tribes by which it is inhabited, most of
whom live entirely on the wild fruits of the
forest. In these forests certain trees are said to
grow, from the leaves of which, pounded and

1 Herodotus appears to have confused together
the information which had reached him concern-
ing two or three distinct streams.

46

HERODOTUS

[ BOOK i

mixed with water, the inhabitants make a dye,
wherewith they paint upon their clothes the
figures of animals; and the figures so im-
pressed never wash out, but last as though they
had been inwoven in the cloth from the first,
and wear as long as the garment.

204. On the west then, as I have said, the
Caspian Sea is bounded by the range of Cau-
casus. On the east it is followed by a vast plain,
stretching out interminably before the eye, the
greater portion of which is possessed by those
Massagctx, against whom Cyrus was now so
anxious to make an expedition. Many strong
motives weighed with him and urged him on
— his birth especially, which seemed some-
thing more than human, and his good fortune
in all his former wars, wherein he had always
found that against what country soever he
turned his arms, it was impossible for that
people to escape.

205. At this time the Massagetae were ruled
by a queen, named Tomyris, who at the death
of her husband, the late king, had mounted the
throne. To her Cyrus sent ambassadors, with
instructions to court her on his part, pretending
that he wished to take her to wite. Tomyris,
however, aware that it was her kingdom, and
not herself, that he courted, forbade the men
to approach. Cyrus, therefore, finding that he
did not advance his designs by this deceit,
marched towards the A raxes, and openly dis-
playing his hostile intentions, set to work to
construct a bridge on which his army might
cross the river, and began building towers upon
the boats which were to be used in the passage.

206. While the Persian leader was occupied
in these labours, Tomyris sent a herald to him,
who said, "King of the Medes, cease to press
this enterprise, for thou canst not know if what
thou art doing will be of real advantage to thee.
Be content to rule in peace thy own kingdom,
and bear to see us reign over the countries that
are ours to govern. As, however, I know thou
wilt not choose to hearken to this counsel, since
there is nothing thou less dcsirest than peace
and quietness, come now, if thou art so might-
ily desirous of meeting the Massageta! in arms,
leave thy useless toil of bridge-making; let us
retire three days' march from the river bank,
and do thou come across with thy soldiers; or,
if thou hkest better to give us battle on thy side
the stream, retire thyself an equal distance."
Cyrus, on this offer, called together the chiefs
of the Persians, and laid the matter before
them, requesting them to advise him what he
should do. All the votes were in favour of his

letting Tomyris cross the stream, and giving
battle on Persian ground.

207. But Croesus the Lydian, who was pres-
ent at the meeting of the chiefs, disapproved
of this advice; he therefore rose, and thus de-
livered his sentiments in opposition to it: "Oh!
my king1 I promised thee long since, that, as
Jove had given me into thy hands, I would, to
the best of my power, avert impending danger
from thy house. Alas' my own sufferings, by
their very bitterness, have taught me to be
keen-sighted of dangers. If thou deemest thy-
self an immortal, and thine army an army of
immortals, my counsel will doubtless be
thrown away upon thee. But if thou feelest thy-
self to be a man, and a ruler of men, lay this
first to heart, that there is a wheel on which the
affairs of men revolve, and that its movement
forbids the same man to be always fortunate.
Now concerning the matter in hand, my
judgment runs counter to the judgment of
thy other counsellors. For if thou agrcest to
give the enemy entrance into thy country,
consider what risk is run' Lose the battle, and
therewith thy whole kingdom is lost. For as-
suredly, the Massagetae, if they win the fight,
will not return to their homes, but will push
forward against the states of thy empire. Or if
thou gaincst the battle, why, then thou gainest
far less than if thou wert across the stream,
where thou mightcst follow up thy victory. For
against thy loss, if they defeat thee on thine
own ground, must be set theirs in like case. Rout
their army on the other side of the river, and
thou mayest push at once into the heart of their
country. Moreover, were it not disgrace intol-
erable for Cyrus the son of Cambyses to retire
before and yield ground to a woman? My
counsel, therefore, is that we cross the stream,
and pushing forward as far as they shall fall
back, then seek to get the better of them by
stratagem. I am told they are unacquainted
with the good things on which the Persians
live, and have never tasted the great delights of
life. Let us then prepare a feast for them in our
camp; let sheep be slaughtered without stint,
and the winecups be filled full of noble liquor,
and let all manner of dishes be prepared: then
leaving behind us our worst troops, let us fall
back towards the river. Unless I very much
mistake, when they see the good fare set out,
they will forget all else and fall to. Then it
will remain for us to do our parts manfully."

208. Cyrus, when the two plans were thus
placed in contrast before him, changed his
mind, and preferring the advice which Croesus

204-214]

THE HISTORY

47

had given, returned for answer to Tomyris
that she should retire, and that he would cross
the stream. She therefore retired, as she had en-
gaged; and Cyrus, giving Croesus into the care
of his son Cambyses (whom he had appointed
to succeed him on the throne), with strict
charge to pay him all respect and treat him
well, it the expedition failed of success; and
sending them both back to Persia, crossed the
river with his army.

209. The first night after the passage, as he
slept in the enemy's country, a vision appeared
to him. He seemed to see in his sleep the eldest
of the sons of Hystaspes, with wings upon his
shoulders, shadowing with the one wing Asia,
and Europe with the other. Now Hystaspes,
the son of Arsames, was of the race of the
Achaememdae, and his eldest son, Darius, was
at that time scarce twenty years old; wherefore,
not being of age to go to the wars, he had re-
mained behind in Persia. When Cyrus woke
from his sleep, and turned the vision over in
his mind, it seemed to him no light matter. He%
therefore sent for Hystaspes, and taking him
aside said, "Hystaspes, thy son is discovered to
be plotting against me and my crown. I will
tell thee how I know it so certainly. The gods
watch over my safety, and warn me before-
hand of every danger. Now last night, as I lay
in my bed, I saw in a vision the eldest of thy
sons with wings upon his shoulders, shadow-
ing with the one wing Asia, and Europe with
the other. From this it is certain, beyond all
possible doubt, that he is engaged in some plot
against me. Return thou then at once to Persia,
and be sure, when I come back from conquer-
ing the Massagetz, to have thy son ready to
produce before me, that I may examine him."

210. Thus Cyrus spoke, in the belief that he
was plotted against by Darius; but he missed
the true meaning of the dream, which was sent
by God to forewarn him, that he was to die
then and there, and that his kingdom was to
fall at last to Darius.

Hystaspes made answer to Cyrus in these
words: — "Heaven forbid, sire, that there
should be a Persian living who would plot
against thee' If such an one there be, may a
speedy death overtake him! Thou foundest the
Persians a race of slaves, thou hast made them
free men: thou foundest them subject to others,
thou hast made them lords of all. If a vision has
announced that my son is practising against
thee, lo, I resign him into thy hands to deal
with as thou wilt.'* Hystaspes, when he had
thus answered, rccrossed the Araxes and has-

tened back to Persia, to keep a watch on his
son Darius.

211. Meanwhile Cyrus, having advanced a
day's march from the river, did as Croesus had
advised him, and, leaving the worthless por-
tion of his army in the camp, drew off with his
good troops towards the river. Soon after-
wards, a detachment of the Massageta*, one-
third of their entire army, led by Spargapises,
son of the queen Tomyris, coming up, fell
upon the body which had been left behind by
Cyrus, and on their resistance put them to the
sword. Then, seeing the banquet prepared,
they sat down and began to feast. When they
had eaten and drunk their fill, and were now
sunk in sleep, the Persians under Cyrus ar-
rived, slaughtered a great multitude, and made
even a larger number prisoners. Among these
last was Spargapises himself.

212. When Tomyris heard what had befall-
en her son and her army, she sent a herald to
Cyrus, who thus addressed the conqueror: —
"Thou bloodthirsty Cyrus, pride not thyself
on this poor success: it was the grape-] nice —
which, when ye drink it, makes you so mad,
and as ye swallow it down brings up to your
lips such bold and wicked words — it was this
poison wherewith thou didst ensnare my child,
and so overcamcst him, not in fair open fight.
Now hearken what I advise, and be sure I ad-
vise thee for thy good. Restore my son to me
and get thee from the land unharmed, trium-
phant over a third part of the host o( the Mas-
sageta!. Refuse, and I swear by the sun, the sov-
ereign lord of the Massaget.c, bloodthirsty as
thou art, I will give thee thy fill oi blood."

213. To the words of this message Cyrus
paid no manner of regard. As for Spargapises,
the son of the queen, when the wine went ofT,
and he saw the extent of his calamity, he made
request to Cyrus to release him from his bonds;
then, when his prayer was granted, and the
fetters were taken from his limbs, as soon as his
hands were free, he destroyed himself.

214. Tomyris, when she found that Cyrus
paid no heed to her advice, collected all the
forces of her kingdom, and gave him battle.
Of all the combats in which the barbarians
have engaged among themselves, I reckon this
to have been the fiercest. The following, as I
understand, was the manner of it: — First, the
two armies stood apart and shot their arrows
at each other; then, when their quivers were
empty, they closed and fought hand-to-hand
with lances and daggers; and thus they con-
tinued fighting for a length of time, neither

48

HERODOTUS

choosing to give ground. At length the Mas-
sagctae prevailed. The greater part of the army
of the Persians was destroyed and Cyrus him-
self fell, after reigning nine and twenty years.
Search was made among the slam by order of
the queen for the body of Cyrus, and when it
was found she took a skin, and, filling it full
of human blood, she dipped the head of Cyrus
in the gore, saying, as she thus insulted the
corse, "I live and have conquered thee in fight,
and yet by thee am I ruined, for thou tookest
my son with guile; but thus I make good my
threat, and give thee thy fill of blood." Of the
many different accounts which are given of
the death of Cyrus, this which I have followed
appears to me most worthy of credit.

215. In their dress and mode of living the
Massagetae resemble the Scythians. They fight
both on horseback and on foot, neither method
is strange to them: they use bows and lances,
but their favourite weapon is the battle-axe.
Their arms are all either of gold or brass. For
their spear-points, and arrow-heads, and for
their battle-axes, they make use of brass; for
head-gear, belts, and girdles, of gold. So too
with the caparison of their horses, they give

them breastplates of brass, but employ gold
about the reins, the bit, and the cheek-plates.
They use neither iron nor silver, having none
in their country; but they have brass and gold
in abundance.

216. The following are some of their cus-
toms;— Each man has but one wife, yet all the
wives are held in common; for this is a custom
of the Massagetae and not of the Scythians, as
the Greeks wrongly say. Human life does not
come to its natural close with this people; but
when a man grows very old, all his kinsfolk
collect together and offer him up in sacrifice;
offering at the same time some cattle also. Af-
ter the sacrifice they boil the flesh and feast on
it; and those who thus end their days are reck-
oned the happiest. If a man dies of disease they
do not eat him, but bury him in the ground, be-
wailing his ill-fortune that he did not come to
be sacrificed. They sow no grain, but live on
their herds, and on fish, of which there is great
plenty in the Araxes. Milk is what they chiefly
"drink. The only god they worship is the sun,
and to him they offer the horse in sacrifice; un-
der the notion of giving to the swiftest of the
gods the swiftest of all mortal creatures.

The Second Book, Entitled
EUTERPE

i. On the death of Cyrus, Cambyses his son by
Cassandane daughter of Pharnaspes took the
kingdom. Cassandane had died in the lifetime
of Cyrus, who had made a great mourning for
her at her death, and had commanded all the
subjects of his empire to observe the like. Cam-
byses, the son of this lady and of Cyrus, regard-
ing the Ionian and ^olian Greeks as vassals of
his father, took them with him m his expedi-
tion against Egypt among the other nations
which owned his sway.

2. Now the Egyptians, before the reign of
their king Psammctichus, believed themselves
to be the most ancient of mankind. Since Psam-
metichus, however, made an attempt to discov-
er who were actually the primitive race, they
have been of opinion that while they surpass
all other nations, the Phrygians surpass them
in antiquity. This king, finding it impossible to
make out by dint of inquiry what men were
the most ancient, contrived the following meth-
od of discovery: — He took two children of the
common sort, and gave them over to a herds-
man to bring up at his folds, strictly charging
him to let no one utter a word in their pres-
ence, but to keep them in a sequestered cot-
tage, and from time to time introduce goats to
their apartment, see that they got their fill of
milk, and in all other respects look after them.
His object herein was to know, after the indis-
tinct babblings of infancy were over, what
word they would first articulate. It happened
as he had anticipated. The herdsman obeyed
his orders for two years, and at the end of that
time, on his one day opening the door of their
room and going in, the children both ran up to
him with outstretched arms, and distinctly said
"Becos." When this first happened the herds-
man took no notice; but afterwards when he
observed, on coming often to see after them,
that the word was constantly in their mouths,
he informed his lord, and by his command

brought the children into his presence. Psam-
metichus then himself heard them say the
word, upon which he proceeded to make in-
quiry what people there was who called any-
thing "becos," and hereupon he learnt that
"becos" was the Phrygian name for bread. In
consideration of this circumstance the Egyp-
tians yielded their claims, and admitted the
greater antiquity of the Phrygians.

3. That these were the real facts I learnt at
Memphis from the priests of Vulcan. The
Greeks, among other foolish tales, relate that
Psammetichus had the children brought up by
women whoso tongues he had previously cut
out; but the priests said their bringing up was
such as I have stated above. I got much other
information also from conversation with these
priests while I was at Memphis, and I even
went to Heliopolis and to Thebes, expressly to
try whether the priests of those places would
agree in their accounts with the prices at
Memphis. The Heliopolitans have the reputa-
tion of being the best skilled in history of all
the Egyptians. What they told me concerning
their religion it is not my intention to repeat,
except the names of their deities, which 1 be-
lieve all men know equally. If 1 relate anything
else concerning these matters, it will only be
when compelled to do so by the course of my
narrative.

4. Now with regard to mere human matters,
the accounts which they gave, and in which all
agreed, were the following. The Egyptians,
they said, were the first to discover the solar
year, and to portion out its course into twelve
parts. They obtained this knowledge from the
stars. (To my mind they contrive their year
much more cleverly than the Greeks, for these
last every other year intercalate a whole month,
but the Egyptians, dividing the year into
twelve months of thirty days each, add every
year a space of five days besides, whereby the

49

50

HERODOTUS

[ BOOK ii

circuit of the seasons is made to return with
uniformity.) The Egyptians, they went on to
affirm, first brought into use the names of the
twelve gods, which the Greeks adopted from
them; and first erected altars, images, and tem-
ples to the gods; and also first engraved upon
stone the figures of animals. In most of these
cases they proved to me that what they said
was true. And they told me that the first man
who ruled over Egypt was Men, and that in his
time all Egypt, except the Thebaic canton, was
a marsh, none of the land below Lake Moeris
then showing itself above the surface of the
water. This is a distance of seven days' sail
from the sea up the river.

5. What they said of their country seemed
to me very reasonable. For any one who sees
Egypt, without having heard a word about it
before, must perceive, if he has only common
powers of observation, that the Egypt to which
the Greeks go in their ships is an acquired
country, the gift of the river. The same is true
of the land above the lake, to the distance of
three days* voyage, concerning which the
Egyptians say nothing, but which is exactly the
same kind of country.

The following is the general character of the
region. In the first place, on approaching it
by sea, when you are still a day's sail from
the land, if you let down a sounding-line you
will bring up mud, and find yourself in eleven
fathoms* water, which shows that the soil
washed down by the stream extends to that
distance.

6. The length of the country along shore, ac-
cording to the bounds that we assign to Egypt,
namely from the Plinthinetic gulf to Lake Ser-
bonis, which extends along the base of Mount
Casius, is sixty schoenes. The nations whose ter-
ritories are scanty measure them by the fath-
om; those whose bounds are less confined, by
the furlong; those who have an ample territory,
by the parasang; but if men have a country
which is very vast, they measure it by the
scheme. Now the length ot the parasang is thir-
ty furlongs, but the schcrne, which is an Egyp-
tian measure, is sixty furlongs. Thus the coast-
line of Egypt would extend a length of three
thousand six hundred furlongs.

7. From the coast inland as far as Heliopolis
the breadth of Egypt is considerable, the coun-
try is Bat, without springs, and full of swamps.
The length of the route from the sea up to He-
liopolis is almost exactly the same as that of the
road which runs from the altar of the twelve
gods at Athens to the temple of Olympian love

at Pisa. If a person made a calculation he
would find but a very little difference between
the two routes, not more than about fifteen fur-
longs; for the road from Athens to Pisa falls
short of fifteen hundred furlongs by exactly
fifteen, whereas the distance of Heliopolis from
the sea is just the round number.

8. As one proceeds beyond Heliopolis up the
country, Egypt becomes narrow, the Arabian
range of hills, which has a direction from north
to south, shutting it in upon the one side, and
the Libyan range upon the other. The former
ridge runs on without a break, and stretches
away to the sea called the Erythraean; it con-
tains the quarries whence the stone was cut for
the pyramids of Memphis: and this is the point
where it ceases its first direction, and bends
away in the manner above indicated. In its
greatest length from east to west it is, as I have
been informed, a distance of two months' jour-
ney; towards the extreme east its skirts produce
frankincense. Such are the chief features of
this range. On the Libyan side, the other ridge
whereon the pyramids stand is rocky and cov-
ered with sand; its direction is the same as that
of the Arabian ridge in the first part of its
course. Above Heliopolis, then, there is no
great breadth of territory for such a country as
Egypt, but during four days' sail Egypt is nar-
row; the valley between the two ranges is a lev-
el plain, and seemed to me to be, at the narrow-
est point, not more than two hundred furlongs
across from the Arabian to the Libyan hills.
Above this point Egypt again widens.

9. From Heliopolis to Thebes is nine days'
sail up the river; the distance is eighty-one
schoenes, or 4860 furlongs. If we now put to-
gether the several measurements of the country
we shall find that the distance along shore is, as
I stated above, 3600 furlongs, and the distance
from the sea inland to Thebes 6120 furlongs.
Further, it is a distance of eighteen hundred
furlongs from Thebes to the place called Ele-
phantine.

10. The greater portion of the country above
described seemed to me to be, as the priests de-
clared, a tract gained by the inhabitants. For
the whole region above Memphis, lying be-
tween the two ranges of hills that have been
spoken of, appeared evidently to have formed
at one time a gulf of the sea. It resembles (to
compare small things with great) the parts
about Ilium and Teuthrama, Ephesus, and the
plain of the Maeander. In all these regions the
land has been formed by rivers, whereof the
greatest is not to compare for size with any one

THE HISTORY

51

of the five mouths of the Nile. I could mention
other rivers also, far inferior to the Nile in
magnitude, that have effected very great
changes. Among these not the least is the Ache-
loiis, which, after passing through Acarnania,
empties itself into the sea opposite the islands
called Echinades, and has already joined one-
half of them to the continent.

11. In Arabia, not far from Egypt, there is
a long and narrow gulf running inland from
the sea called the Erythraean, of which I will
here set down the dimensions. Starting from
its innermost recess, and using a row-boat, you
take forty days to reach the open main, while
you may cross the gulf at its widest part in the
space of half a day. In this sea there is an ebb
and flow of the tide every day. My opinion is
that Egypt was formerly very much such a gulf
as this — one gulf penetrated from the sea that
washes Egypt on the north, and extended itself
towards Ethiopia; another entered from the
southern ocean, and stretched towards Syria;
the two gulfs ran into the land so as almost to
meet each other, and left between them only a
very narrow tract of country. Now if the Nile
should choose to divert his waters from their
present bed into this Arabian gulf, what is
there to hinder it from being filled up by the
stream within, at the utmost, twenty thousand
years ? For my part, I think it would be filled
in half the time. How then should not a gulf,
even of much greater size, have been filled up
in the ages that passed before I was born, by a
river that is at once so large and so given to
working changes?

12. Thus I give credit to those from whom I
received this account of Egypt, and am myself,
moreover, strongly of the same opinion, since
I remarked that the country projects into the
sea further than the neighbouring shores, and
I observed that there were shells upon the hills,
and that salt exuded from the soil to such an
extent as even to injure the pyramids; and I no-
ticed also that there is but a single hill in ail
Egypt where sand is found, namely, the hill
above Memphis; and further, I found the coun-
try to bear no resemblance either to its border-
land Arabia, or to Libya — nay, nor even to Syr-
ia, which forms the seaboard of Arabia; but
whereas the soil of Libya is, we know, sandy
and of a reddish hue, and that of Arabia and
Syria inclines to stone and clay, Egypt has a
soil that is black and crumbly, as being alluvial
and formed of the deposits brought down by
the river from Ethiopia.

13. One fact which I learnt of the priests is

to me a strong evidence of the origin of the
country. They said that when Mceris was king,
the Nile overflowed all Egypt below Memphis,
as soon as it rose so little as eight cubits. Now
Mceris had not been dead 900 years at the time
when I heard this of the priests; yet at the pres-
ent day, unless the river rise sixteen, or, at the
very least, fifteen cubits, it does not overflow
the lands. It seems to me, therefore, that if the
land goes on rising and growing at this rate,
the Egyptians who dwell below Lake Mceris, in
the Delta (as it is called) and elsewhere, will
one day, by the stoppage of the inundations,
suffer permanently the fate which they told me
they expected would some time or other befall
the Greeks. On hearing that the whole land of
Greece is watered by rain from heaven, and
not, like their own, inundated by rivers, they
observed — "Some day the Greeks will be disap-
pointed of their grand hope, and then they will
be wretchedly hungry"; which was as much as
to say, "If God shall some day see fit not to
grant the Greeks rain, but shall afflict them
with a long drought, the Greeks will be swept
away by a famine, since they have nothing to
rely on but ram from Jove, and have no other
resource for water."

14. And certes, in thus speaking of the
Greeks the Egyptians say nothing but what is
true. But now let me tell the Egyptians how
the case stands with themselves. If, as I said be-
fore, the country below Memphis, which is the
land that is always rising, continues to increase
in height at the rate at which it has risen in
times gone by, how will it be possible for the
inhabitants of that region to avoid hunger,
when they will certainly have no rain, and the
river will not be able to overflow their corn-
lands? At present, it must be confessed, they
obtain the fruits of the field with less trouble
than any other people in the world, the rest of
the Egyptians included, since they have no
need to break up the ground with the plough,
nor to use the hoe, nor to do any of the work
which the rest of mankind find necessary if
they are to get a crop; but the husbandman
waits till the river has of its own accord spread
itself over the fields and withdrawn again to
its bed, and then sows his plot of ground, and
after sowing turns his swine into it — the swine
tread in the corn — after which he has only to
await the harvest. The swine serve him also
to thrash the grain, which is then carried to
the garner.

15. If then we choose to adopt the views of
the lonians concerning Egypt, we must come

52

HERODOTUS

BOOK ii

to the conclusion that the Egyptians had form-
erly no country at all. For the lonians say that
nothing is really Egypt but the Delta, which
extends along shore from the Watch-tower of
Perseus, as it is called, to the Pelusiac Salt-Pans,
a distance of forty schcenes, and stretches in-
land as far as the city of Cercasorus, where the
Nile divides into the two streams which reach
the sea at Pelusium and Canobus respectively.
The rest of what is accounted Egypt belongs,
they say, either to Arabia or Libya. But the
Delta, as the Egyptians affirm, and as I myself
am persuaded, is formed of the deposits of the
river, and has only recently, if I may use the
expression, come to light. If, then, they had
formerly no territory at all, how came they to
be so extravagant as to fancy themselves the
most ancient race in the world? Surely there
was no need of their making the experiment
with the children to see what language they
would first speak. But in truth I do not believe
that the Egyptians came into being at the same
time with the Delta, as the lonians call it; I
think they have always existed ever since the
human race began; as the land went on in-
creasing, part of the population came down
into the new country, part remained in their
old settlements. In ancient times the Thebais
bore the name of Egypt, a district of which the
entire circumference is but 6120 furlongs.

1 6. If, then, my judgment on these matters
be right, the lonians are mistaken in what they
say ofr Egypt. If, on the contrary, it is they who
are right, then I undertake to show that neither
the lonians nor any ot the other Greeks know
how to count. For they all say that the earth is
divided into three parts, Europe, Asia, and
Libya, whereas they ought to add a fourth part,
the Delta of Egypt, since they do not include it
either in Asia or Libya. For is it not their
theory that the Nile separates Asia from Lib-
ya? As the Nile, therefore, splits in two at the
apex of the Delta, the Delta itself must be a
separate country, not contained in either Asia
or Libya.

17. Here I take my leave of the opinions of
the lonians, and proceed to deliver my own
sentiments on these subjects. I consider Egypt
to be the whole country inhabited by the Egyp-
tians, just as Cilicia is the tract occupied by the
Cilicians, and Assyria that possessed by the As-
syrians. And I regard the only proper boun-
dary-line between Libya and Asia to be that
which is marked out by the Egyptian frontier.
For if we take the boundary-line commonly re-
ceived by the Greeks, we must regard Egypt

as divided, along its whole length from Ele-
phantine and the Cataracts to Cercasorus, into
two parts, each belonging to a different por-
tion of the world, one to Asia, the other to Lib-
ya; since the Nile divides Egypt in two from
the Cataracts to the sea, running as far as the
city of Cercasorus in a single stream, but at that
point separating into three branches, whereof
the one which bends eastward is called the Pel-
usiac mouth, and that which slants to the west,
the Canobic. Meanwhile the straight course of
the stream, which comes down from the upper
country and meets the apex of the Delta, con-
tinues on, dividing the Delta down the middle,
and empties itself into the sea by a mouth,
which is as celebrated, and carries as large a
body of water, as most of the others, the mouth
called the Sebennytic. Besides these there are
two other mouths which run out of the Seben-
nytic called respectively the Saitic and the Men-
dcsian. The Bolbitme mouth, and the Bucolic,
are not natural branches, but channels made by
excavation.

18. My judgment as to the extent of Egypt
is confirmed by an oracle delivered at the
shrmc of Ammon, of which I had no knowl-
edge at all until after I had formed my opin-
ion. It happened that the people of the cities
Marea and Apis, who live in the part of Egypt
that borders on Libya, took a dislike to the re-
ligious usages of the country concerning sac-
rificial animals, and wished no longer to be re-
stricted rrom eating the flesh of cows. So, as
they believed themselves to be Libyans and not
Egyptians, they sent to the shrine to say that,
having nothing in common with the Egyp-
tians, neither inhabiting the Delta nor using
the Egyptian tongue, they claimed to be al-
lowed to eat whatever they pleased. Their re-
quest, however, was refused by the god, who
declared in reply that Egypt was the entire
tract of country which the Nile overspreads
and irrigates, and the Egyptians were the peo-
ple who lived below Elephantine, and drank
the waters of that river.

19. So said the oracle. Now the Nile, when
it overflows, floods not only the Delta, but also
the tracts of country on both sides the stream
which are thought to belong to Libya and Ara-
bia, in some places reaching to the extent of
two days' journey from its banks, in some even
exceeding that distance, but in others falling
short of it.

Concerning the nature of the river, I was not
able to gain any information either from the
priests or from others. I was particularly anx-

16-25]

ious to learn from them why the Nile, at the
commencement of the summer solstice, begins
to rise, and continues to increase for a hundred
days — and why, as soon as that number is past,
it forthwith retires and contracts its stream,
continuing low during the whole of the winter
until the summer solstice comes round again.
On none of these points could I obtain any ex-
planation from the inhabitants, though I made
every inquiry, wishing to know what was com-
monly reported — they could neither tell me
what special virtue the Nile has which makes
it so opposite in its nature to all other streams,
nor why, unlike every other river, it gives forth
no breezes from its surface.

20. Some of the Greeks, however, wishing
to get a reputation for cleverness, have offered
explanations of the phenomena of the river,
for which they have accounted in three differ-
ent ways. Two of these I do not think it worth
while to speak of, further than simply to men-
tion what they are. One pretends that the Ete-
sian winds cause the rise of the river by pre-
venting the Nile- water from running off into
the sea. But in the first place it has often hap-
pened, when the Etesian winds did not blow,
that the Nile has risen according to its usual
wont; and further, if the Etesian winds pro-
duced the effect, the other rivers which flow in
a direction opposite to those winds ought to
present the same phenomena as the Nile, and
the more so as they are all smaller streams, and
have a weaker current. But these rivers, of
which there are many both in Syria and Libya,
are entirely unlike the Nile in this respect.

21. The second opinion is even more unsci-
entific than the one just mentioned, and also,
if I may so say, more marvellous. It is that the
Nile acts so strangely, because it flows from the
ocean, and that the ocean flows all round the
earth.

22. The third explanation, which is very
much more plausible than either of the others,
is positively the furthest from the truth; for
there is really nothing in what it says, any more
than in the other theories. It is, that the inun-
dation of the Nile is caused by the melting of
snows.1 Now, as the Nile flows out of Libya,
through Ethiopia, into Egypt, how is it possible
that it can be formed of melted snow, running,

1 Herodotus is wrong in supposing snow could
not be found on mountains in the hot climate of
Africa; perpetual snow is not confined to certain
latitudes; and ancient and modern discoveries
prove that it is found in the ranges S. of Abys-
sinia.

THE HISTORY

53

as it docs, from the hottest regions of the world
into cooler countries? Many are the proofs
whereby any one capable of reasoning on the
subject may be convinced that it is most un-
likely this should be the case. The first and
strongest argument is furnished by the winds,
which always blow hot from these regions. The
second is that rain and frost are unknown
there.2 Now whenever snow falls, it must of
necessity rain within five days; so that, if there
were snow, there must be rain also in those
parts. Thirdly, it is certain that the natives of
the country are black with the heat, that the
kites and the swallows remain there the whole
year, and that the cranes, when they fly from
the rigours of a Scythian winter, flock thither
to pass the cold season. If then, in the country
whence the Nile has its source, or in that
through which it flows, there fell ever so little
snow, it is absolutely impossible that any of
these circumstances could take place.

23. As for the writer3 who attributes the
phenomenon to the ocean, his account is in-
volved in such obscurity that it is impossible
to disprove it by argument. For my part I
know of no river called Ocean, and I think that
Homer, or one of the earlier poets, invented the
name, and introduced it into his poetry.

24. Perhaps, after censuring all the opinions
that have been put forward on this obscure sub-
ject, one ought to propose some theory of one's
own. I will therefore proceed to explain what
I think to be the reason of the Nile's swelling
in the summer time. During the winter, the
sun is driven out of his usual course by the
storms, and removes to the upper parts of Lib-
ya. This is the whole secret in the fewest possi-
ble words; for it stands to reason that the coun-
try to which the Sun-god approaches the near-
est, and which he passes most directly over,
will be scantest of water, and that there the
streams which feed the rivers will shrink the
most.

25. To explain, however, more at length, the
case is this. The sun, in his passage across the
upper parts of Libya, affects them in the fol-
lowing way. As the air in those regions is con-
stantly clear, and the country warm through
the absence of cold winds, the sun in his
passage across them acts upon them exact-
ly as he is wont to act elsewhere in summer,
when his path is in the middle of heaven — that

2 Herodotus was not aware of the rainy season
in Sennar and the S.S.W. of Abyssinia, nor did he
know of the Abyssinian snow.

3Hecafeeus.

54

HERODOTUS

[BOOK ii

is, he attracts the water. After attracting it, he
again repels it into the upper regions, where
the winds lay hold of it, scatter it, and reduce
it to a vapour, whence it naturally enough
comes to pass that the winds which blow from
this quarter — the south and south-west — are of
all winds the most rainy. And my own opinion
is that the sun does not get rid of all the water
which he draws year by year from the Nile,
but retains some about him. When the winter
begins to soften, the sun goes back again to his
old place in the middle of the heaven, and pro-
ceeds to attract water equally from all coun-
tries. Till then the other rivers run big, from
the quantity of rain-water which they bring
down from countries where so much moisture
falls that all the land is cut into gullies; but in
summer, when the showers fail, and the sun at-
tracts their water, they become low. The Nile,
on the contrary, not deriving any of its bulk
Irom rains, and being in winter subject to the
attraction of the sun, naturally runs at that sea-
son, unlike all other streams, with a less bur-
then oi water than in the summer time. For in
summer it is exposed to attraction equally with
all other rivers, but in winter it suffers alone.
The sun, therefore, I regard as the sole cause
oi the phenomenon.

26. It is the sun also, in my opinion, which,
by heating the space through which it passes,
makes the air in Egypt so dry. There is thus
fKTpctual summer in the upper parts of Libya.
Were the position of the heavenly regions re-
versed, so that the place where now the north
wind and the winter have their dwelling be-
came the station of the south wind and of the
noon-day, while, on the other hand, the sta-
tion ot the south wind became that of the
north, the consequence would be that the sun,
driven from the mid-heaven by the winter and
the northern gales, would betake himself to
the upper parts of Europe, as he now does to
those of Libya, and then I believe his passage
across Europe would affect the Istcr exactly as
the Nile is affected at the present day.

27. And with respect to the fact that no
brcc/c blows from the Nile, I am of opinion
that no wind is likely to arise in very hot coun-
tries, for breezes love to blow from some cold
quarter.

28. Let us leave these things, however, to
their natural course, to continue as they are and
ha\e been from the beginning. With regard to
the sow ccs of the Nile, I have found no one
among all those with whom I have conversed,
\\ hethcr Egyptians, Libyans, or Greeks, who

professed to have any knowledge, except a sin-
gle person. He was the scribe who kept the reg-
ister of the sacred treasures of Minerva in the
city of Sais, and he did not seem to me to be in
earnest when he said that he knew them per-
fectly well. His story was as follows: — "Be-
tween Syene, a city of the Thebais, and Ele-
phantine, there are" (he said) "two hills with
sharp conical tops; the name of the one is Cro-
phi, of the other, Mophi. Midway between
them are the fountains of the Nile, fountains
which it is impossible to fathom. Half the
water runs northward into Egypt, half to the
south towards Ethiopia." The fountains were
known to be unfathomable, he declared, be-
cause Psammctichus, an Egyptian king, had
made trial of them. He had caused a rope to be
made, many thousand fathoms in length, and
had sounded the fountain with it, but could
find no bottom. By this the scribe gave me to
understand, if there was any truth at all in
what he said, that in this fountain there are
certain strong eddies, and a regurgitation, ow-
ing to the force wherewith the water dashes
against the mountains, and hence a sounding-
line cannot be got to reach the bottom of the
spring.

29. No other information on this head could
I obtain from any quarter. All that I succeeded
in learning further of the more distant por-
tions of: the Nile, by ascending myself as high
as Elephantine, and making inquiries concern-
ing the parts beyond, was the following: — As
one advances beyond Elephantine, the land
rises. Hence it is necessary in this part of the
river to attach a rope to the boat on each side,
as men harness an ox, and so proceed on the
journey. If the rope snaps, the vessel is borne
away down stream by the force of the current.
The navigation continues the same for four
days, the river winding greatly, like the Ma-an-
dcr, and the distance traversed amounting to
twelve schocnes. Here you come upon a smooth
and level plain, where the Nile flows in two
branches, round an island called Tachompso.
The country above Elephantine is inhabited by
the Ethiopians, who possess one-half of this
island, the Egyptians occupying the other.
Above the island there is a great lake, the
shores of which are inhabited by Ethiopian no-
mads; after passing it, you come again to the
stream of the Nile, which runs into the lake.
Here you land, and travel for forty days along
the banks of the river, since it is impossible to
proceed further in a boat on account of the
sharp peaks which jut out from the water, and

26-32]

the sunken rocks which abound in that part of
the stream. When you have passed this portion
of the river in the space of torty days, you go
on board another boat and proceed by water
for twelve days more, at the end of which time
you reach a great city called Meroe, which is
said to be the capital of the other Ethiopians.
The only gods worshipped by the inhabitants
are Jupiter and Bacchus, to whom great hon-
ours are paid. There is an oracle of Jupiter in
the city, which directs the warlike expeditions
of the Ethiopians; when it commands they go
to war, and in whatever direction it bids them
march, thither straightway they carry their
arms.

30. On leaving this city, and again mount-
ing the stream, in the same space of time which
it took you to reach the capital from Elephan-
tine, you come to the Deserters, who bear the
name of Asmach. This word, translated into
our language, means "the men who stand on
the left hand of the king." These Deserters are
Egyptians of the warrior caste, who, to the
number of two hundred and forty thousand,
went over to the Ethiopians in the reign of
king Psammetichus. The cause of their deser-
tion was the following: — Three garrisons were
maintained in Egypt at that time, one in the
city of Elephantine against the Ethiopians, an-
other in the Pclusiac Daphnx, against the Syri-
ans and Arabians, and a third, against the Lib-
yans, in Marea. (The very same posts are to this
day occupied by the Persians, whose forces are
in garrison both in Daphnx and in Elephan-
tine.) Now it happened, that on one occasion
the garrisons were not relieved during the
space of three years; the soldiers, therefore, at
the end of that time, consulted together, and
having determined by common consent to re-
volt, marched away towards Ethiopia. Psam-
metichus, informed of the movement, set out
in pursuit, and coming up with them, besought
them with many words not to desert the gods
of their country, nor abandon their wives and
children. "Nay, but," said one of the deserters
with an unseemly gesture, "wherever we go,
we are sure enough of finding wives and chil-
dren." Arrived in Ethiopia, they placed them-
selves at the disposal of the king. In return, he
made them a present of a tract of land which
belonged to certain Ethiopians with whom he
was at feud, bidding them expel the inhabitants
and take possession of their territory. From
the time that this settlement was formed, their
acquaintance with Egyptian manners has tend-
ed to civilise the Ethiopians.

THE HISTORY

55

31. Thus the course of the Nile is known,
not only throughout Egypt, but to the extent
of four months' journey cither by land or water
above the Egyptian boundary; for on calcula-
tion it will be found that it takes that length of
time to travel from Elephantine to the country
of the Deserters. There the direction of the riv-
er is from west to east. Beyond, no one has any
certain knowledge of its course, since the coun-
try is uninhabited by reason of the excessive heat.

32. I did hear, indeed, what I will now re-
late, from certain natives of Gyrene. Once upon
a time, they said, they were on a visit to the
oracular shrine of Ammon, when it chanced
that in the course of conversation with Etear-
chus, the Arnmoman king, the talk fell upon
the Nile, how that its sources were unknown to
all men. Etearchus upon this mentioned that
some Nasamomans had once come to his court,
and when asked if they could give any infor-
mation concerning the uninhabited parts of
Libya, had told the following tale. (The Nasa-
monians are a Libyan race who occupy the Syr-
tis, and a tract of no great size towards the
east.) They said there had grown up among
them some wild young men, the sons of cer-
tain chiefs, who, when they came to man's es-
tate, indulged in all manner of extravagancies,
and among other things drew lots for five of
their number to go and explore the desert parts
of Libya, and try if they could not penetrate
further than any had done previously. The
coast of Libya along the sea which washes it to
the north, throughout its entire length from
Egypt to Cape Solocis,1 which is its furthest
point, is inhabited by Libyans of many distinct
tribes who possess the whole tract except cer-
tain portions which belong to the Phoenicians
and the Greeks. Above the coast-line and the
country inhabited by the maritime tribes, Libya
is full of wild beasts; while beyond the wild
beast region there is a tract which is wholly
sand, very scant of water, and utterly and en-
tirely a desert. The young men therefore, des-
patched on this errand by their comrades with
a plentiful supply of water and provisions,
travelled at first through the inhabited region,
passing which they came to the wild beast tract,
whence they finally entered upon the desert,
which they proceeded to cross in a direction
from east to west. After journeying for many
days over a wide extent of sand, they came at
last to a plain where they observed trees grow-
ing; approaching them, and seeing fruit on

1 Cape Spartcl, near Tangier.

56

HERODOTUS

[BOOK ii

them, they proceeded to gather it. While they
were thus engaged, there came upon them
some dwarfish men, under the middle height,
who seized them and carried them ofl. The
Nasamomans could not understand a word of
their language, nor had they any acquaintance
with the language of the Nasamomans. They
were led across extensive marshes, and finally
came to a town, where all the men were of the
height of their conductors, and black-complex-
ioned. A great river flowed by the town, running
from west to east, and containing crocodiles.

33. Here let me dismiss Etearchus the Am-
monian, and his story, only adding that (ac-
cording to the Cyrenacans) he declared that the
Nasamomans got safe back to their country,
and that the men whose city they had reached
were a nation of sorcerers. With respect to the
river which ran by their town, Etearchus con-
jectured it to be the Nile; and reason favours
that view. For the Nile certainly flows out of
Libya, dividing it down the middle, and as I
conceive, judging the unknown from the
known, rises at the same distance from its
mouth as the Ister. This latter river has its
source in the country of the Celts near the city
Pyrene, and runs through the middle of Eu-
rope, dividing it into two portions. The Celts
live beyond the pillars of Hercules, and border
on the Cynesians, who dwell at the extreme
west of Europe. Thus the Ister flows through
the whole of Europe before it finally empties
itself into the Euxine at Istria, one of the col-
onies of the Milesians.

34. Now as this river flows through regions
that are inhabited, its course is perfectly well
known; but of the sources of the Nile no one
can give any account, since Libya, the country
through which it passes, is desert and without
inhabitants. As far as it was possible to get in-
formation by inquiry, I have given a descrip-
tion of the stream. It enters Egypt from the
parts beyond. Egypt lies almost exactly oppo-
site the mountainous portion of Cihcia, whence
a lightly-equipped traveller may reach Sinop£
on the Euxine in five days by the direct route.
Sinope lies opposite the place where the Ister
falls into the sea.1 My opinion therefore is that
the Nile, as it traverses the whole of Libya, is
of equal length with the Ister. And here I take
my leave of this subject.

'This of course is neither true, nor near the
truth; and it is difficult to make out in what sense
Herodotus meant to assert it. Perhaps he attached
no very distinct geographical meaning to the word
"opposite."

35. Concerning Egypt itself I shall extend
my remarks to a great length, because there is
no country that possesses so many wonders, nor
any that has such a number of works which
defy description. Not only is the climate differ-
ent from that of the rest of the world, and the
rivers unlike any other rivers, but the people
also, in most of their manners and customs,
exactly reverse the common practice of man-
kind. The women attend the markets and
trade, while the men sit at home at the loom;
and here, while the rest of the world works the
woof up the warp, the Egyptians work it
down; the women likewise carry burthens
upon their shoulders, while the men carry them
upon their heads. They eat their food out of
doors in the streets, but retire for private pur-
poses to their houses, giving as a reason that
what is unseemly, but necessary, ought to be
done in secret, but what has nothing unseemly
about it, should be done openly. A woman
cannot serve the priestly office, either for god or
goddess, but men are priests to both; sons need
not support their parents unless they choose,
but daughters must, whether they choose or no.

36. In other countries the priests have long
hair, in Egypt their heads are shaven; else-
where it is customary, in mourning, for near
relations to cut their hair close: the Egyptians,
who wear no hair at any other time, when they
lose a relative, let their beards and the hair of
their heads grow long. All other men pass their
lives separate from animals, the Egyptians have
animals always living with them; others make
barley and wheat their food; it is a disgrace to
do so in Egypt,2 where the grain they live on is
spelt, which some call zea. Dough they knead
with their feet; but they mix mud, and even
take up dirt, with their hands. They are the
only people in the world — they at least, and
such as have learnt the practice from them —
who use circumcision. Their men wear two
garments apiece, their women but one. They
put on the rings and fasten the ropes to sails
inside; others put them outside. When they
write or calculate, instead of going, like the
Greeks, from left to right, they move their
hand from right to left; and they insist, not-
withstanding, that it is they who go to the
right, and the Greeks who go to the left. They
have two quite different kinds of writing, one
of which is called sacred, the other common.

37. They are religious to excess, far beyond
any other race of men, and use the following
ceremonies: — They drink out of brazen cups,

2 This statement is contrary to fact

33-40

THE HISTORY

57

which they scour every day: there is no excep-
tion to this practice. They wear linen garments,
which they are specially careful to have always
fresh washed. They practise circumcision for
the sake of cleanliness, considering it better to
be cleanly than comely. The priests shave their
whole body every other day, that no lice or
other impure thing may adhere to them when
they are engaged in the service of the gods.
Their dress is entirely of linen, and their shoes
of the papyrus plant: it is not lawful for them
to wear either dress or shoes of any other ma-
terial. They bathe twice every day in cold wa-
ter, and twice each night; besides which they
observe, so to speak, thousands of ceremonies.
They enjoy, however, not a few advantages.
They consume none of their own property, and
are at no expense for anything; but every day
bread is baked for them of the sacred corn, and
a plentiful supply of beef and of goose's flesh
is assigned to each, and also a portion of wine
made from the grape. Fish they are not allowed
to eat; and beans — which none of the Egyp-
tians ever sow, or eat, if they come up of their
own accord, cither raw or boiled — the priests
will not even endure to look on, since they con-
sider it an unclean kind of pulse. Instead of a
single priest, each god has the attendance of a
college, at the head of which is a chief priest;
when one of these dies, his son is appointed in
his room.

38. Male kine are reckoned to belong to Ep-
aphus, and are therefore tested in the following
manner: — One of the priests appointed for the
purpose searches to see if there is a single black
hair on the whole body, since in that case the
beast is unclean. He examines him all over,
standing on his legs, and again laid upon his
back; after which he takes the tongue out of
his mouth, to see if it be clean in respect of the
prescribed marks (what they are I will men-
tion elsewhere); he also inspects the hairs of
the tail, to observe if they grow naturally. If
the animal is pronounced clean in all these var-
ious points, the priest marks him by twisting a
piece of papyrus round his horns, and attach-
ing thereto some sealing-clay, which he then
stamps with his own signet-ring. After this the
beast is led away; and it is forbidden, under the
penalty of death, to sacrifice an animal which
has not been marked in this way.

39. The following is their manner of sacri-
fice:— They lead the victim, marked with their
signet, to the altar where they are about to
offer it, and setting the wood alight, pour a
libation of wine upon the altar in front of the

victim, and at the same time invoke the god.
Then they slay the animal, and cutting off his
head, proceed to flay the body. Next they take
the head, and heaping imprecations on it, if
there is a market-place and a body of Greek
traders in the city, they carry it there and sell it
instantly; if, however, there are no Greeks
among them, they throw the head into the riv-
er. The imprecation is to this effect: — They
pray that if any evil is impending either over
those who sacrifice, or over universal Egypt, it
may be made to fall upon that head. These
practices, the imprecations upon the heads, and
the libations of wine, prevail all over Egypt,
and extend to victims of all sorts; and hence
the Egyptians will never eat the head of any an-
imal.

40. The disembowelling and burning are,
however, different in different sacrifices. I will
mention the mode in use with respect to the
goddess whom they regard as the greatest, and
honour with the chiefest festival. When they
have flayed their steer they pray, and when
their prayer is ended they take the paunch of
the animal out entire, leaving the intestines
and the fat inside the body; they then cut off
the legs, the ends of the loins, the shoulders,
and the neck; and having so done, they fill the
body of the steer with clean bread, honey, rai-
sins, figs, frankincense, myrrh, and other aro-
matics. Thus filled, they burn the body, pour-
ing over it great quantities of oil. Before offer-
ing the sacrifice they fast, and while the bodies
of the victims are being consumed they beat
themselves. Afterwards, when they have con-
cluded this part of the ceremony, they have the
other parts of the victim served up to them for
a repast.

41. The male kine, therefore, if clean, and
the male calves, are used for sacrifice by the
Egyptians universally; but the females they are
not allowed to sacrifice, since they are sacred to
Isis. The statue of this goddess has the form of
a woman but with horns like a cow, resembling
thus the Greek representations of lo; and the
Egyptians, one and all, venerate cows much
more highly than any other animal. This is the
reason why no native of Egypt, whether man
or woman, will give a Greek a kiss, or use the
knife of a Greek, or his spit, or his cauldron, or
taste the flesh of an ox, known to be pure, if it
has been cut with a Greek knife. When kine
die, the following is the manner of their sepul-
ture:— The females are thrown into the river;
the males are buried in the suburbs of the
towns, with one or both of their horns appear-

58

HERODOTUS

[BOOK ii

ing above the surface of the ground to mark the
place. When the bodies are decayed, a boat
comes, at an appointed time, from the island
called Prosopitis, — which is a portion of the
Delta, nine schcenes in circumference, — and
calls at the several cities in turn to collect the
bones of the oxen. Prosopitis is a district con-
taining several cities; the name of that from
which the boats come is Atarbechis. Venus has
a temple there of much sanctity. Great num-
bers of men go forth from this city and proceed
to the other towns, where they dig up the
bones, which they take away with them and
bury together in one place. The same practice
prevails with respect to the interment of all
other cattle — the law so determining; they do
not slaughter any of them.

42. Such Egyptians as possess a temple of
the Theban Jove, or live in the Thebaic canton,
offer no sheep in sacrifice, but only goats; for
the Egyptians do not all worship the same
gods, excepting Isis and Osiris, the latter of
whom they say is the Grecian Bacchus. Those,
on the contrary, who possess a temple dedicat-
ed to Mendes, or belong to the Mendesian can-
ton, abstain from offering goats, and sacrifice
sheep instead. The Thebans, and such as imi-
tate them in their practice, give the following
account of the origin of the custom: — "Her-
cules," they say, "wished of all things to see
Jove, but Jove did not choose to be seen of him.
At length, when Hercules persisted, Jove hit on
a device — to flay a ram, and, cutting off his
head, hold the head before him, and cover him-
self with the fleece. In this guise he showed
himself to Hercules." Therefore the Egyptians
give their statues of Jupiter the face of a ram:
and from them the practice has passed to the
Ammonians, who are a joint colony of Egyp-
tians and Ethiopians, speaking a language be-
tween the two; hence also, in my opinion, the
latter people took their name of Ammonians,
since the Egyptian name for Jupiter is Amun.
Such, then, is the reason why the Thebans do
not sacrifice rams, but consider them sacred an-
imals. Upon one day in the year, however, at
the festival of Jupiter, they slay a single ram,
and stripping off the fleece, cover with it the
statue of that god, as he once covered himself,
and then bring up to the statue of Jove an im-
age of Hercules. When this has been done, the
whole assembly beat their breasts in mourning
for the ram, and afterwards bury him in a holy
sepulchre.

43. The account which I received of this
Hercules makes him one of the twelve gods. Of

the other Hercules, with whom the Greeks are
familiar, I could hear nothing in any part of
Egypt. That the Greeks, however (those I
mean who gave the son of Amphitryon that
name), took the name1 from the Egyptians,
and not the Egyptians from the Greeks, is I
think clearly proved, among other arguments,
by the fact that both the parents of Hercules,
Amphitryon as well as Alcmena, were of Egyp-
tian origin. Again, the Egyptians disclaim all
knowledge of the names of Neptune and the
Dioscuri, and do not include them in the num-
ber of their gods; but had they adopted the
name of any god from the Greeks, these would
have been the likeliest to obtain notice, since
the Egyptians, as I am well convinced, prac-
tised navigation at that time, and the Greeks
also were some of them mariners, so that they
would have been more likely to know the
names of these gods than that of Hercules. But
the Egyptian Hercules is one of their ancient
gods. Seventeen thousand years before the
reign of Amasis, the twelve gods were, they
affirm, produced from the eight: and of these
twelve, Hercules is one.

44. In the wish to get the best information
that I could on these matters, I made a voyage
to Tyre in Phoenicia, hearing there was a tem-
ple of Hercules at that place, very highly ven-
erated. I visited the temple, and found it richly
adorned with a number of offerings, among
which were two pillars, one of pure gold, the
other of emerald, shining with great brilliancy
at night. In a conversation which 1 held with
the priests, I inquired how long their temple
had been built, and found by their answer that
they, too, differed from the Greeks. They said
that the temple was built at the same time that
the city was founded, and that the foundation
of the city took place two thousand three hun-
dred years ago. In Tyre I remarked another
temple where the same god was worshipped as
the Thasian Hercules. So I went on to Thasos,
where I found a temple of Hercules which had
been built by the Phoenicians who colonised
that island when they sailed in search of Eu-
ropa. Even this was five generations earlier
than the time when Hercules, son of Amphi-
tryon, was born in Greece. These researches
show plainly that there is an ancient god Her-
cules; and my own opinion is that those
Greeks act most wisely who build and main-
tain two temples of Hercules, in the one of

1 It is scarcely necessary to say that no Egyptian
god has a name from which that of Hercules can
by any possibility have been formed.

42-49]

THE HISTORY

59

which the Hercules worshipped is known by
the name of Olympian, and has sacrifice of-
fered to him as an immortal, while in the other
the honours paid are such as are due to a hero.

45. The Greeks tell many tales without due
investigation, and among them the following
silly fable respecting Hercules: — "Hercules,"
they say, "went once to Egypt, and there the
inhabitants took him, and putting a chaplet on
his head, led him out in solemn procession, in-
tending to offer him a sacrifice to Jupiter. For
a while he submitted quietly; but when they
led him up to the altar and began the ceremon-
ies, he put forth his strength and slew them
all.'* Now to me it seems that such a story
proves the Greeks to be utterly ignorant of the
character and customs of the people. The
Egyptians do not think it allowable even to sac-
rifice cattle, excepting sheep, and the male kine
and calves, provided they be pure, and also
geese. How, then, can it be believed that they
would sacrifice men? And again, how would
it have been possible for Hercules alone, and,
as they confess, a mere mortal, to destroy so
many thousands? In saying thus much con-
cerning these matters, may I incur no displeas-
ure either of god or hero!

46. I mentioned above that some of the
Egyptians abstain from sacrificing goats, either
male or female. The reason is the following: —
These Egyptians, who are the Mendesians, con-
sider Pan to be one of the eight gods who ex-
isted before the twelve, and Pan is represented
in Egypt by the painters and the sculptors, just
as he is in Greece, with the face and legs of a
goat. They do not, however, believe this to be
his shape, or consider him in any respect unlike
the other gods; but they represent him thus for
a reason which I prefer not to relate. The Men-
desians hold all goats in veneration, but the
male more than the female, giving the goat-
herds of the males especial honour. One is ven-
erated more highly than all the rest, and when
he dies there is a great mourning throughout
all the Mendesian canton. In Egyptian, the goat
and Pan are both called Mendes.

47. The pig is regarded among them as an un-
clean animal, so much so that if a man in passing
accidentally touch a pig, he instantly hurries to
the river,and plunges in with all his clothes on.
Hence, too, the swineherds, notwithstanding
that they are of pure Egyptian blood, are for-
bidden to enter into any of the temples, which
are open to all other Egyptians; and further, no
one will give his daughter in marriage to a
swineherd, or take a wife from among them,

so that the swineherds are forced to intermarry
among themselves. They do not offer swine in
sacrifice to any of their gods, excepting Bacchus
and the Moon, whom they honour in this way
at the same time, sacrificing pigs to both of
them at the same full moon, and afterwards
eating of the flesh. There is a reason alleged by
them for their detestation of swine at all other
seasons, and their use of them at this festival,
with which I am well acquainted, but which I
do not think it proper to mention. The follow-
ing is the mode in which they sacrifice the
swine to the Moon: — As soon as the victim is
slain, the tip of the tail, the spleen, and the caul
are put together, and having been covered with
all the fat that has been tound in the animal's
belly, are straightway burnt. The remainder of
the flesh is eaten on the same day that the sacri-
fice is offered, which is the day of the full
moon: at any other time they would not so
much as taste it. The poorer sort, who cannot
afford live pigs, form pigs of dough, which
they bake and offer in sacrifice.

48. To Bacchus, on the eve of his feast, every
Egyptian sacrifices a hog before the door of his
house, which is then given back to the swine-
herd by whom it was furnished, and by him
carried away. In other respects the festival is
celebrated almost exactly as Bacchic festivals
are in Greece, excepting that the Egyptians
have no choral dances. They also use instead of
phalli another invention, consisting of images
a cubit high, pulled by strings, which the wo-
men carry round to the villages. A piper goes
in front, and the women follow, singing hymns
in honour of Bacchus. They give a religious
reason for the peculiarities of the image.

49. Melampus, the son of Amytheon, cannot
(I think) have been ignorant of this ceremony
— nay, he must, I should conceive, have been
well acquainted with it. He it was who intro-
duced into Greece the name of Bacchus, the
ceremonial of his worship, and the procession
of the phallus. He did not, however, so com-
pletely apprehend the whole doctrine as to be
able to communicate it entirely, but various
sages since his time have carried out his teach-
ing to greater perfection. Still it is certain that
Melampus introduced the phallus, and that the
Greeks learnt from him the ceremonies which
they now practise. I therefore maintain that
Melampus, who was a wise man, and had ac-
quired the art of divination, having become
acquainted with the worship of Bacchus
through knowledge derived from Egypt, intro-
duced it into Greece, with a few slight changes,

60

HERODOTUS

[ BOOK ii

at the same time that he brought in various
other practices. For I can by no means allow
that it is by mere coincidence that the Bacchic
ceremonies in Greece are so nearly the same as
the Egyptian — they would then have been
more Greek in their character, and less recent
in their origin. Much less can I admit that the
Egyptians borrowed these customs, or any oth-
er, from the Greeks. My belief is that Melam-
pus got his knowledge of them from Cadmus
the Tyrian, and the followers whom he
brought from Phoenicia into the country which
is now called Bccotia.

50. Almost all the names of the gods came
into Greece from Egypt. My inquiries prove
that they were all derived from a foreign
source, and rny opinion is that Egypt furnished
the greater number. For with the exception of
Neptune and the Dioscuri, whom I mentioned
above, and Juno, Vesta, Themis, the Graces,
and the Nereids, the other gods have been
known from lime immemorial in Egypt. This
I assert on the authority of the Egyptians them-
selves. The gods, with whose names they pro-
fess themselves unacquainted, the Greeks re-
ceived, I believe, irom the Pclasgi, except Nep-
tune. Of him they got their knowledge from
the Libyans, by whom he has been always hon-
oured, and who were anciently the only people
that had a god of the name. The Egyptians
differ from the Greeks also in paying no divine
honours to heroes.

5 1 . Besides these which have been here men-
tioned, there are many other practices whereof
I shall speak hereafter, which the Greeks have
borrowed from Egypt. The peculiarity, how-
ever, which they observe in their statues of
Mercury they did not derive from the Egyp-
tians, but from the Pelasgi; from them the
Athenians first adopted it, and afterwards it
passed from the Athenians to the other Greeks.
For just at the time when the Athenians were
entering into the Hellenic body, the Pclasgi
came to live with them in their country,
whence it was that the latter came first to be
regarded as Greeks. Whoever has been init-
iated into the mysteries of the Cabiri will un-
derstand what I mean. The Samothracians re-
ceived these mysteries from the Pelasgi, who,
before they went to live in Attica, were dwell-
ers in Samothrace, and imparted their religious
ceremonies to the inhabitants. The Athenians,
then, who were the first of all the Greeks to
make their statues of Mercury in this way,
learnt the practice from the Pelasgians; and by
this people a religious account of the matter is

given, which is explained in the Samothracian
mysteries.

52. In early times the Pelasgi, as I know by
information which I got at Dodona, offered
sacrifices of all kinds, and prayed to the gods,
but had no distinct names or appellations for
them, since they had never heard of any. They
called them gods ( Oeoiy disposers), because
they had disposed and arranged all things in such
a beautiful order. After a long lapse of time the
names of the gods came to Greece from Egypt,
and the Pelasgi learnt them, only as yet they
knew nothing of Bacchus, of whom they first
heard at a much later date. Not long after the
arrival of the names they sent to consult the
oracle at Dodona about them. This is the most
ancient oracle in Greece, and at that time there
was no other. To their question, "Whether
they should adopt the names that had been im-
ported from the foreigners?" the oracle replied
by recommending their use. Thenceforth m
their sacrifices the Pelasgi made use of the
names of the gods, and from them the names
passed afterwards to the Greeks.

53. Whence the gods severally sprang,
whether or no they had all existed from eterni-
ty, what forms they bore — these are questions
of which the Greeks knew nothing until the
other day, so to speak. For Homer and Hesiod
were the first to compose Thcogonies, and give
the gods their epithets, to allot them their sever-
al offices and occupations, and describe their
forms; and they lived but four hundred years
before my time, as I believe. As for the poets
who arc thought by some to be earlier than
these, they are, in my judgment, decidedly later
writers. In these matters I have the authority of
the priestesses of Dodona for the former por-
tion of my statements; what I have said of Ho-
mer and Hesiod is my own opinion.

54. The following tale is commonly told in
Egypt concerning the oracle of Dodona in
Greece, and that of Ammon in Libya. My in-
formants on the point were the priests of Ju-
pitcr at Thebes. They said "that two of the
sacred women were once carried off from
Thebes by the Phoenicians, and that the story
went that one of them was sold into Libya,
and the other into Greece, and these women
were the first founders of the oracles in the
two countries." On my inquiring how they
came to know so exactly what became of the
women, they answered, "that diligent search
had been made after them at the time, but that
it had not been found possible to discover
where they were; afterwards, however, they

50-62]

THE HISTORY

61

received the information which they had
given me."

55. This was what I heard from the priests
at Thebes; at Dodona, however, the women
who deliver the oracles relate the matter as fol-
lows:— "Two black doves flew away from
Egyptian Thebes, and while one directed its
flight to Libya, the other came to them. She
alighted on an oak, and silting there began to
speak with a human voice, and told them that
on the spot where she was, there should hence-
forth be an oracle of Jove. They understood the
announcement to be from heaven, so they set
to work at once and erected the shrine. The
dove which flew to Libya bade the Libyans to
establish there the oracle of Ammon." This
likewise is an oracle of Jupiter. The persons
from whom I received these particulars were
three priestesses of the Dodonaeans, the eldest
Promeneia, the next Timarete, and the young-
est Nicandra — what they said was confirmed
by the other Dodonieans who dwell around the
temple.

56. My own opinion of these matters is as
follows: — I think that, if it be true that the
Phoenicians carried off the holy women, and
sold them for slaves, the one into Libya and the
other into Greece, or Pelasgia (as it was then
called), this last must have been sold to the
Thesprotians. Afterwards, while undergoing
servitude in those parts, she built under a teal
oak a temple to Jupiter, her thoughts in her
new abode reverting — as it was likely they
would do, if she had been an attendant in a
temple of Jupiter at Thebes — to that particular
god. Then, having acquired a knowledge of
the Greek tongue, she set up an oracle. She also
mentioned that her sister had been sold for a
slave into Libya by the same persons as herself.

57. The Dodon.rans called the women doves
because they were foreigners, and seemed to
them to make a noise like birds. After a while
the dove spoke with a human voice, because
the woman, whose foreign talk had previously
sounded to them like the chattering of a bird,
acquired the power of speaking what they
could understand. For how can it be conceived
possible that a dove should really speak with
the voice of a man? Lastly, by calling the dove
black the Dodonaeans indicated that the wo-
man was an Egyptian. And certainly the char-
acter of the oracles at Thebes and Dodona is
very similar. Besides this form of divination,
the Greeks learnt also divination by means of
victims from the Egyptians.

58. The Egyptians were also the first to in-

troduce solemn assemblies, processions, and
litanies to the gods; of all which the Greeks
were taught the use by them. It seems to me a
sufficient proof of this that in Egypt these prac-
tices have been established from remote antiq-
uity, while in Greece they are only recently
known.

59. The Egyptians do not hold a single sol-
emn assembly, but several in the course of the
year. Of these the chief, which is better at-
tended than any other, is held at the city of
Bubastis in honour of Diana. The next in im-
portance is that which takes place at Busiris, a
city situated in the very middle of the Delta; it
is in honour of Isis, who is called in the Greek
tongue Demeter (Ceres). There is a third great
festival in Sais to Minerva, a fourth in Helio-
polis to the Sun, a fifth in Buto to Latona, and
a sixth in Paprernis to Mars.

60. The following are the proceedings on
occasion of the assembly at Bubastis: — Men
and women come sailing all together, vast
numbers in each boat, many of the women
with castanets, which they strike, while some
of the men pipe during the whole time of the
voyage; the remainder of the voyagers, male
and female, sing the while, and make a clap-
ping with their hands. When they arrive op-
posite any of: the towns upon the banks of the
stream, they approach the shore, and, while
some of the women continue to play and sing,
others call aloud to the females of the place and
load them with abuse, while a certain number
dance, and some standing up uncover them-
selves. After proceeding in this way all along
the river-course, they reach Bubastis, where
they celebrate the feast with abundant sacri-
fices. More grape-wine is consumed at this fes-
tival than in all the rest of the year besides. The
number of those who attend, counting only the
men and women and omitting the children,
amounts, according to the native reports, to
seven hundred thousand.

61. The ceremonies at the feast of Isis in the
city of Busiris have been already spoken of. It
is there that the whole multitude, both of men
and women, many thousands in number, beat
themselves at the close of the sacrifice, in hon-
our of a god, whose name a religious scruple
forbids me to mention.1 The Carian dwellers
in Egypt proceed on this occasion to still
greater lengths, even cutting their faces with
their knives, whereby they let it been seen that
they are not Egyptians but foreigners.

62. At Sai's, when the assembly takes place
1 Osiris.

62

HERODOTUS

[BOOR H

for the sacrifices, there is one night on which
the inhabitants all burn a multitude of lights
in the open air round their houses. They use
lamps in the shape of flat saucers filled with a
mixture of oil and salt, on the top of which the
wick floats. These burn the whole night, and
give to the festival the name of the Feast of
Lamps. The Egyptians who are absent from
the festival observe the night of the sacrifice, no
less than the rest, by a general lighting of
lamps; so that the illumination is not confined
to the city of Sai's, but extends over the whole
of Egypt. And there is a religious reason as-
signed for the special honour paid to this night,
as well as for the illumination which acccomp-
anies it.

63. At Hcliopolis and Buto the assemblies
arc merely for the purpose of sacrifice; but at
Papremis, besides the sacrifices and other rites
which are performed there as elsewhere, the
following custom is observed: — When the sun
is getting low, a few only of the priests con-
tinue occupied about the image of the god,
while the greater number, armed with wooden
clubs, take their station at the portal of the
temple. Opposite to them is drawn up a body
of men, in number above a thousand, armed,
like the others, with clubs, consisting of per-
sons engaged in the performance of their vows.
The image of the god, which is kept in a small
wooden shrine covered with plates of gold, is
conveyed from the temple into a second sacred
building the day before the festival begins. The
few priests still in attendance upon the image
place it, together with the shrine containing it,
on a four-wheeled car, and begin to drag it
along; the others stationed at the gateway of
the temple, oppose its admission. Then the
votaries come forward to espouse the quarrel of
the god, and set upon the opponents, who are
sure to offer resistance. A sharp fight with clubs
ensues, in which heads are commonly broken
on both sides. Many, I am convinced, die of the
wounds that they receive, though the Egyp-
tians insist that no one is ever killed.

64. The natives give the subjoined account
of this festival. They say that the mother of the
god Mars once dwelt in the temple. Brought up
at a distance from his parent, when he grew to
man's estate he conceived a wish to visit her.
Accordingly he came, but the attendants, who
had never seen him before, refused him en-
trance, and succeeded in keeping him out. So
he went to another city and collected a body of
men, with whose aid he handled the attendants
very roughly, and forced his way in to his

mother. Hence they say arose the custom of a
fight with sticks in honour of Mars at this fes-
tival.

The Egyptians first made it a point of re-
ligion to have no converse with women in the
sacred places, and not to enter them without
washing, after such converse. Almost all other
nations, except the Greeks and the Egyptians,
act differently, regarding man as in this matter
under no other law than the brutes. Many an-
imals, they say, and various kinds of birds, may
be seen to couple in the temples and the sacred
precincts, which would certainly not happen
if the gods were displeased at it. Such are the
arguments by which they defend their practice,
but I nevertheless can by no means approve of
it. In these points the Egyptians are specially
careful, as they are indeed in everything which
concerns their sacred edifices.

65. Egypt, though it borders upon Libya, is
not a region abounding in wild animals. The
animals that do exist in the country, whether
domesticated or otherwise, are all regarded as
sacred. If I were to explain why they are con-
secrated to the several gods, I should be led to
speak of religious matters, which I particularly
shrink from mentioning; the points whereon I
have touched slightly hitherto have all been in-
troduced from sheer necessity. Their custom
with respect to animals is as follows: — For
every kind there are appointed certain guard-
ians, some male, some female, whose business
it is to look after them; and this honour is
made to descend from father to son. The in-
habitants of the various cities, when they have
made a vow to any god, pay it to his animals in
the way which I will now explain. At the time
of making the vow they shave the head of the
child, cutting off all the hair, or else half, or
sometimes a third part, which they then weigh
in a balance against a sum of silver; and what-
ever sum the hair weighs is presented to the
guardian of the animals, who thereupon cuts
up some fish, and gives it to them for food —
such being the stuff whereon they are fed.
When a man has killed one of the sacred ani-
mals, if he did it with malice prepense, he is
punished with death; if unwittingly, he has to
pay such a fine as the priests choose to impose.
When an ibis, however, or a hawk is killed,
whether it was done by accident or on purpose,
the man must needs die.

66. The number of domestic animals in
Egypt is very great, and would be still greater
were it not for what befalls the cats. As the fe-
males, when they have kittened, no longer seek

63-71]

the company of the males, these last, to obtain
once more their companionship, practise a
curious artifice. They seize the kittens, carry
them off, and kill them, but do not eat them
afterwards. Upon this the females, being de-
prived of their young, and longing to supply
their place, seek the males once more, since
they are particularly fond of their offspring.
On every occasion of a fire in Egypt the strang-
est prodigy occurs with the cats. The inhabi-
tants allow the fire to rage as it pleases, while
they stand about at intervals and watch these
animals, which, slipping by the men or else
leaping over them, rush headlong into the
flames. When this happens, the Egyptians are
in deep affliction. If a cat dies in a private house
by a natural death, all the inmates of the house
shave their eyebrows; on the death of a dog
they shave the head and the whole of the body.

67. The cats on their decease are taken to the
city of Bubastis, where they are embalmed,
after which they are buried in certain sacred
repositories. The dogs are interred in the cities
to which they belong, also in sacred burial-
places. The same practice obtains with respect
to the ichneumons; the hawks and shrew-mice,
on the contrary, are conveyed to the city of
Buto for burial, and the ibises to Hermopolis.
The bears, which are scarce in Egypt, and the
wolves, which are not much bigger than foxes,
they bury wherever they happen to find them
lying.

68. The following are the peculiarities of the
crocodile: — During the four winter months
they eat nothing; they are four-footed, and live
indifferently on land or in the water. The fe-
male lays and hatches her eggs ashore, passing
the greater portion of the day on dry land, but
at night retiring to the river, the water of
which is warmer than the night-air and the
dew. Of all known animals this is the one
which from the smallest size grows to be the
greatest: for the egg of the crocodile is but little
bigger than that of the goose, and the young
crocodile is in proportion to the egg; yet when
it is full grown, the animal measures frequent-
ly seventeen cubits and even more. It has the
eyes of a pig, teeth large and tusk-like, of a size
proportioned to its frame; unlike any other an-
imal, it is without a tongue; it cannot move its
under-jaw, and in this respect too it is singular,
being the only animal in the world which
moves the upper-jaw but not the under. It has
strong claws and a scaly skin, impenetrable
upon the back. In the water it is blind, but on
land it is very keen of sight. As it lives chiefly

THE HISTORY

63

in the river, it has the inside of its mouth con-
stantly covered with leeches; hence it happens
that, while all the other birds and beasts avoid
it, with the trochilus it lives at peace, since it
owes much to that bird: for the crocodile,
when he leaves the water and comes out upon
the land, is in the habit of lying with his mouth
wide open, facing the western breeze: at such
times the trochilus goes into his mouth and de-
vours the leeches. This benefits the crocodile,
who is pleased, and takes care not to hurt the
trochilus.

69. The crocodile is esteemed sacred by some
of the Egyptians, by others he is treated as an
enemy. Those who live near Thebes, and those
who dwell around Lake Moms, regard them
with especial veneration. In each of these places
they keep one crocodile in particular, who is
taught to be tame and tractable. They adorn
his ears with ear-rings of molten stone or gold,
and put bracelets on his fore-paws, giving him
daily a set portion of bread, with a certain
number of victims; and, after having thus
treated him with the greatest possible attention
while alive, they embalm him when he dies
and bury him in a sacred repository. The peo-
ple of Elephantine on the other hand, are so far
from considering these animals as sacred that
they even eat their flesh. In the Egyptian lan-
guage they are not called crocodiles, but
Champsae. The name of crocodiles was given
them by the lonians, who remarked their re-
semblance to the lizards, which in Ionia live in
the walls and are called crocodiles.

70. The modes of catching the crocodile are
many and various. I shall only describe the one
which seems to me most worthy of mention.
They bait a hook with a chine of pork and let
the meat be carried out into the middle of the
stream, while the hunter upon the bank holds
a living pig, which he belabours. The croco-
dile hears its cries, and making for the sound,
encounters the pork, which he instantly swal-
lows down. The men on the shore haul, and
when they have got him to land, the first thing
the hunter does is to plaster his eyes with mud.
This once accomplished, the animal is des-
patched with ease, otherwise he gives great
trouble.

71. The hippopotamus, in the canton of Pa-
premis, is a sacred animal, but not in any other
part of Egypt. It may be thus described: — It is
a quadruped, cloven-footed, with hoofs like an
ox, and a flat nose. It has the mane and tail of
a horse, huge tusks which are very conspic-
uous, and a voice like a horse's neigh. In size

64

HERODOTUS

[BOOK ii

it equals the biggest oxen, and its skin is so
tough that when dried it is made into javelins.

72. Otters also are found in the Nile, and
are considered sacred. Only two sorts of fish are
venerated, that called the lepidotus and the eel.
These are regarded as sacred to the Nile, as
likewise among birds is the vulpanser, or fox-
goose.

73. They have also another sacred bird called
the phoenix, which I myself have never seen,
except in pictures. Indeed it is a great rarity,
even in Egypt, only coming there (according
to the accounts of the people of Heliopolis;
once in five hundred years, when the old phoe-
nix dies. Its size and appearance, if it is like
the pictures, are as follow: — The plumage is
partly red, partly golden, while the general
make and size are almost exactly that of the
eagle. They tell a story of what this bird does,
which does not seem to me to be credible: that
he comes all the way from Arabia, and brings
the parent bird, all plastered over with myrrh,
to the temple of the Sun, and there buries the
body. In order to bring him, they say, he first
forms a ball of myrrh as big as he finds that he
can carry; then he hollows out the ball, and
puts his parent inside, after which he covers
over the opening with fresh myrrh, and the
ball is then of exactly the same weight as at
first; so he brings it to Egypt, plastered over as
I have said, and deposits it in the temple of the
Sun. Such is the story they tell of the doings of
this bird.

74. In the neighbourhood of Thebes there are
some sacred serpents which are perfectly harm-
less. They are of small size, and have two horns
growing out of the top of the head. These
snakes, when they die, are buried in the temple
of Jupiter, the god to whom they are sacred.

75. I went once to a certain place in Arabia,
almost exactly opposite the city of Buto, to
make inquiries concerning the winged ser-
pents. On my arrival I saw the back-bones and
ribs of serpents in such numbers as it is im-
possible to describe: of the ribs there were a
multitude of heaps, some great, some small,
some middle-sized. The place where the bones
lie is at the entrance of a narrow gorge between
steep mountains, which there open upon a
spacious plain communicating with the great
plain of Egypt. The story goes that with the
spring the winged snakes come flying from
Arabia towards Egypt, but are met in this
gorge by the birds called ibises, who forbid
their entrance and destroy them all. The Arab-
ians assert, and the Egyptians also admit, that

it is on account of the service thus rendered
that the Egyptians hold the ibis in so much
reverence.

76. The ibis is a bird of a deep-black colour,
with legs like a crane; its beak is strongly
hooked, and its size is about that of the land-
rail. This is a description of the black ibis
which contends with the serpents. The com-
moner sort, for there are two quite distinct
species, has the head and the whole throat bare
of feathers; its general plumage is white, but
the head and neck are jet black, as also are the
tips of the wings and the extremity of the tail;
in its beak and legs it resembles the other spe-
cies. The winged serpent is shaped like the
water-snake. Its wings are not feathered, but
resemble very closely those of the bat. And thus
I conclude the subject of the sacred animals.

77. With respect to the Egyptians them-
selves, it is to be remarked that those who live
in the corn country, devoting themselves, as
they do, far more than any other people in the
world, to the preservation of the memory of
past actions, are the best skilled in history of
any men that I have ever met. The following
is the mode of life habitual to them: — For
three successive days in each month they purge
the body by means of emetics and clysters,
which is done out of a regard for their health,
since they have a persuasion that every disease
to which men are liable is occasioned by the
substances whereon they feed. Apart from any
such precautions, they are, I believe, next to
the Libyans, the healthiest people in the world
— an effect of their climate, in my opinion,
which has no sudden changes. Diseases almost
always attack men when they are exposed to
a change, and never more than during changes
of the weather. They live on bread made of
spelt, which they form into loaves called in
their own tongue cyllSstis. Their drink is a
wine which they obtain from barley, as they
have no vines in their country. Many kinds of
fish they eat raw, either salted or dried in the
sun. Quails also, and ducks and small birds,
they eat uncooked, merely first salting them.
All other birds and fishes, excepting those
which are set apart as sacred, are eaten either
roasted or boiled.

78. In social meetings among the rich, when
the banquet is ended, a servant carries round
to the several guests a coffin, in which there is
a wooden image of a corpse, carved and paint-
ed to resemble nature as nearly as possible,
about a cubit or two cubits in length. As he
shows it to each guest in turn, the servant says,

72-86]

THE HISTORY

65

"Gaze here, and drink and be merry; for when
you die, such will you be."

79. The Egyptians adhere to their own na-
tional customs, and adopt no foreign usages.
Many of these customs are worthy of note:
among others their song, the Linus, which is
sung under various names not only in Egypt
but in Phoenicia, in Cyprus, and in other
places; and which seems to be exactly the same
as that in use among the Greeks, and by them
called Linus. There were very many things in
Egypt which filled me with astonishment, and
this was one of them. Whence could the Egyp-
tians have got the Linus? It appears to have
been sung by them from the very earliest times.
For the Linus in Egyptian is called Maneros;
and they told me that Maneros was the only
son of their first king, and that on his untimely
death he was honoured by the Egyptians with
these dirgelike strains, and in this way they
got their first and only melody.

80. There is another custom in which the
Egyptians resemble a particular Greek people,
namely the Lacedaemonians. Their young men,
when they meet their elders in the streets, give
way to them and step aside; and if an elder
come in where young men are present, these
latter rise from their seats. In a third point they
differ entirely from all the nations of Greece.
Instead of speaking to each other when they
meet in the streets, they make an obeisance,
sinking the hand to the knee.

81. They wear a linen tunic fringed about
the legs, and called calasiris; over this they have
a white woollen garment thrown on afterwards.
Nothing of woollen, however, is taken into
their temples or buried with them, as their re-
ligion forbids it. Here their practice resembles
the rites called Orphic and Bacchic, but which
are in reality Egyptian and Pythagorean; for
no one initiated in these mysteries can be
buried in a woollen shroud, a religious reason
being assigned for the observance.

82. The Egyptians likewise discovered to
which of the gods each month and day is sac-
red; and found out from the day of a man's
birth what he will meet with in the course of
his life, and how he will end his days, and what
sort of man he will be — discoveries whereof
the Greeks engaged in poetry have made a use.
The Egyptians have also discovered more
prognostics than all the rest of mankind be-
sides. Whenever a prodigy takes place, they
watch and record the result; then, if anything
similar ever happens again, they expect the
same consequences.

83. With respect to divination, they hold
that it is a gift which no mortal possesses, but
only certain of the gods: thus they have an
oracle of Hercules, one of Apollo, of Minerva,
of Diana, of Mars, and of Jupiter. Besides
these, there is the oracle of Latona at Buto,
which is held in much higher repute than any
of the rest. The mode of delivering the oracles
is not uniform, but varies at the different
shrines.

84. Medicine is practised among them on a
plan of separation; each physician treats a
single disorder, and no more: thus the country
swarms with medical practitioners, some un-
dertaking to cure diseases of the eye, others of
the head, others again of the teeth, others of
the intestines, and some those which are not
local.

85. The following is the way in which they
conduct their mournings and their funerals: —
On the death in any house of a man of con-
sequence, forthwith the women of the family
beplaster their heads, and sometimes even
their faces, with mud; and then, leaving the
body indoors, sally forth and wander through
the city, with their dress fastened by a band,
and their bosoms bare, beating themselves as
they walk. All the female relations join them
and do the same. The men too, similarly be-
girt, beat their breasts separately. When these
ceremonies are over, the body is carried away
to be embalmed.

86. There are a set of men in Egypt who
practice the art of embalming, and make it
their proper business. These persons, when a
body is brought to them, show the bearers vari-
ous models of corpses, made in wood, and
painted so as to resemble nature. The most per-
fect is said to be after the manner of him whom
I do not think it religious to name in connec-
tion with such a matter; the second sort is in-
ferior to the first, and less costly; the third is the
cheapest of all. All this the embalmers explain,
and then ask in which way it is wished that
the corpse should be prepared. The bearers tell
them, and having concluded their bargain,
take their departure, while the embalmers, left
to themselves, proceed to their task. The mode
of embalming, according to the most perfect
process, is the following: — They take first a
crooked piece of iron, and with it draw out the
brain through the nostrils, thus getting rid of
a portion, while the skull is cleared of the rest
by rinsing with drugs; next they make a cut
along the flank with a sharp Ethiopian stone,
and take out the whole contents of the abdo-

66

HERODOTUS

[BOOK a

men, which they then cleanse, washing it thor-
oughly with palm wine, and again frequently
with an infusion of pounded aromatics. After
this they fill the cavity with the purest bruised
myrrh, with cassia, and every other sort of
spicery except frankincense, and sew up the
opening. Then the body is placed in natrum
for seventy days, and covered entirely over.
After the expiration of that space of time,
which must not be exceeded, the body is
washed, and wrapped round, from head to foot,
with bandages of fine linen cloth, smeared over
with gum, which is used generally by the Egyp-
tians in the place of glue, and in this state it
is given back to the relations, who enclose it in
a wooden case which they have had made for
the purpose, shaped into the figure of a man.
Then fastening the case, they place it in a sepul-
chral chamber, upright against the wall. Such
is the most costly way of embalming the dead.

87. If persons wish to avoid expense, and
choose the second process, the following is the
method pursued: — Syringes are filled with oil
made from the cedar-tree, which is then, with-
out any incision or disembowelling, injected
into the abdomen. The passage by which it
might be likely to return is stopped, and the
body laid in natrum the prescribed number of
days. At the end of the time the cedar-oil is al-
lowed to make its escape; and such is its power
that it brings with it the whole stomach and in-
testines in a liquid state. The natrum mean-
while has dissolved the flesh, and so nothing
is left of the dead body but the skin and the
bones. It is returned in this condition to the
relatives, without any further trouble being be-
stowed upon it.

88. The third method of embalming, which
is practised in the case of the poorer classes, is
to clear out the intestines with a clyster, and let
the body lie in natrum the seventy days, after
which it is at once given to those who come to
fetch it away.

89. The wives of men of rank are not given
to be embalmed immediately after death, nor
indeed are any of the more beautiful and val-
ued women. It is not till they have been dead
three or four days that they are carried to the
embalmcrs. This is done to prevent indignities
from being offered them. It is said that once a
case of this kind occurred: the man was de-
tected by the information of his fellow-work-

man.

90. Whensoever any one, Egyptian or for-
eigner, has lost his life by falling a prey to a
crocodile, or by drowning in the river, the law

compels the Inhabitants of the city near which
the body is cast up to have it embalmed, and to
bury it in one of the sacred repositories with all
possible magnificence. No one may touch the
corpse, not even any of the friends or relatives,
but only the priests of the Nile, who prepare it
for burial with their own hands — regarding it
as something more than the mere body of a
man — and themselves lay it in the tomb.

91 . The Egyptians are averse to adopt Greek
customs, or, in a word, those of any other na-
tion. This feeling is almost universal among
them. At Chemmis, however, which is a large
city in the Thebaic canton, near Neapolis, there
is a square enclosure sacred to Perseus, son of
Danae. Palm trees grow all round the place,
which has a stone gateway of an unusual size,
surmounted by two colossal statues, also in
stone. Inside this precinct is a temple, and in
the temple an image of Perseus. The people of
Chemmis say that Perseus often appears to
them, sometimes within the sacred enclosure,
sometimes in the open country: one of the
sandals which he has worn is frequently found
— two cubits in length, as they affirm — and
then all Egypt flourishes greatly. In the worship
of Perseus Greek ceremonies are used; gym-
nastic games are celebrated in his honour, com-
prising every kind of contest, with prizes of
cattle, cloaks, and skins. I made inquiries of the
Chemmites why it was that Perseus appeared
to them and not elsewhere in Egypt, and how
they came to celebrate gymnastic contests un-
like the rest of the Egyptians: to which they
answered, "that Perseus belonged to their city
by descent. Danaiis and Lynceus were Chem-
mites before they set sail for Greece, and from
them Perseus was descended," they said, trac-
ing the genealogy; "and he, when he came to
Egypt for the purpose" (which the Greeks also
assign) "of bringing away from Libya the
Gorgon's head, paid them a visit, and acknowl-
edged them for his kinsmen — he had heard
the name of their city from his mother before
he left Greece — he bade them institute a gym-
nastic contest in his honour, and that was the
reason why they observed the practice."

92. The customs hitherto described are those
of the Egyptians who live above the marsh-
country. The inhabitants of the marshes have
the same customs as the rest, as well in those
matters which have been mentioned above as
in respect of marriage, each Egyptian taking
to himself, like the Greeks, a single wife; but
for greater cheapness of living the marsh-men
practise certain peculiar customs, such as these

THE HISTORY

67

following. They gather the blossoms of a cer-
tain water-lily, which grows in great abund-
ance all over the flat country at the time when
the Nile rises and floods the regions along its
banks — the Egyptians call it the lotus — they
gather, I say, the blossoms of this plant and dry
them in the sun, after which they extract from
the centre of each blossom a substance like the
head of a poppy, which they crush and make
into bread. The root of the lotus is likewise
eatable, and has a pleasant sweet taste: it is
round, and about the size of an apple. There
is also another species of the lily in Egypt,
which grows, like the lotus, in the river, and
resembles the rose. The fruit springs up side
by side with the blossom, on a separate stalk,
and has almost exactly the look of the comb
made by wasps. It contains a number of seeds,
about the size of an olive-stone, which are
good to eat: and these are eaten both green
and dried. The byblus (papyrus), which grows
year after year in the marshes, they pull up,
and, cutting the plant in two, reserve the up-
per portion for other purposes, but take the
lower, which is about a cubit long, and either
eat it or else sell it. Such as wish to enjoy the
byblus in full perfection bake it first in a closed
vessel, heated to a glow. Some of these folk,
however, live entirely on fish, which are gutted
as soon as caught, and then hung up in the
sun: when dry, they are used as food.

93. Gregarious fish are not found in any
numbers in the rivers; they frequent the la-
gunes, whence, at the season of breeding, they
proceed in shoals towards the sea. The males
lead the way, and drop their milt as they go,
while the females, following close behind, ea-
gerly swallow it down. From this they con-
ceive,1 and when, after passing some time in
the sea, they begin to be in spawn, the whole
shoal sets off on its return to its ancient haunts.
Now, however, it is no longer the males, but
the females, who take the lead: they swim in
front in a body, and do exactly as the males
did before, dropping, little by little, their grains
of spawn as they go, while the males in the
rear devour the grains, each one of which is
a fish. A portion of the spawn escapes and is
not swallowed by the males, and hence come
the fishes which grow afterwards to maturity.
When any of this son of fish are taken on their
passage to the sea, they are found to have the
left side of the head scarred and bruised; while
if taken on their return, the marks appear on
the right. The reason is that as they swim

1 Aristotle shows the absurdity of this statement

down the Nile seaward, they keep close to the
bank of the river upon their left, and returning
again up stream they still cling to the same
side, hugging h and brushing against it con-
stantly, to be sure that they miss not their road
through the great force of the current. When
the Nile begins to rise, the hollows in the land
and the marshy spots near the river are flooded
before any other places by the percolation of
the water through the riverbanks; and these,
almost as soon as they become pools, are found
to be full of numbers of little fishes. I think
that I understand how it is this comes to pass.
On the subsidence of the Nile the year before,
though the fish retired with the retreating wa-
ters, they had first deposited their spawn in
the mud upon the banks; and so, when at the
usual season the water returns, small fry are
rapidly engendered out of the spawn of the
preceding year. So much concerning the fish.

94. The Egyptians who live in the marshes
use for the anointing of their bodies an oil
made from the fruit of the sillicyprium, which
is known among them by the name of "kiki."
To obtain this they plant the sillicyprium
(which grows wild in Greece) along the banks
of the rivers and by the sides of the lakes,
where it produces fruit in great abundance,
but with a very disagreeable smell. This fruit
is gathered, and then bruised and pressed, or
else boiled down after roasting: the liquid
which comes from it is collected and is found
to be unctuous, and as well suited as olive-oil
for lamps, only that it gives out an unpleasant
odour.

95. The contrivances which they use against
gnats, wherewith the country swarms, are the
following. In the parts of Egypt above the
marshes the inhabitants pass the night upon
lofty towers, which are of great service, as the
gnats are unable to fly to any height on account
of the winds. In the marsh-country, where
there are no towers, each man possesses a net
instead. By day it serves him to catch fish,
while at night he spreads it over the bed in
which he is to rest, and creeping in, goes to
sleep underneath. The gnats, which, if he rolls
himself up in his dress or in a piece of muslin,
are sure to bite through the covering, do not
so much as attempt to pass the net.

96. The vessels used in Egypt for the trans-
port of merchandise are made of the Acantha
(Thorn), a tree which in its growth is very
like the Cyrenaic lotus, and from which there
exudes a gum. They cut a quantity of planks
about two cubits in length from this tree, and

68

HERODOTUS

[BOOK ii

then proceed to their ship-building, arranging
the planks like bricks, and attaching them by
ties to a number of long stakes or poles till the
hull is complete, when they lay the cross-planks
on the top from side to side. They give the
boats no ribs, but caulk the seams with papyrus
on the inside. Each has a single rudder, which
is driven straight through the keel. The mast
is a piece of acantha-wood, and the sails are
made of papyrus. These boats cannot make
way against the current unless there is a brisk
breeze; they are, therefore, towed up-stream
from the shore: down-stream they are man-
aged as follows. There is a raft belonging to
each, made of the wood of the tamarisk, fas-
tened together with a wattling of reeds; and
also a stone bored through the middle about
two talents in weight. The raft is fastened to
the vessel by a rope, and allowed to float down
the stream in front, while the stone is attached
by another rope astern. The result is that the
raft, hurried forward by the current, goes rap-
idly down the river, and drags the "baris" (for
so they call this sort of boat) after it; while
the stone, which is pulled along in the wake
of the vessel, and lies deep in the water, keeps
the boat straight. There are a vast number of
these vessels in Egypt, and some of them are
of many thousand talents' burthen.

97. When the Nile overflows, the country
is converted into a sea, and nothing appears
but the cities, which look like the islands in
the Egean. At this season boats no longer keep
the course of the river, but sail right across the
plain. On the voyage from Naucratis to Mem-
phis at this season, you pass close to the pyra-
mids, whereas the usual course is by the apex
of the Delta, and the city of Cercasorus. You
can sail also from the maritime town of Cano-
bus across the flat to Naucratis, passing by the
cities of Anthylla and Archandropolis.

98. The former of these cities, which is a
place of note, is assigned expressly to the wife
of the ruler of Egypt for the time being, to
keep her in shoes. Such has been the custom
ever since Egypt fell under the Persian yoke.
The other city seems to me to have got its name
of Archandropolis from Archander the
Phthian, son of Achaeus, and son-in-law of
Danaus. There might certainly have been an-
other Archander; but, at any rate, the name is
not Egyptian.

99. Thus far I have spoken of Egypt from
my own observation, relating what I myself
saw, the ideas that I formed, and the results
of my own researches. What follows rests on

the accounts given me by the Egyptians, which
I shall now repeat, adding thereto some par-
ticulars which fell under by own notice.

The priests said that Men was the first king
of Egypt, and that it was he who raised the
dyke which protects Memphis from the inun-
dations of the Nile. Before his time the river
flowed entirely along the sandy range of hills
which skirts Egypt on the side of Libya. He,
however, by banking up the river at the bend
which it forms about a hundred furlongs south
of Memphis, laid the ancient channel dry,
while he dug a new course for the stream half-
way between the two lines of hills. To this day,
the elbow which the Nile forms at the point
where it is forced aside into the new channel is
guarded with the greatest care by the Persians,
and strengthened every year; for if the river
were to burst out at this place, and pour over
the mound, there would be danger of Memphis
being completely overwhelmed by the flood.
Men, the first king, having thus, by turning the
river, made the tract where it used to run, dry
land, proceeded in the first place to build the
city now called Memphis, which lies in the nar-
row part of Egypt; after which he further ex-
cavated a lake outside the town, to the north
and west, communicating with the river,
which was itself the eastern boundary. Besides
these works, he also, the priests said, built the
temple of Vulcan which stands within the city,
a vast edifice, very worthy of mention.

100. Next, they read me from a papyrus the
names of three hundred and thirty monarchs,
who (they said) were his successors upon the
throne. In this number of generations there
were eighteen Ethiopian kings, and one queen
who was a native; all the rest were kings and
Egyptians. The queen bore the same name as
the Babylonian princess, namely, Nitocris.
They said that she succeeded her brother; he
had been king of Egypt, and was put to death
by his subjects, who then placed her upon the
throne. Bent on avenging his death, she de-
vised a cunning scheme by which she destroyed
a vast number of Egyptians. She constructed a
spacious underground chamber, and, on pre-
tence of inaugurating it, contrived the follow-
ing:— Inviting to a banquet those of the Egyp-
tians whom she knew to have had the chief
share in the murder of her brother, she sud-
denly, as they were feasting, let the river in
upon them, by means of a secret duct of large
size. This, and this only, did they tell me of
her, except that, when she had done as I have
said, she threw herself into an apartment full

97-io6]

THE HISTORY

69

of ashes, that she might escape the vengeance
whereto she would otherwise have been ex-
posed,

101. The other kings, they said, were per-
sonages of no note or distinction, and left no
monuments of any account, with the exception
of the last, who was named Moeris. He left sev-
eral memorials of his reign — the northern
gateway of the temple of Vulcan, the lake ex-
cavated by his orders, whose dimensions I shall
give presently, and the pyramids built by him
in the lake, the size of which will be stated
when I describe the lake itself wherein they
stand. Such were his works: the other kings
left absolutely nothing.

1 02. Passing over these monarchs, therefore,
I shall speak of the king who reigned next,
whose name was Sesostris. He, the priests said,
first of all proceeded in a fleet of ships of war
from the Arabian gulf along the shores of the
Erythraean sea, subduing the nations as he
went, until he finally reached a sea which
could not be navigated by reason of the shoals.
Hence he returned to Egypt, where, they told
me, he collected a vast armament, and made a
progress by land across the continent, conquer-
ing every people which fell in his way. In the
countries where the natives withstood his at-
tack, and fought gallantly for their liberties,
he erected pillars, on which he inscribed his
own name and country, and how that he had
here reduced the inhabitants to subjection by
the might of his arms: where, on the contrary,
they submitted readily and without a struggle,
he inscribed on the pillars, in addition to these
particulars, an emblem to mark that they were
a nation of women, that is, unwarlike and ef-
feminate.

103. In this way he traversed the whole con-
tinent of Asia, whence he passed on into Eu-
rope, and made himself master of Scythia and
of Thrace, beyond which countries I do not
think that his army extended its march. For
thus far the pillars which he erected are still
visible, but in the remoter regions they are no
longer found. Returning to Egypt from
Thrace, he came, on his way, to the banks of
the river Phasis. Here I cannot say with any
certainty what took place. Either he of his own
accord detached a body of -troops from his
main army and left them to colonise the coun-
try, or else a certain number of his soldiers,
wearied with their long wanderings, deserted,
and established themselves on the banks of this
stream.

104. There can be no doubt that the Col-

chians are an Egyptian race. Before I heard any
mention of the fact from others, I had re-
marked it myself. After the thought had struck
me, I made inquiries on the subject both in
Colchis and in Egypt, and I found that the Col-
chians had a more distinct recollection of the
Egyptians, than the Egyptians had of them.
Still the Egyptians said that they believed the
Colchians to be descended from the army of
Sesostris. My own conjectures were founded,
first, on the fact that they are black-skinned
and have woolly hair, which certainly amounts
to but little, since several other nations are so
too; but further and more especially, on the
circumstance that the Colchians, the Egyp-
tians, and the Ethiopians, arc the only nations
who have practised circumcision from the ear-
liest times. The Phoenicians and the Syrians of
Palestine themselves confess that they learnt
the custom of the Egyptians; and the Syrians
who dwell about the rivers Therm6don and
Parthenius, as well as their neighbours the
Macronians, say that they have recently adopt-
ed it from the Colchians. Now these are the
only nations who use circumcision, and it is
plain that they all imitate herein the Egyptians.
With respect to the Ethiopians, indeed, I can-
not decide whether they learnt the practice of
the Egyptians, or the Egyptians of them — it is
undoubtedly of very ancient date in Ethiopia
— but that the others derived their knowledge
of it from Egypt is clear to me from the fact
that the Phoenicians, when they come to have
commerce with the Greeks, cease to follow the
Egyptians in this custom, and allow their chil-
dren to remain uncircumcised.

105. I will add a further proof to the iden-
tity of the Egyptians and the Colchians. These
two nations weave their linen in exactly the
same way, and this is a way entirely unknown
to the rest of the world; they also in their whole
mode of life and in their language resemble
one another. The Colchian linen is called by
the Greeks Sardinian, while that which comes
from Egypt is known as Egyptian.

1 06. The pillars which Sesostris erected in
the conquered countries have for the most part
disappeared; but in the part of Syria called
Palestine, I myself saw them still standing,
with the writing above-mentioned, and the em-
blem distinctly visible. In Ionia also, there are
two representations of this prince engraved
upon rocks, one on the road from Ephesus to
Phocaea, the other between Sardis and Smyrna.
In each case the figure is that of a man, four
cubits and a span high, with a spear in his

70

HERODOTUS

right hand and a bow in his left, the rest of his
costume being likewise half Egyptian, half
Ethiopian. There is an inscription across the
breast from shoulder to shoulder, in the sacred
character of Egypt, which says, "With my own
shoulders I conquered this land." The con-
queror does not tell who he is, or whence he
comes, though elsewhere Sesostris records these
facts. Hence it has been imagined by some of
those who have seen these forms, that they are
figures of Memnon; but such as think so err
very widely from the truth.

107. This Sesostris, the priests went on to
say, upon his return home, accompanied by
vast multitudes of the people whose countries
he had subdued, was received by his brother,
whom he had made viceroy of Egypt on his de-
parture, at Daphna! near Pelusium, and invited
by him to a banquet, which he attended, to-
gether with his sons. Then his brother piled a
quantity of wood all round the building, and
having so done set it alight. Sesostris, discov-
ering what had happened, took counsel in-
stantly with his wife, who had accompanied
him to the feast, and was advised by her to lay
two of their six sons upon the fire, and so make
a bridge across the flames, whereby the rest
might effect their escape. Sesostris did as she
recommended, and thus while two of his sons
were burnt to death, he himself and his other
children were saved.

1 08. The king then returned to his own land
and took vengeance upon his brother, after
which he proceeded to make use of the multi-
tudes whom he had brought with him from
the conquered countries, partly to drag the
huge masses of stone which were moved in the
course of his reign to the temple of Vulcan —
partly to dig the numerous canals with which
the whole of Egypt is intersected. By these
forced labours the entire face of the country
was changed; for whereas Egypt had formerly
been a region suited both for horses and car-
riages, henceforth it became entirely unfit for
either. Though a flat country throughout its
whole extent, it is now unfit for either horse or
carriage, being cut up by the canals, which are
extremely numerous and run in all directions.
The king's object was to supply Nile water to
the inhabitants of the towns situated in the
mid-country, and not lying upon the river; for
previously they had been obliged, after the sub-
sidence of the floods, to drink a brackish water
which they obtained from wells.

109. Sesostris also, they declared, made a di-
vision of the soil of Egypt among the inhabi-

[ BOOK n

tants, assigning square plots of ground of equal
size to all, and obtaining his chief revenue
from the rent which the holders were required
to pay him year by year. If the river carried
away any portion of a man's lot, he appeared
before the king, and related what had hap-
pened; upon which the king sent persons to
examine, and determine by measurement the
exact extent of the loss; and thenceforth only
such a rent was demanded of him as was pro-
portionate to the reduced size of his land.
From this practice, I think, geometry first came
to be known in Egypt, whence it passed into
Greece. The sun-dial, however, and the gno-
mon with the division of the day into twelve
parts, were received by the Greeks from the
Babylonians.

no. Sesostris was king not only of Egypt,
but also of Ethiopia. He was the only Egyp-
tian monarch who ever ruled over the latter
country. He left, as memorials of his reign, the
stone statues which stand in front of the tem-
ple of Vulcan, two of which, representing him-
self and his wife, are thirty cubits in height,
while the remaining four, which represent his
sons, are twenty cubits. These are the statues, in
front of which the priest of Vulcan, very many
years afterwards, would not allow Darius the
Persian to place a statue of himself; "because,"
he said, "Darius had not equalled the achieve-
ments of Sesostris the Egyptian: for while Se-
sostris had subdued to the full as many nations
as ever Darius had brought under, he had like-
wise conquered the Scythians, whom Darius
had failed to master. It was not fair, therefore,
that he should erect his statue in front of the
offerings of a king, whose deeds he had been
unable to surpass." Darius, they say, pardoned
the freedom of this speech.

in. On the death of Sesostris, his son Phe-
ron, the priests said, mounted the throne. He
undertook no warlike expeditions; being
struck with blindness, owing to the following
circumstance. The river had swollen to the un-
usual height of eighteen cubits, and had over-
flowed all the fields, when, a sudden wind aris-
ing, the water rose in great waves. Then the
king, in a spirit of impious violence, seized
his spear, and hurled it into the strong eddies
of the stream. Instantly he was smitten with
disease of the eyes, from which after a little
while he became blind, continuing without
the power of vision for ten years. At last, in the
eleventh year, an oracular announcement
reached him from the city of Buto, to the effect,
that "the time of his punishment had run out,

107-115]

THE HISTORY

71

and he should recover his sight by washing his
eyes with urine. He must find a woman who
had been faithful to her husband, and had nev-
er preferred to him another man." The king,
therefore, first of all made trial of his wife, but
to no purpose — he continued as blind as before.
So he made the experiment with other women,
until at length he succeeded, and in this way
recovered his sight. Hereupon he assembled all
the women, except the last, and bringing them
to the city which now bears the name of Ery-
thrabolus (Red-soil), he there burnt them all,
together with the place itself. The woman to
whom he owed his cure, he married, and after
his recovery was complete, he presented offer-
ings to all the temples of any note, among
which the best worthy of mention are the two
stone obelisks which he gave to the temple of
the Sun. These are magnificent works; each is
made of a single stone, eight cubits broad, and
a hundred cubits in height.

112. Pheron, they said, was succeeded by a
man of Memphis, whose name, in the language
of the Greeks, was Proteus. There is a sacred
precinct of this king in Memphis, which is very
beautiful, and richly adorned, situated south
of the great temple of Vulcan. Phoenicians
from the city of Tyre dwell all round this pre-
cinct, and the whole place is known by the
name of "the camp of the Tynans." Within the
enclosure stands a temple, which is called that
of Venus the Stranger. I conjecture the build-
ing to have been erected to Helen, the daugh-
ter of Tyndarus; first, because she, as I have
heard say, passed some time at the court of Pro-
teus; and secondly, because the temple is dedi-
cated to Venus the Stranger; for among all the
many temples of Venus there is no other where
the goddess bears this title.

113. The priests, in answer to my inquiries
on the subject of Helen, informed me of the
following particulars. When Alexander had
carried off Helen from Sparta, he took ship and
sailed homewards. On his way across the Egean
a gale arose, which drove him from his course
and took him down to the sea of Egypt; hence,
as the wind did not abate, he was carried on to
the coast, when he went ashore, landing at the
Salt-Pans, in that mouth of the Nile which is
now called the Canobic. At this place there
stood upon the shore a temple, which still ex-
ists, dedicated to Hercules. If a slave runs away
from his master, and taking sanctuary at this
shrine gives himself up to the god, and receives
certain sacred marks upon his person, whoso-
ever his master may be, he cannot lay hand on

him. This law still remained unchanged to my
time. Hearing, therefore, of the custom of the
place, the attendants of Alexander deserted
him, and fled to the temple, where they sat as
suppliants. While there, wishing to damage
their master, they accused him to the Egyp-
tians, narrating all the circumstances of the
rape of Helen and the wrong done to Mene-
laus. These charges they brought, not only
before the priests, but also before the warden
of that mouth of the river, whose name was
Thonis.

114. As soon as he received the intelligence,
Th6nis sent a message to Proteus, who was at
Memphis, to this effect: "A stranger is arrived
from Greece; he is by race a Teucrian, and has
done a wicked deed in the country from which
he is come. Having beguiled the wife of the
man whose guest he was, he carried her away
with him, and much treasure also. Compelled
by stress of weather, he has now put in here.
Are we to let him depart as he came, or shall
we seize what he has brought?" Proteus re-
plied, "Seize the man, be he who he may, that
has dealt thus wickedly with his friend, and
bring him before me, that 1 may hear what he
will say for himself."

115. Thonis, on receiving these orders, ar-
rested Alexander, and stopped the departure
of his ships; then, taking with him Alexander,
Helen, the treasures, and also the fugitive
slaves, he went up to Memphis. When all were
arrived, Proteus asked Alexander, "who he
was, and whence he had come?" Alexander re-
plied by giving his descent, the name of his
country, and a true account of his late voyage.
Then Proteus questioned him as to how he got
possession of Helen. In his reply Alexander be-
came confused, and diverged from the truth,
whereon the slaves interposed, confuted his
statements, and told the whole history of the
crime. Finally, Proteus delivered judgment as
follows: "Did I not regard it as a matter of the
utmost consequence that no stranger driven to
my country by adverse winds should ever be
put to death, I would certainly have avenged
the Greek by slaying thee. Thou basest of men,
— after accepting hospitality, to do so wicked a
deed! First, thou didst seduce the wife of thy
own host — then, not content therewith, thou
must violently excite her mind, and steal her
away from her husband. Nay, even so thou
wert not satisfied, but on leaving, thou must
plunder the house in which thou hadst been a
guest. Now then, as I think it of the greatest
importance to put no stranger to death, I suffer

72

HERODOTUS

[BOOK ii

thce to depart; but the woman and the treas-
ures I shall not permit to be carried away. Here
they must stay, till the Greek stranger comes in
person and takes them back with him. For thy-
self and thy companions, I command thee to
begone from my land within the space of three
days — and I warn you, that otherwise at the
end of that time you will be treated as ene-
mies."

1 1 6. Such was the tale told me by the priests
concerning the arrival of Helen at the court of
Proteus. It seems to me that Homer was ac-
quainted with this story, and while discarding
it, because he thought it less adapted for epic
poetry than the version which he followed,
showed that it was not unknown to him. This
is evident from the travels which he assigns to
Alexander in the Iliad — and let it be borne in
mind that he has nowhere else contradicted
himself — making him be carried out of his
course on his return with Helen, and after di-
vers wanderings come at last to Sidon in Phoe-
nicia. The passage is in the Bravery of Dio-
med,1 and the words are as follows: —

There were the robes, many-coloured, the wor\
of Sidonian women:

They from Sidon had come, what time god-
shaped Alexander

Over the broad sea brought, that way, the high-
born Helen.

In the Odyssey also the same fact is alluded
to, in these words:2 —

Such, so wisely prepared, were the drugs that her

stores afforded,
Excellent; gift which once Polydamna, partner of

Thorns,
Gave her in Egypt, where many the simples that

grow in the meadows,
Potent to cure in part, in part as potent to injure.

Menelaus too, in the same poem, thus ad-
dresses Telemachus:3 —
Much did I long to return t but the Gods still \ept

me in Egypt —

Angry because 1 had failed to pay them their hec-
atombs duly.

In these places Homer shows himself ac-
quainted with the voyage of Alexander to
Egypt, for Syria borders on Egypt, and the
Phoenicians, to whom Sidon belongs, dwell in
Syria.

117. From these various passages, and from
that about Sidon especially, it is clear that Ho-
mer did not write the Cypria. For there it is

1 Iliad , Bk vi. 290-292.

2 Odyssey, Bk iv, 227-230.
*lbid>, Bk iv. 351-352.

said that Alexander arrived at Ilium with Hel-
en on the third day after he left Sparta, the
wind having been favourable, and the sea
smooth; whereas in the Iliad, the poet makes
him wander before he brings her home.
Enough, however, for the present of Homer
and the Cypria.

1 1 8. I made inquiry of the priests whether
the story which the Greeks tell about Ilium is
a fable, or no. In reply they related the follow-
ing particulars, of which they declared that
Menelaus had himself informed them. After
the rape of Helen, a vast army of Greeks, wish-
ing to render help to Menelaus, set sail for the
Teucrian territory; on their arrival they disem-
barked, and formed their camp, after which
they sent ambassadors to Ilium, of whom Men-
elaus was one. The embassy was received with-
in the walls, and demanded the restoration of
Helen with the treasures which Alexander had
carried off, and likewise required satisfaction
for the wrong done. The Teucrians gave at
once the answer in which they persisted ever
afterwards, backing their assertions sometimes
even with oaths, to wit, that neither Helen, nor
the treasures claimed, were in their possession,
— both the one and the other had remained,
they said, in Egypt; and it was not just to come
upon them for what Proteus, king of Egypt,
was detaining. The Greeks, imagining that the
Teucrians were merely laughing at them, laid
siege to the town, and never rested until they
finally took it. As, however, no Helen was
found, and they were still told the same story,
they at length believed in its truth, and des-
patched Menelaus to the court of Proteus.

119. So Menelaus travelled to Egypt, and on
his arrival sailed up the river as far as Mem-
phis, and related all that had happened. He
met with the utmost hospitality, received Hel-
en back unharmed, and recovered all his treas-
ures. After this friendly treatment Menelaus,
they said, behaved most unjustly towards the
Egyptians; for as it happened that at the time
when he wanted to take his departure, he was
detained by the wind being contrary, and as
he found this obstruction continue, he had re-
course to a most wicked expedient. He seized,
they said, two children of the people of the
country, and offered them up in sacrifice.
When this became known, the indignation of
the people was stirred, and they went in pur-
suit of Menelaus, who, however, escaped with
his ships to Libya, after which the Egyptians
could not say whither he went. The rest they
knew full well, partly by the inquiries which

THE HISTORY

73

they had made, and partly from the circum-
stances having taken place in their own land,
and therefore not admitting of doubt.

1 20. Such is the account given by the Egyp-
tian priests, and I am myself inclined to regard
as true all that they say of Helen from the fol-
lowing considerations: — If Helen had been at
Troy, the inhabitants would, I think, have giv-
en her up to the Greeks, whether Alexander
consented to it or no. For surely neither Priam,
nor his family, could have been so infatuated
as to endanger their own persons, their chil-
dren, and their city, merely that Alexander
might possess Helen. At any rate, if they de-
termined to refuse at first, yet afterwards when
so many of the Trojans fell on every encounter
with the Greeks, and Priam too in each battle
lost a son, or sometimes two, or three, or even
more, if we may credit the epic poets, I do not
believe that even if Priam himself had been
married to her he would have declined to de-
liver her up, with the view of bringing the se-
ries of calamities to a close. Nor was it as if
Alexander had been heir to the crown, in
which case he might have had the chief man-
agement of affairs, since Priam was already
old. Hector, who was his elder brother, and a
far braver man, stood before him, and was the
heir to the kingdom on the death of their fa-
ther Priam. And it could not be Hector's inter-
est to uphold his brother in his wrong, when
it brought such dire calamities upon himself
and the other Trojans. But the fact was that
they had no Helen to deliver, and so they told
the Greeks, but the Greeks would not believe
what they said — Divine Providence, as I think,
so willing, that by their utter destruction it
might be made evident to all men that when
great wrongs are done, the gods will surely
visit them with great punishments. Such, at
least, is my view of the matter.

121. (i.) When Proteus died, Rhampsini-
tus, the priests informed me, succeeded to the
throne. His monuments were the western
gateway of the temple of Vulcan, and the two
statues which stand in front of this gateway,
called by the Egyptians, the one Summer, the
other Winter, each twenty-five cubits in height.
The statue of Summer, which is the northern-
most of the two, is worshipped by the natives,
and has offerings made to it; that of Winter,
which stands towards the south, is treated in
exactly the contrary way. King Rhampsinitus
was possessed, they said, of great riches in sil-
ver— indeed to such an amount, that none of
the princes, his successors, surpassed or even

equalled his wealth. For the better custody of
this money, he proposed to build a vast cham-
ber of hewn stone, one side of which was to
form a part of the outer wall of his palace. The
builder, therefore, having designs upon the
treasures, contrived, as he was making the
building, to insert in this wall a stone, which
could easily be removed from its place by two
men, or even by one. So the chamber was fin-
ished, and the king's money stored away in it.
Time passed, and the builder fell sick, when
finding his end approaching, he called for his
two sons, and related to them the contrivance
he had made in the king's treasure-chamber,
telling them it was for their sakcs he had done
it, that so they might always live in affluence.
Then he gave them clear directions concerning
the mode of removing the stone, and commun-
icated the measurements, bidding them care-
fully keep the secret, whereby they would be
Comptrollers of the Royal Exchequer so long
as they lived. Then the father died, and the
sons were not slow in setting to work: they
went by night to the palace, found the stone in
the wall of the building, and having removed
it with ease, plundered the treasury of a round
sum.

(2.) When the king next paid a visit to the
apartment, he was astonished to see that the
money was sunk in some of the vessels wherein
it was stored away. Whom to accuse, however,
he knew not, as the seals were all perfect, and
the fastenings of the room secure. Still each
time that he repeated his visits, he found that
more money was gone. The thieves in truth
never stopped, but plundered the treasury ever
more and more. At last the king determined to
have some traps made, and set near the vessels
which contained his wealth. This was done,
and when the thieves came, as usual, to the
treasure-chamber, and one of them entering
through the aperture, made straight for the
jars, suddenly he found himself caught in one
of the traps. Perceiving that he was lost, he in-
stantly called his brother, and telling him what
had happened, entreated him to enter as quick-
ly as possible and cut off his head, that when
his body should be discovered it might not be
recognised, which would have the effect of
bringing ruin upon both. The other thief
thought the advice good, and was persuaded
to follow it — then, fitting the stone into its
place, he went home, taking with him his
brother's head.

(3.) When day dawned, the king came into
the room, and marvelled greatly to see the

74

HERODOTUS

[ BOOK ii

body of the thief in the trap without a head,
while the building was still whole, and neither
entrance nor exit was to be seen anywhere. In
this perplexity he commanded the body of the
dead man to be hung up outside the palace
wall, and set a guard to watch it, with orders
that if any persons were seen weeping or la-
menting near the place, they should be seized
and brought before him. When the mother
heard of this exposure of the corpse of her son,
she took it sorely to heart, and spoke to her sur-
viving child, bidding him devise some plan or
other to get back the body, and threatening,
that if he did not exert himself, she would go
herself to the king, and denounce him as the
robber.

(4.) The son said all he could to persuade
her to let the matter rest, but in vain; she still
continued to trouble him, until at last he yield-
ed to her importunity, and contrived as fol-
lows:— Filling some skins with wine, he load-
ed them on donkeys, which he drove before
him till he came to the place where the guards
were watching the dead body, when pulling
two or three of the skins towards him, he un-
tied some of the necks which dangled by the
asses' sides. The wine poured freely out, where-
upon he began to beat his head, and shout with
all his might, seeming not to know which of
the donkeys he should turn to first. When the
guards saw the wine running, delighted to
profit by the occasion, they rushed one and all
into the road, each with some vessel or other,
and caught the liquor as it was spilling. The
driver pretended anger, and loaded them with
abuse; whereon they did their best to pacify
him, until at last he appeared to soften, and re-
cover his good humour, drove his asses aside out
of the road, and set to work to rearrange their
burthens; meanwhile, as he talked and chatted
with the guards, one of them began to rally
him, and make him laugh, whereupon he gave
them one of the skins as a gift. They now made
up their minds to sit down and have a drink-
ing-bout where they were, so they begged him
to remain and drink with them. Then the man
let himself be persuaded, and stayed. As the
drinking went on, they grew very friendly to-
gether, so presently he gave them another
skin, upon which they drank so copiously that
they were all overcome with the liquor, and
growing drowsy lay down, and fell asleep
on the spot. The thief waited till it was the
dead of the night, and then took down the
body of his brother; after which, in mockery,
he shaved off the right side of all the soldiers'

beards,1 and so left them. Laying his brother's
body upon the asses, he carried it home to his
mother, having thus accomplished the thing
that she had required of him.

(5.) When it came to the king's ears that
the thief's body was stolen away, he was sorely
vexed. Wishing, therefore, whatever it might
cost, to catch the man who had contrived the
trick, he had recourse (the priests said) to an
expedient, which I can scarcely credit. He sent
his own daughter to the common stews, with
orders to admit all comers, but to require every
man to tell her what was the cleverest and
wickedest thing he had done in the whole
course of his life. If any one in reply told her
the story of the thief, she was to lay hold of him
and not allow him to get away. The daughter
did as her father willed, whereon the thief,
who was well aware of the king's motive, felt
a desire to outdo him in craft and cunning. Ac-
cordingly he contrived the following plan: —
He procured the corpse of a man lately dead,
and cutting off one of the arms at the shoulder,
put it under his dress, and so went to the king's
daughter. When she put the question to him as
she had done to all the rest, he replied that the
wickedest thing he had ever done was cutting
off the head of his brother when he was caught
in a trap in the king's treasury, and the clever-
est was making the guards drunk and carrying
off the body. As he spoke, the princess caught
at him, but the thief took advantage of the
darkness to hold out to her the hand of the
corpse. Imagining it to be his own hand, she
seized and held it fast; while the thief, leaving
it in her grasp, made his escape by the door.

(6.) The king, when word was brought
him of this fresh success, amazed at the sa-
gacity and boldness of the man, sent messen-
gers to all the towns in his dominions to pro-
claim a free pardon for the thief, and to prom-
ise him a rich reward, if he came and made
himself known. The thief took the king at his
word, and came boldly into his presence;
whereupon Rhampsinitus, greatly admiring
him, and looking on him as the most knowing
of men, gave him his daughter in marriage.
"The Egyptians," he said, "excelled all the rest
of the world in wisdom, and this man excelled
all other Egyptians."

1 This is a curious mistake for any one to make
who had been in Egypt, since the soldiers had no
beards, and it was the custom of all classes to
shave. Herodotus could not have learnt this story
from the Egyptians, and it is evidently from a
Greek source.

I2I-I25]

THE HISTORY

75

122. The same king, I was also informed by
the priests, afterwards descended alive into the
region which the Greeks call Hades, and there
played at dice with Ceres, sometimes winning
and sometimes suffering defeat. After a while
he returned to earth, and brought with him a
golden napkin, a gift which he had received
from the goddess. From this descent of Rham-
psinitus into Hades, and return to earth again,
the Egyptians, I was told, instituted a festival,
which they certainly celebrated in my day. On
what occasion it was that they instituted it,
whether upon this or upon any other, I cannot
determine. The following are the ceremonies:
— On a certain day in the year the priests
weave a mantle, and binding the eyes of one of
their number with a fillet, they put the mantle
upon him, and take him with them into the
roadway conducting to the temple of Ceres,
when they depart and leave him to himself.
Then the priest, thus blindfolded, is led (they
say) by two wolves to the temple of Ceres, dis-
tant twenty furlongs from the city, where he
stays awhile, after which he is brought back
from the temple by the wolves, and left upon
the spot where they first joined him.

123. Such as think the tales told by the Egyp-
tians credible are free to accept them for his-
tory. For my own part, I propose to myself
throughout my whole work faithfully to record
the traditions of the several nations. The Egyp-
tians maintain that Ceres and Bacchus preside
in the realms below. They were also the first
to broach the opinion that the soul of man is
immortal, and that, when the body dies, it en-
ters into the form of an animal which is born
at the moment, thence passing on from one an-
imal into another, until it has circled through
the forms of all the creatures which tenant the
earth, the water, and the air, after which it en-
ters again into a human frame, and is born
anew. The whole period of the transmigration
is (they say) three thousand years. There are
Greek writers, some of an earlier, some of a
later date, who have borrowed this doctrine
from the Egyptians, and put it forward as their
own. I could mention their names, but I ab-
stain from doing so.

124. Till the death of Rhampsinitus, the
priests said, Egypt was excellently governed,
and flourished greatly; but after him Cheops
succeeded to the throne, and plunged into all
manner of wickedness. He closed the temples,
and forbade the Egyptians to offer sacrifice,
compelling them instead to labour, one and all,
in his service. Some were required to drag

blocks of stone down to the Nile from the
quarries in the Arabian range of hills; others
received the blocks after they had been con-
veyed in boats across the river, and drew them
to the range of hills called the Libyan. A hun-
dred thousand men laboured constantly, and
were relieved every three months by a fresh
lot. It took ten years' oppression of the people
to make the causeway for the conveyance of the
stones, a work not much inferior, in my judg-
ment, to the pyramid itself. This causeway is
five furlongs in length, ten fathoms wide, and
in height, at the highest part, eight fathoms. It
is built of polished stone, and is covered with
carvings of animals. To make it took ten years,
as I said — or rather to make the causeway, the
works on the mound where the pyramid
stands, and the underground chambers, which
Cheops intended as vaults for his own use:
these last were built on a sort of island, sur-
rounded by water introduced from the Nile by
a canal. The pyramid itself was twenty years
in building. It is a square, eight hundred feet
each way, and the height the same, built en-
tirely of polished stone, fitted together with the
utmost care. The stones of which it is com-
posed are none of them less than thirty feet in
length.

125. The pyramid was built in steps, battle-
ment-wise, as it is called, or, according to oth-
ers, altar-wise. After laying the stones for the
base, they raised the remaining stones to their
places by means of machines formed of short
wooden planks. The first machine raised them
from the ground to the top of the first step. On
this there was another machine, which received
the stone upon its arrival, and conveyed it to
the second step, whence a third machine ad-
vanced it still higher. Either they had as many
machines as there were steps in the pyramid,
or possibly they had but a single machine,
which, being easily moved, was transferred
from tier to tier as the stone rose — both ac-
counts are given, and therefore I mention both.
The upper portion of the pyramid was finished
first, then the middle, and finally the part
which was lowest and nearest the ground.
There is an inscription in Egyptian characters
on the pyramid which records the quantity of
radishes, onions, and garlic consumed by the
labourers who constructed it; and I perfectly
well remember that the interpreter who read
the writing to me i said that the money ex-
pended in this wdy was 1600 talents of silver.
If this then is a true record, what a vast sum
must have been spent on the iron tools used in

76

HERODOTUS

[BOOK ii

the work, and on the feeding and clothing of
the labourers, considering the length of time
the work lasted, which has already been stated,
and the additional time — no small space, I im-
agine— which must have been occupied by the
quarrying of the stones, their conveyance, and
the formation of the underground apartments.

126. The wickedness of Cheops reached to
such a pitch that, when he had spent all his
treasures and wanted more, he sent his daugh-
ter to the stews, with orders to procure him a
certain sum — how much I cannot say, for I was
not told; she procured it, however, and at the
same time, bent on leaving a monument which
should perpetuate her own memory, she re-
quired each man to make her a present of a
stone towards the works which she contem-
plated. With these stones she built the pyramid
which stands midmost of the three that are in
front of the great pyramid, measuring along
each side a hundred and fifty feet.

127. Cheops reigned, the Egyptians said, fif-
ty years, and was succeeded at his demise by
Chephren, his brother.

Chephren imitated the conduct of his prede-
cessor, and, like him, built a pyramid, which
did not, however, equal the dimensions of his
brother's. Of this I am certain, for I measured
them both myself. It has no subterraneous
apartments, nor any canal from the Nile to sup-
ply it with water, as the other pyramid has. In
that, the Nile water, introduced through an
artificial duct, surrounds an island, where the
body of Cheops is said to he. Chephren built
his pyramid close to the great pyramid of Che-
ops, and of the same dimensions, except that he
lowered the height forty feet. For the basement
he employed the many-coloured stone of Ethi-
opia. These two pyramids stand both on the
same hill, an elevation not far short of a hun-
dred feet in height. The reign of Chephren
lasted fifty-six years.

128. Thus the affliction of Egypt endured
for the space of one hundred and six years, dur-
ing the whole of which time the temples were
shut up and never opened. The Egyptians so
detest the memory of these kings that they do
not much like even to mention their names.
Hence they commonly call the pyramids after
Philition, a shepherd who at that time fed his
flocks about the place.

129. After Chephren, Myortinus (they said),
son of Cheops, ascended 3 the throne. This
prince disapproved the conduct of his father,
re-opened the temples, and allowed the people,
who were ground down to the lowest point o£

misery, to return to their occupations, and to
resume the practice of sacrifice. His justice in
the decision of causes was beyond that of all
the former kings. The Egyptians praise him
in this respect more highly than any of their
other monarchs, declaring that he not only
gave his judgments with fairness, but also,
when any one was dissatisfied with his sen-
tence, made compensation to him out of his
own purse, and thus pacified his anger. Mycer-
inus had established his character for mildness,
and was acting as I have described, when the
stroke of calamity fell on him. First of all his
daughter died, the only child that he pos-
sessed. Experiencing a bitter grief at this visi-
tation, in his sorrow he conceived the wish to
entomb his child in some unusual way. He
therefore caused a cow to be made of wood,
and after the interior had been hollowed out,
he had the whole surface coated with gold;
and in this novel tomb laid the dead body of
his daughter.

130. The cow was not placed under ground,
but continued visible to my times: it was at
Sai's, in the royal palace, where it occupied a
chamber richly adorned. Every day there are
burnt before it aromatics of every kind; and
all night long a lamp is kept burning in the
apartment. In an adjoining chamber are stat-
ues which the priests at Sais declared to repre-
sent the various concubines of Mycerinus.
They are colossal figures in wood, of the num-
ber of about twenty, and are represented na-
ked. Whose images they really are, I cannot say
— I can only repeat the account which was
given to me.

131. Concerning these colossal figures and
the sacred cow, there is also another tale nar-
rated, which runs thus: "Mycerinus was en-
amoured of his daughter, and offered her vio-
lence— the damsel for grief hanged herself, and
Mycerinus entombed her in the cow. Then her
mother cut off the hands of all her tiring-maids,
because they had sided with the father, and
betrayed the child; and so the statues of the
maids have no hands." All this is mere fable in
my judgment, especially what is said about the
hands of the colossal statues. I could plainly
see that the figures had only lost their hands
through the effect of time. They had dropped
off, and were still lying on the ground about
the feet of the statues.

132. As for the cow, the greater portion of it
is hidden by a scarlet coverture; the head and
neck, however, which are visible, are coated
very thickly with gold, and between the horns

126-136]

THE HISTORY

77

there is a representation in gold of the orb of
the sun. The figure is not erect, but lying
down, with the limbs under the body; the di-
mensions being fully those of a large animal of
the kind. Every year it is taken from the apart-
ment where it is kept, and exposed to the light
of day — this is done at the season when the
Egyptians beat themselves in honour of one of
their gods, whose name I am unwilling to
mention in connection with such a matter.1
They say that the daughter of Mycerinus re-
quested her father in her dying moments to al-
low her once a year to see the sun.

133. After the death of his daughter, My-
cerinus was visited with a second calamity, of
which I shall now proceed to give an account.
An oracle reached him from the town of Buto,
which said, "Six years only shalt thou live upon
the earth, and in the seventh thou shalt end thy
days." Mycerinus, indignant, sent an angry
message to the oracle, reproaching the god
with his injustice — uMy father and uncle," he
said, "though they shut up the temples, took
no thought of the gods, and destroyed multi-
tudes of men, nevertheless enjoyed a long life;
I, who am pious, am to die so soon!" There
came in reply a second message from the ora-
cle— "For this very reason is thy life brought
so quickly to a close — thou hast not done as it
behoved thee. Egypt was fated to suffer afflic-
tion one hundred and fifty years — the two
kings who preceded thee upon the throne un-
derstood this — thou hast not understood it."
Mycerinus, when this answer reached him, per-
ceiving that his doom was fixed, had lamps pre-
pared, which he lighted every day at eventime,
and feasted and enjoyed himself unceasingly
both day and night, moving about in the
marsh-country and the woods, and visiting all
the places that he heard were agreeable so-
journs. His wish was to prove the oracle false,
by turning the nights into days, and so living
twelve years in the space of six.

134. He too left a pyramid, but much in-
ferior in size to his father's. It is a square, each
side of which falls short of three plethra by
twenty feet, and is built for half its height of
the stone of Ethiopia. Some of the Greeks call
it the work of Rhodopis the courtesan, but they
report falsely. It seems to me that these persons
cannot have any real knowledge who Rhodopis
was; otherwise they would scarcely have as-
cribed to her a work on which uncounted treas-
ures, so to speak, must have been expended.
Rhodopis also lived during the reign of Ama-

1 Osiris.

sis, not of Mycerinus, and was thus very many
years later than the time of the kings who built
the pyramids. She was a Thracian by birth, and
was the slave of ladmon, son of Hephaestopolis,
a Samian. ^Esop, the fable-writer, was one of
her fellow-slaves. That /Esop belonged to lad-
mon is proved by many facts — among others,
by this. When the Delphians, in obedience to
the command of the oracle, made proclamation
that if any one claimed compensation for the
murder of ^Esop he should receive it, the per-
son who at last came forward was ladmon,
grandson of the former ladmon, and he re-
ceived the compensation. JEsop therefore must
certainly have been the former ladmon's slave.

135. Rhodopis really arrived in Egypt under
the conduct of Xantheus the Samian; she was
brought there to exercise her trade, but was re-
deemed for a vast sum by Charaxus, a Mytile-
naean, the son of Scamandronymus, and broth-
er of Sappho the poetess. After thus obtaining
her freedom, she remained in Egypt, and, as
she was very beautiful, amassed great wealth,
for a person in her condition; not, however,
enough to enable her to erect such a work as
this pyramid. Any one who likes may go and
see to what the tenth part of her wealth
amounted, and he will thereby learn that her
riches must not be imagined to have been very
wonderfully great. Wishing to leave a memori-
al of herself in Greece, she determined to have
something made the like of which was not to
be found in any temple, and to offer it at the
shrine at Delphi. So she set apart a tenth of
her possessions, and purchased with the money
a quantity of iron spits, such as are fit for roast-
ing oxen whole, whereof she made a present to
the oracle. They are still to be seen there, lying
of a heap, behind the altar which the Chians
dedicated, opposite the sanctuary. Naucratis
seems somehow to be the place where such
women are most attractive. First there was this
Rhodopis of whom we have been speaking, so
celebrated a person that her name came to be
familiar to all the Greeks; and, afterwards,
there was another, called Archidice', notorious
throughout Greece, though not so much
talked of as her predecessor. Charaxus, after
ransoming Rhodopis, returned to Mytilene,
and was often lashed by Sappho in her poetry.
But enough has been said on the subject of this
courtesan.

136. After Mycerinus, the priests said, Asy-
chis ascended the throne. He built the eastern
gateway of the temple of Vulcan, which in
size and beauty far surpasses the other three.

78

HERODOTUS

[BOOK n

All the four gateways have figures graven on
them, and a vast amount of architectural orna-
ment, but the gateway of Asychis is by far the
most richly adorned. In the reign of this king,
money being scarce and commercial dealings
straitened, a law was passed that the borrow-
er might pledge his father's body to raise the
sum whereof he had need. A proviso was ap-
pended to this law, giving the lender authority
over the entire sepulchre of the borrower, so
that a man who took up money under this
pledge, if he died without paying the debt,
could not obtain burial either in his own an-
cestral tomb, or in any other, nor could he dur-
ing his lifetime bury in his own tomb any
member of his family. The same king, desirous
of eclipsing all his predecessors upon the
throne, left as a monument of his reign a pyra-
mid of brick. It bears an inscription, cut in
stone, which runs thus: — "Despise me not in
comparison with the stone pyramids; for I sur-
pass them all, as much as Jove surpasses the
other gods. A pole was plunged into a lake,
and the mud which clave thereto was gath-
ered; and bricks were made of the mud, and
so I was formed." Such were the chief actions
of this prince.

137. He was succeeded on the throne, they
said, by a blind man, a native of Anysis, whose
own name also was Anysis. Under him Egypt
was invaded by a vast army of Ethiopians, led
by Sabacos, their king. The blind Anysis fled
away to the marsh-country, and the Ethiopian
was lord of the land for fifty years, during
which his mode of rule was the following: —
When an Egyptian was guilty of an oHence, his
plan was not to punish him with death: in-
stead of so doing, he sentenced him, according
to the nature of his crime, to raise the ground
to a greater or a less extent in the neighbour-
hood of the city to which he belonged. Thus
the cities came to be even more elevated than
they were before. As early as the time of Sesos-
tris, they had been raised by those who dug the
canals in his reign; this second elevation of
the soil under the Ethiopian king gave them a
very lofty position. Among the many cities
which thus attained to a great elevation, none
(I think) was raised so much as the town
called Bubastis, where there is a temple of the
goddess Bubastis, which well deserves to be de-
scribed. Other temples may be grander, and
may have cost more in the building, but there
is none so pleasant to the eye as this of Bubastis.
The Bubastis of the Egyptians is the same as
the Artemis (Diana) of the Greeks.

138. The following is a description of this
edifice: — Excepting the entrance, the whole
forms an island. Two artificial channels from
the Nile, one on either side of the temple, en-
compass the building, leaving only a narrow
passage by which it is approached. These chan-
nels are each a hundred feet wide, and are
thickly shaded with trees. The gateway is sixty
feet in height, and is ornamented with figures
cut upon the stone, six cubits high and well
worthy of notice. The temple stands in the
middle of the city, and is visible on all sides as
one walks round it; for as the city has been
raised up by embankment, while the temple
has been left untouched in its original condi-
tion, you look down upon it wheresoever you
are. A low wall runs round the enclosure, hav-
ing figures engraved upon it, and inside there
is a grove of beautiful tall trees growing round
the shrine, which contains the image of the
goddess. The enclosure is a furlong in length,
and the same in breadth. The entrance to it is
by a road paved with stone for a distance of
about three furlongs, which passes straight
through the market-place with an easterly di-
rection, and is about four hundred feet in
width. Trees of an extraordinary height grow
on each side the road, which conducts from the
temple of Bubastis to that of Mercury.

139. The Ethiopian finally quitted Egypt,
the priests said, by a hasty flight under the fol-
lowing circumstances. He saw in his sleep a
vision: — a man stood by his side, and coun-
selled him to gather together all the priests of
Egypt and cut every one of them asunder. On
this, according to the account which he himself
gave, it came into his mind that the gods in-
tended hereby to lead him to commit an act of
sacrilege, which would be sure to draw down
upon him some punishment either at the hands
of gods or men. So he resolved not to do the
deed suggested to him, but rather to retire from
Egypt, as the time during which it was fated
that he should hold the country had now (he
thought) expired. For before he left Ethiopia
he had been told by the oracles which are ven-
erated there, that he was to reign fifty years
over Egypt. The years were now fled, and the
dream had come to trouble him; he therefore
of his own accord withdrew from the land.

140. As soon as Sabacos was gone, the blind
king left the marshes, and resumed the gov-
ernment. He had lived in the marsh-region the
whole time, having formed for himself an is-
land there by a mixture of earth and ashes.
While he remained, the natives had orders to

THE HISTORY

79

bring him food unbeknown to the Ethiopian,
and latterly, at his request, each man had
brought him, with the food, a certain quantity
of ashes. Before Amyrtacus, no one was able to
discover the site of this island, which con-
tinued unknown to the kings of Egypt who
preceded him on the throne for the space of
seven hundred years and more. The name
which it bears is Elbo. It is about ten furlongs
across in each direction.

141. The next king, I was told, was a priest
of Vulcan, called Sethos. This monarch de-
spised and neglected the warrior class of the
Egyptians, as though he did not need their
services. Among other indignities which he
offered them, he took from them the lands
which they had possessed under all the prev-
ious kings, consisting of twelve acres of choice
land for each warrior. Afterwards, therefore,
when Sanacharib, king of the Arabians1 and
Assyrians, marched his vast army into Egypt,
the warriors one and all refused to come to his
aid. On this the monarch, greatly distressed,
entered into the inner sanctuary, and, before
the image of the god, bewailed the fate which
impended over him. As he wept he fell asleep,
and dreamed that the god came and stood at
his side, bidding him be of good cheer, and go
boldly forth to meet the Arabian host, which
would do him no hurt, as he himself would
send those who should help him. Sethos, then,
relying on the dream, collected such of the
Egyptians as were willing to follow him, who
were none of them warriors, but traders, ar-
tisans, and market people; and with these
marched to Pelusium, which commands the
entrance into Egypt, and there pitched his
camp. As the two armies lay here opposite one
another, there came in the night, a multitude
of field-mice, which devoured all the quivers
and bowstrings of the enemy, and ate the
thongs by which they managed their shields.
Next morning they commenced their fight,
and great multitudes fell, as they had no arms

1 It is curious to find Sennacherib called the
"king of the Arabians and Assyrians0 — an order
of words which seems even to regard him as
rather an Arabian than an Assyrian king. In the
same spirit his army is termed afterwards "the
Arabian host." It is impossible altogether to de-
fend the view which Herodotus here discloses,
but we may understand how such a mistake was
possible, if we remember how Arabians were
mixed up with other races in Lower Mesopotamia
and what an extensive influence a great Assyrian
king would exercise over the tribes of the desert,
especially those bordering on Mesopotamia.

with which to defend themselves. There stands
to this day in the temple of Vulcan, a stone
statue of Seth6s, with a mouse in his hand, and
an inscription to this effect — "Look on me, and
learn to reverence the gods.*'

142. Thus far I have spoken on the authority
of the Egyptians and their priests. They de-
clare that from their first king to this last-
mentioned monarch, the priest of Vulcan, was
a period of three hundred and forty-one genera-
tions; such, at least, they say, was the number
both of their kings, and of their high-priests,
during this interval. Now three hundred gen-
erations of men make ten thousand years, three
generations filling up the century; and the re-
maining forty-one generations make thirteen
hundred and forty years. Thus the whole num-
ber of years is eleven thousand, three hundred
and forty; ini which entire space, they said, no
god had ever appeared in a human form; noth-
ing of this kind had happened either under the
former or under the later Egyptian kings. The
sun, however, had within this period of time,
on four several occasions, moved from his
wonted course, twice rising where he now sets,
and twice setting where he now rises. Egypt
was in no degree affected by these changes; the
productions of the land, and of the river, re-
mained the same; nor was there anything un-
usual cither in the diseases or the deaths.

143. When Hecatacus the historian was at
Thebes, and, discoursing of his genealogy,
traced his descent to a god in the person of his
sixteenth ancestor, the priests of Jupiter did to
him exactly as they afterwards did to me,
though I made no boast of my family. They led
me into the inner sanctuary, which is a spacious
chamber, and showed me a multitude of co-
lossal statues^ in wood, which they counted up,
and found to amount to the exact number they
had said; the custom being for every high-
priest during his lifetime to set up his statue in
the temple. As they showed me the figures and
reckoned them up, they assured me that each
was the son of the one preceding him; and this
they repeated throughout the whole line, be-
ginning with the representation of the priest
last deceased, and continuing till they had com-
pleted the series. When Hecataeus, in giving his
genealogy, mentioned a god as his sixteenth
ancestor, the priests opposed their genealogy
to his, going through this list, and refusing to
allow that any man was ever born of a god.
Their colossal figures were each, they said, a
Piromis, born of a Pir6mis, and the number of
them was three hundred and forty-five; through

80

HERODOTUS

[BOOK n

the whole series Pir6mis followed Pir6mis, and
the line did not run up either to a god or a
hero. The word Pirdmis may be rendered "gen-
tleman/*

144. Of such a nature were, they said, the
beings represented by these images — they were
very far indeed from being gods. However, in
the times anterior to them it was otherwise;
then Egypt had gods for its rulers, who dwelt
upon the earth with men, one being always
supreme above the rest. The last of these was
Horus, the son of Osiris, called by the Greeks
Apollo. He deposed Typhon, and ruled over
Egypt as its last god-king. Osiris is named Di-
onysus (Bacchus) by the Greeks.

145. The Greeks regard Hercules, Bacchus,
and Pan as the youngest of the gods. With the
Egyptians, contrariwise, Pan is exceedingly
ancient, and belongs to those whom they call
"the eight gods," who existed before the rest.
Hercules is one of the gods of the second order,
who are known as "the twelve"; and Bacchus
belongs to the gods of the third order, whom
the twelve produced. I have already mentioned
how many years intervened according to the
Egyptians between the birth of Hercules and
the reign of Amasis. From Pan to this period
they count a still longer time; and even from
Bacchus, who is the youngest of the three, they
reckon fifteen thousand years to the reign of
that king. In these matters they say they can-
not be mistaken, as they have always kept
count of the years, and noted them in their reg-
isters. But from the present day to the time of
Bacchus, the reputed son of Semele, daughter
of Cadmus, is a period of not more than six-
teen hundred years; to that of Hercules, son of
Alcmena, is about nine hundred; while to the
time of Pan, son of Penelope* (Pan, according
to the Greeks, was her child by Mercury), is
a shorter space than to the Trojan war, eight
hundred years or thereabouts,

146. It is open to all to receive whichever he
may prefer of these two traditions; my own
opinion about them has been already declared.
If indeed these gods had been publicly known,
and had grown old in Greece, as was the case
with Hercules, son of Amphitryon, Bacchus,
son of Semete, and Pan, son of Penelop£, it
might have been said that the last-mentioned
personages were men who bore the names of
certain previously existing deities. But Bac-
chus, according to the Greek tradition, was no
sooner born than he was sewn up in Jupiter's
thigh, and carried off to Nysa, above Egypt, in
Ethiopia; and as to Pan, they do not even pro-

fess to know what happened to him after his
birth. To me, therefore, it is quite manifest
that the names of these gods became known to
the Greeks after those of their other deities,
and that they count their birth from the time
when they first acquired a knowledge of them.
Thus far my narrative rests on the accounts
given by the Egyptians.

147. In what follows I have the authority,
not of the Egyptians only, but of others also
who agree with them. I shall speak likewise in
part from my own observation. When the
Egyptians regained their liberty after the reign
of the priest of Vulcan, unable to continue any
while without a king, they divided Egypt into
twelve districts, and set twelve kings over
them. These twelve kings, united together by
intermarriages, ruled Egypt in peace, having
entered into engagements with one another
not to depose any of their number, nor to aim
at any aggrandisement of one above the rest,
but to dwell together in perfect amity. Now the
reason why they made these stipulations, and
guarded with care against their infraction, was
because at the very first establishment of the
twelve kingdoms an oracle had declared —
"That he among them who should pour in
Vulcan's temple a libation from a cup of
bronze would become monarch of the whole
land of Egypt." Now the twelve held their
meetings at all the temples.

148. To bind themselves yet more closely to-
gether, it seemed good to them to leave a com-
mon monument. In pursuance of this resolu-
tion they made the Labyrinth which lies a little
above Lake Moeris, in the neighbourhood of
the place called the city of Crocodiles. I visited
this place, and found it to surpass description;
for if all the walls and other great works of the
Greeks could be put together in one, they
would not equal, either for labour or expense,
this Labyrinth; and yet the temple of Ephesus
is a building worthy of note, and so is the tem-
ple of Samos. The pyramids likewise surpass
description, and are severally equal to a num-
ber of the greatest works of the Greeks, but the
Labyrinth surpasses the pyramids. It has twelve
courts, all of them roofed, with gates exactly
opposite one another, six looking to the north,
and six to the south. A single wall surrounds
the entire building. There are two different
sorts of chambers throughout — half under
ground, half above ground, the latter built
upon the former; the whole number of these
chambers is three thousand, fifteen hundred of
each kind. The upper chambers I myself passed

144-15*1

THE HISTORY

81

through and saw, and what I say concerning
them is from my own observation; of the un-
derground chambers I can only speak from re-
port: for the keepers of the building could not
be got to show them, since they contained (as
they said) the sepulchres of the kings who built
the Labyrinth, and also those of the sacred
crocodiles. Thus it is from hearsay only that I
can speak of the lower chambers. The upper
chambers, however, I saw with my own eyes,
and found them to excel all other human pro-
ductions; for the passages through the houses,
and the varied windings of the paths across the
courts excited in me infinite admiration as I
passed from the courts into chambers, and from
the chambers into colonnades, and from the
colonnades into fresh houses, and again from
these into courts unseen before. The roof was
throughout of stone, like the walls; and the
walls were carved all over with figures; every
court was surrounded with a colonnade which
was built of white stones exquisitely fitted to-
gether. At the corner of the Labyrinth stands
a pyramid, forty fathoms high, with large fig-
ures engraved on it, which is entered by a
subterranean passage.

149. Wonderful as is the Labyrinth, the
work called the Lake of Mceris, which is close
by the Labyrinth, is yet more astonishing. The
measure of its circumference is sixty schoenes,
or three thousand six hundred furlongs, which
is equal to the entire length of Egypt along the
sea-coast. The lake stretches in its longest direc-
tion from north to south, and in its deepest
parts is of the depth of fifty fathoms. It is man-
ifestly an artificial excavation, for nearly in the
centre there stand two pyramids, rising to the
height of fifty fathoms above the surface of the
water, and extending as far beneath, crowned
each of them with a colossal statue sitting upon
a throne. Thus these pyramids are one hun-
dred fathoms high, which is exactly a furlong
(stadium) of six hundred feet: the fathom be-
ing six feet in length, or four cubits, which is
the same thing, since a cubit measures six, and
a foot four, palms. The water of the lake does
not come out of the ground, which is here ex-
cessively dry, but is introduced by a canal from
the Nile. The current sets for six months into
the lake from the river, and for the next six
months into the river from the lake. While it
runs outward it returns a talent of silver daily
to the royal treasury from the fish that are
taken, but when the current is the other way
the return sinks to one-third of that sum.

150. The natives told me that there was a

subterranean passage from this lake to the Lib-
yan Syrtis, running westward into the interior
by the hills above Memphis. As I could not
anywhere see the earth which had been taken
out when the excavation was made, and I was
curious to know what had become of it, I asked
the Egyptians who live closest to the lake
where the earth had been put. The answer that
they gave me I readily accepted as true, since I
had heard of the same thing being done at
Nineveh of the Assyrians. There, once upon a
time, certain thieves, having formed a plan to
get into their possession the vast treasures of
Sardanapalus, the Ninevite king, which were
laid up in subterranean treasuries, proceeded
to tunnel a passage from the house where they
lived into the royal palace, calculating the dis-
tance and the direction. At nightfall they took
the earth from the excavation and carried it to
the river Tigris, which ran by Nineveh, con-
tinuing to get rid of it in this manner until they
had accomplished their purpose. It was exactly
in the same way that the Egyptians disposed of
the mould from their excavation, except that
they did it by day and not by night; for as fast
as the earth was dug, they carried it to the
Nile, which they knew would disperse it far
and wide. Such was the account which I re-
ceived of the formation of this lake.

151. The twelve kings for some time dealt
honourably by one another, but at length it
happened that on a certain occasion, when they
had met to worship in the temple of Vulcan,
the high-priest on the last day of the festival,
in bringing forth the golden goblets from
which they were wont to pour the libations,
mistook the number and brought eleven gob-
lets only for the twelve princes. Psammetichus
was standing last, and, being left without a
cup, he took his helmet, which was of bronze,
from of? his head, stretched it out to receive the
liquor, and so made his libation. All the kings
were accustomed to wear helmets, and all in-
deed wore them at this very time. Nor was
there any crafty design in the action of Psam-
metichus. The eleven, however, when they
came to consider what had been done, and be-
thought them of the oracle which had declared
"that he who, of the twelve, should pour a
libation from a cup of bronze, the same would
be king of the whole land of Egypt," doubted
at first if they should not put Psammetichus to
death. Finding, however, upon examination,
that he had acted in the matter without any
guilty intent, they did not think it would be
just to kill him; but determined, instead, to

82

HERODOTUS

[BOOK H

strip him of the chief part of his power and to
banish him to the marshes, forbidding him to
leave them or to hold any communication with
the rest of Egypt.

152. This was the second time that Psam-
metichus had been driven into banishment. On
a former occasion he had fled from Sabacos
the Ethiopian, who had put his father Necos
to death; and had taken refuge in Syria from
whence, after the retirement of the Ethiop in
consequence of his dream, he was brought
back by the Egyptians of the Sai'tic canton.
Now it was his ill-fortune to be banished a sec-
ond time by the eleven kings, on account of the
libation which he had poured from his helmet;
on this occasion he fled to the marshes. Feeling
that he was an injured man, and designing to
avenge himself upon his persecutors, Psam-
metichus sent to the city of Buto, where there
is an oracle of Latona, the most veracious of all
the oracles of the Egyptians, and having in-
quired concerning means of vengeance, re-
ceived for answer that "Vengeance would
come from the sea, when brazen men should
appear." Great was his incredulity when this
answer arrived, for never, he thought, would
brazen men arrive to be his helpers. However,
not long afterwards certain Carians and loni-
ans, who had left their country on a voyage of
plunder, were carried by stress of weather to
Egypt where they disembarked, all equipped
in their brazen armour, and were seen by the
natives, one of whom carried the tidings to
Psammetichus, and, as he had never before
seen men clad in brass, he reported that brazen
men had come from the sea and were plunder-
ing the plain. Psammetichus, perceiving at
once that the oracle was accomplished, made
friendly advances to the strangers, and engaged
them, by splendid promises, to enter into his
service. He then, with their aid and that of the
Egyptians who espoused his cause, attacked the
eleven and vanquished them.

153. When Psammetichus had thus become
sole monarch of Egypt, he built the southern
gateway of the temple of Vulcan in Memphis,
and also a court for Apis, in which Apis is kept
whenever he makes his appearance in Egypt.
This court is opposite the gateway of Psam-
metichus, and is surrounded with a colonnade
and adorned with a multitude of figures. In-
stead of pillars, the colonnade rests upon co-
lossal statues, twelve cubits in height. The
Greek name for Apis is Epaphus.

154. To the lonians and Carians who had
lent him their assistance Psammetichus as-

signed as abodes two places opposite to each
other, one on either side of the Nile, which re-
ceived the name of "the Camps." He also made
good all the splendid promises by which he had
gained their support; and further, he intrusted
to their care certain Egyptian children whom
they were to teach the language of the Greeks.
These children, thus instructed, became the
parents of the entire class of interpreters in
Egypt. The lonians and Carians occupied for
many years the places assigned them by Psam-
metichus, which lay near the sea, a little below
the city of Bubastis, on the Pelusiac mouth of
the Nile. King Amasis long afterwards re-
moved the Greeks hence, and settled them at
Memphis to guard him against the native
Egyptians. From the date of the original set-
tlement of these persons in Egypt, we Greeks,
through our intercourse with them, have ac-
quired an accurate knowledge of the several
events in Egyptian history, from the reign of
Psammetichus downwards; but before his time
no foreigners had ever taken up their residence
in that land. The docks where their vessels
were laid up and the ruins of their habita-
tions were still to be seen in my day at the
place where they dwelt originally, before they
were removed by Amasis. Such was the mode
by which Psammetichus became master of
Egypt.

155. 1 have already made mention more than
once of the Egyptian oracle, and, as it well de-
serves notice, I shall now proceed to give an
account of it more at length. It is a temple of
Latona, situated in the midst of a great city on
the Sebennytic mouth of the Nile, at some dis-
tance up the river from the sea. The name of
the city, as I have before observed, is Buto; and
in it are two other temples also, one of Apollo
and one of Diana. Latona's temple, which con-
tains the oracle, is a spacious building with a
gateway ten fathoms in height. The most won-
derful thing that was actually to be seen about
this temple was a chapel in the enclosure made
of a single stone, the length and height of
which were the same, each wall being forty
cubits square, and the whole a single block!
Another block of stone formed the roof and
projected at the eaves to the extent of four cu-
bits.

156. This, as I have said, was what aston-
ished me the most, of all the things that were
actually to be seen about the temple. The next
greatest marvel was the island called Chem-
mis. This island lies in the middle of a broad
and deep lake close by the temple, and the

152-160]

THE HISTORY

83

natives declare that it floats. For my own part
I did not see it float, or even move; and I won-
dered greatly, when they told me concerning
it, whether there be really such a thing as a
floating island. It has a grand temple of Apollo
built upon it, in which are three distinct altars.
Palm trees grow on it in great abundance, and
many other trees, some of which bear fruit,
while others are barren. The Egyptians tell the
following story in connection with this island,
to explain the way in which it first came to
float: — "In former times, when the isle was
still fixed and motionless, Latona, one of the
eight gods of the first order, who dwelt in the
city of Buto, where now she has her oracle, re-
ceived Apollo as a sacred charge from Isis, and
saved him by hiding him in what is now called
the floating island. Typhon meanwhile was
searching everywhere in hopes of finding the
child of Osiris." (According to the Egyptians,
Apollo and Diana are the children of Bacchus
and Isis, while Latona is their nurse and their
preserver. They call Apollo, in their language,
Horus; Ceres they call Isis; Diana, Bubastis.
From this Egyptian tradition, and from no
other, it must have been that ^schylus, the son
of Euphorion, took the idea, which is found in
none of the earlier poets, of making Diana the
daughter of Ceres.) The island, therefore, in
consequence of this event, was first made to
float. Such at least is the account which the
Egyptians give.

157. Psammetichus ruled Egypt for fifty-
four years, during twenty-nine of which he
pressed the siege of Azotus without intermis-
sion, till finally he took the place. Azotus is a
great town in Syria. Of all the cities that we
know, none ever stood so long a siege.

158. Psammetichus left a son called Necos,
who succeeded him upon the throne. This
prince was the first to attempt the construction
of the canal to the Red Sea — a work completed
afterwards by Darius the Persian — the length
of which is four days' journey, and the width
such as to admit of two triremes being rowed
along it abreast. The water is derived from the
Nile, which the canal leaves a little above the
city of Bubastis, near Patftmus, the Arabian
town, being continued thence until it joins the
Red Sea. At first it is carried along the Arabian
side of the Egyptian plain, as far as the chain
of hills opposite Memphis, whereby the plain
is bounded, and in which lie the great stone
quarries; here it skirts the base of the hills run-
ning in a direction from west to east, after
which it turns and enters a narrow pass, trend-

ing southwards from this point until it enters
the Arabian Gulf. From the northern sea to
that which is called the southern or Erythraean,
the shortest and quickest passage, which is
from Mount Casius, the boundary between
Egypt and Syria, to the Gulf of Arabia, is a dis-
tance of exactly one thousand furlongs. But the
way by the canal is very much longer on ac-
count of the crookedness of its course. A hun-
dred and twenty thousand of the Egyptians,
employed upon the work in the reign of Necos,
lost their lives in making the excavation. He at
length desisted from his undertaking, in con-
sequence of an oracle which warned him "that
he was labouring for the barbarian." The
Egyptians call by the name of barbarians all
such as speak a language different from their
own.

159. Necos, when he gave up the construc-
tion of the canal, turned all his thoughts to war,
and set to work to build a fleet of triremes,
some intended for service in the northern sea,
and some for the navigation of the Erythraean.
These last were built in the Arabian Gulf
where the dry docks in which they lay are still
visible. These fleets he employed wherever he
had occasion, while he also made war by land
upon the Syrians and defeated them in a
pitched battle at Magdolus, after which he
made himself master of Cadytis, a large city of
Syria. The dress which he wore on these occa-
sions he sent to Branchidae in Milesia, as an
offering to Apollo. After having reigned in
all sixteen years, Necos died, and at his death
bequeathed the throne to his son Psammis.

1 60. In the reign of Psammis, ambassadors
from Elis arrived in Egypt, boasting that their
arrangements for the conduct of the Olympic
Games were the best and fairest that could be
devised, and fancying that not even the Egyp-
tians, who surpassed all other nations in wis-
dom, could add anything to their perfection.
When these persons reached Egypt, and ex-
plained the reason of their visit, the king sum-
moned an assembly of all the wisest of the
Egyptians. They met, and the Eleans having
given them a full account of all their rules and
regulations with respect to the contests said
that they had come to Egypt for the express
purpose of learning whether the Egyptians
could improve the fairness of their regulations
in any particular. The Egyptians considered
awhile and then made inquiry, "If they al-
lowed their own citizens to enter the lists?"
The Eleans answered, "That the lists were
open to all Greeks, whether they belonged to

84

HERODOTUS

Elis or to any other state." Hereupon the
Egyptians observed, "That if this were so, they
departed from justice very widely, since it was
impossible but that they would favour their
own countrymen and deal unfairly by for-
eigners. If therefore they really wished to man-
age the games with fairness, and if this was the
object of their coming to Egypt, they advised
them to confine the contests to strangers, and
allow no native of Elis to be a candidate." Such
was the advice which the Egyptians gave to the
Eleans.

161. Psammis reigned only six years. He
attacked Ethiopia, and died almost directly
afterwards. Aprics, his son, succeeded him
upon the throne, who, excepting Psammeti-
chus, his great-grandfather, was the most pros-
perous of all the kings that ever ruled over
Egypt. The length of his reign was twenty-five
years, and in the course of it he marched an
army to attack Sidon, and fought a battle with
the king of Tyre by sea. When at length the
time came that was fated to bring him woe, an
occasion arose which I shall describe more fully
in my Libyan history, only touching it very
briefly here. An army despatched by Apries to
attack Cyrene, having met with a terrible re-
verse, the Egyptians laid the blame on him,
imagining that he had, of malice prepense,
sent the troops into the jaws of destruction.
They believed he had wished a vast number of
them to be slain in order that he himself
might reign with more security over the rest
of the Egyptians. Indignant therefore at this
usage, the soldiers who returned and the
friends of the slain broke instantly into revolt.

162. Apries, on learning these circumstances,
sent Amasis to the rebels to appease the tumult
by persuasion. Upon his arrival, as he was seek-
ing to restrain the malcontents by his exhorta-
tions, one of them, coming behind him, put a
helmet on his head, saying, as he put it on, that
he thereby crowned him king. Amasis was not
altogether displeased at the action, as his con-
duct soon made manifest; for no sooner had the
insurgents agreed to make him actually their
king than he prepared to march with them
against Apries. That monarch, on tidings of
these events reaching him, sent Patarbemis,
one of his courtiers, a man of high rank, to
Amasis with orders to bring him alive into
his presence. Patarbemis, on arriving at the
place where Amasis was, called on him to come
back with him to the king, whereupon Amasis
broke a coarse jest, and said, "Prythee take
that back to thy master." When the envoy, not-

[BOOK ii

withstanding this reply, persisted in his re-
quest, exhorting Amasis to obey the summons
of the king, he made answer "that this was
exactly what he had long been intending to do;
Apries would have no reason to complain of
him on the score of delay; he would shortly
come himself to the king, and bring others
with him/* Patarbemis, upon this, compre-
hending the intention of Amasis, partly from
his replies and partly from the preparations
which he saw in progress, departed hastily,
wishing to inform the king with all speed of
what was going on. Apries, however, when he
saw him approaching without Amasis, fell
into a paroxysm of rage, and not giving him-
self time for reflection, commanded the nose
and ears of Patarbemis to be cut off. Then the
rest of the Egyptians, who had hitherto es-
poused the cause of Apries, when they saw a
man of such note among them so shamefully
outraged, without a moment's hesitation went
over to the rebels, and put themselves at the
disposal of Amasis.

163. Apries, informed of this new calamity,
armed his mercenaries, and led them against
the Egyptians: this was a body of Carians and
lonians, numbering thirty thousand men,
which was now with him at Sai's, where his
palace stood — a vast building, well worthy of
notice. The army of Apries marched out to
attack the host of the Egyptians, while that of
Amasis went forth to fight the strangers; and
now both armies drew near the city of Mo-
memphis and prepared for the coming fight.

164. The Egyptians are divided into seven
distinct classes — these are, the priests, the war-
riors, the cowherds, the swineherds, the trades-
men, the interpreters, and the boatmen. Their
titles indicate their occupations. The warriors
consist of Hermotybians and Calasirians, who
come from different cantons, the whole of
Egypt being parcelled out into districts bearing
this name.

165. The following cantons furnish the
Hermotybians: — The cantons of Busiris, Sai's,
Chemmis, Papremis, that of the island called
Prosopitis, and half of Natho. They number,
when most numerous, a hundred and sixty
thousand. None of them ever practices a trade,
but all are given wholly to war.

1 66. The cantons of the Calasirians are dif-
ferent— they include the following: — The can-
tons of Thebes, Bubastis, Aphthis, Tanis, Men-
des, Sebennytus, Athribis, Pharbxthus, Th-
muis, Onuphis, Anysis, and Myecphoris — this
last canton consists of an island which lies over

161-172]

THE HISTORY

85

against the town of Bubastis. The Calasirians,
when at their greatest number, have amount-
ed to two hundred and fifty thousand. Like
the Hermotybians, they are forbidden to pur-
sue any trade, and devote themselves entirely
to warlike exercises, the son following the
father's calling.

167. Whether the Greeks borrowed from the
Egyptians their notions about trade, like so
many others, I cannot say for certain. I have
remarked that the Thracians, the Scyths, the
Persians, the Lydians, and almost all other bar-
barians, hold the citizens who practice trades,
and their children, in less repute than the rest,
while they esteem as •noble those who keep
aloof from handicrafts, and especially honour
such as are given wholly to war. These ideas
prevail throughout the whole of Greece, par-
ticularly among the Lacedaemonians. Corinth
is the place where mechanics are least despised.

1 68. The warrior class in Egypt had certain
special privileges in which none of the rest of
the Egyptians participated, except the priests.
In the first place each man had twelve arura1
of land assigned him free from tax. (The arura
is a square of a hundred Egyptian cubits, the
Egyptian cubit being of the same length as the
Samian.) All the warriors enjoyed this priv-
ilege together, but there were other advantages
which came to each in rotation, the same man
never obtaining them twice. A thousand Cal-
asirians, and the same number of Hermoty-
bians, formed in alternate years the body-guard
of the king; and during their year of service
these persons, besides their arurce, received a
daily portion of meat and drink, consisting of
five pounds of baked bread, two pounds of
beef, and four cups of wine.

169. When Apries, at the head of his mer-
cenaries, and Amasis, in command of the
whole native force of the Egyptians, encount-
ered one another near the city of Momemphis,
an engagement presently took place. The for-
eign troops fought bravely, but were over-
powered by numbers, in which they fell very
far short of their adversaries. It is said that Ap-
ries believed that there was not a god who
could cast him down from his eminence, so
firmly did he think that he had established
himself in his kingdom. But at this time the
battle went against him, and his army being
worsted, he fell into the enemy's hands and
was brought back a prisoner to Sais, where he
was lodged in what had been his own house,

1 The arura was a little more than three-fourths
of an English acre, and was only a land measure.

but was now the palace of Amasis. Amasis
treated him with kindness, and kept him in
the palace for a while; but finding his conduct
blamed by the Egyptians, who charged him
with acting unjustly in preserving a man who
had shown himself so bitter an enemy both to
them and him, he gave Apries over into the
hands of his former subjects, to deal with as
they chose. Then the Egyptians took him and
strangled him, but having so done they buried
him in the sepulchre of his fathers. This tomb
is in the temple of Minerva, very near the sanc-
tuary, on the left hand as one enters. The Saites
buried all the kings who belonged to their can-
ton inside this temple; and thus it even con-
tains the tomb of Amasis, as well as that of Ap-
ries and his family. The latter is not so close to
the sanctuary as the former, but still it is with-
in the temple. It stands in the court, and is a
spacious cloister built of stone and adorned
with pillars carved so as to resemble palm trees,
and with other sumptuous ornaments. Within
the cloister is a chamber with folding doors, be-
hind which lies the sepulchre of the king.

170. Here too, in this same precinct of Mi-
nerva at Sai's, is the burial-place of one whom
I think it not right to mention in such a con-
nection.2 It stands behind the temple, against
the backwall, which it entirely covers. There
are also some large stone obelisks in the en-
closure, and there is a lake near them, adorned
with an edging of stone. In form it is circular,
and in size, as it seemed to me, about equal to
the lake in Delos called "the Hoop."

171. On this lake it is that the Egyptians rep-
resent by night his sufferings whose name I re-
frain from mentioning, and this representation
they call their Mysteries. I know well the whole
course of the proceedings in these ceremonies,
but they shall not pass my lips. So too, with re-
gard to the mysteries of Ceres, which the
Greeks term "the Thcsmophoria," I know
them, but I shall not mention them, except so
far as may be done without impiety. The
daughters of Danaus brought these rites from
Egypt, and taught them to the Pelasgic women
of the Peloponnese. Afterwards, when the in-
habitants of the peninsula were driven from
their homes by the Dorians, the rites perished.
Only in Arcadia, where the natives remained
and were not compelled to migrate, their ob-
servance continued.

172. After Apries had been put to death in
the way that I have described above, Amasis
reigned over Egypt. He belonged to the can-

2 Osiris.

86

HERODOTUS

[ BOOK ii

ton of Sai's, being a native of the town called
Siouph. At first his subjects looked down on
him and held him in small esteem, because he
had been a mere private person, and of a house
of no great distinction; but after a time Amasis
succeeded in reconciling them to his rule, not
by severity, but by cleverness. Among his other
splendour he had a golden foot-pan, in which
his guests and himself were wont upon occa-
sion to wash their feet. This vessel he caused to
be broken in pieces, and made of the gold an
image of one of the gods, which he set up in
the most public place in the whole city; upon
which the Egyptians flocked to the image, and
worshipped it with the utmost reverence. Ama-
sis, finding this was so, called an assembly, and
opened the matter to them, explaining how the
image had been made of the foot-pan, wherein
they had been wont formerly to wash their feet
and to put all manner of filth, yet now it was
greatly reverenced. "And truly," he went on to
say, "it had gone with him as with the foot-
pan. If he was a private person formerly, yet
now he had come to be their king. And so he
bade them honour and reverence him." Such
was the mode in which he won over the Egyp-
tians, and brought them to be content to do
him service.

173. The following was the general habit of
his life: — from early dawn to the time when
the forum is wont to fill, he sedulously trans-
acted all the business that was brought before
him; during the remainder of the day he drank
and joked with his guests, passing the time in
witty and, sometimes, scarce seemly conversa-
tion. It grieved his friends that he should thus
demean himself, and accordingly some of them
chid him on the subject, saying to him — "Oh!
king, thou dost but ill guard thy royal dignity
whilst thou allowest thyself in such levities.
Thou shouldest sit in state upon a stately
throne, and busy thyself with affairs the whole
day long. So would the Egyptians feel that a
great man rules them, and thou wouldst be bet-
ter spoken of. But now thou conductest thy-
self in no kingly fashion." Amasis answered
them thus: — "Bowmen bend their bows when
they wish to shoot; unbrace them when the
shoot'ng is over. Were they kept always strung
they would break, and fail the archer in time
of need. So it is with men. If they give them-
selves constantly to serious work, and never in-
dulge awhile in pastime or sport, they lose their
senses, and become mad or moody. Know-
ing this, I divide my life between pastime
and business." Thus he answered his friends.

174. It is said that Amasis, even while he
was a private man, had the same tastes for
drinking and jesting, and was averse to engag-
ing in any serious employment. He lived in
constant feasts and revelries, and whenever his
means failed him, he roamed about and robbed
people. On such occasions the persons from
whom he had stolen would bring him, if he
denied the charge, before the nearest oracle;
sometimes the oracle would pronounce him
guilty of the theft, at other times it would ac-
quit him. When afterwards he came to be
king, he neglected the temples of such gods
as had declared that he was not a thief, and
neither contributed to«their adornment nor
frequented them for sacrifice, since he regard-
ed them as utterly worthless and their oracles
as wholly false: but the gods who had detected
his guilt he considered to be true gods whose
oracles did not deceive, and these he honoured
exceedingly.

175. First of all, therefore, he built the gate-
way of the temple of Minerva at Sais, which is
an astonishing work, far surpassing all other
buildings of the same kind both in extent and
height, and built with stones of rare size and
excellency. In the next place, he presented to
the temple a number of large colossal statues
and several prodigious andro-sphinxes, besides
certain stones for the repairs, of a most extraor-
dinary size. Some of these he got from the
quarries over against Memphis, but the largest
were brought from Elephantine, which is
twenty days' voyage from Sai's. Of all these
wonderful masses that which I most admire is
a chamber made of a single stone, which was
quarried at Elephantine. It took three years to
convey this block from the quarry to Sai's; and
in the conveyance were employed no fewer
than two thousand labourers, who were all
from the class of boatmen. The length of this
chamber on the outside is twenty-one cubits, its
breadth fourteen cubits, and its height, eight.
The measurements inside are the following: —
the length, eighteen cubits and five-sixths; the
breadth, twelve cubits; and the height, five. It
lies near the entrance of the temple, where it
was left in consequence of the following cir-
cumstance:— it happened that the architect,
just as the stone had reached the spot where it
now stands, heaved a sigh, considering the
length of time that the removal had taken, and
feeling wearied with the heavy toil. The sigh
was heard by Amasis who, regarding it as an
omen, would not allow the chamber to be
moved forward any farther. Some, however,

THE HISTORY

87

say that one of the workmen engaged at the
levers was crushed and killed by the mass, and
that this was the reason of its being left where
it now stands.

176. To the other temples of much note
Amasis also made magnificent offerings — at
Memphis, for instance, he gave the recumbent
colossus in front of the temple of Vulcan,
which is seventy-five feet long. Two other co-
lossal statues stand on the same base, each
twenty feet high, carved in the stone of Ethi-
opia, one on either side of the temple. There
is also a stone colossus of the same size at Sai's,
recumbent like that at Memphis. Amasis final-
ly built the temple of Isis at Memphis, a vast
structure, well worth seeing.

177. It is said that the reign of Amasis was
the most prosperous time that Egypt ever saw,
— the river was more liberal to the land, and
the land brought forth more abundantly for
the service of man than had ever been known
before; while the number of inhabited cities
was not less than twenty thousand. It was this
king Amasis who established the law that
every Egyptian should appear once a year
before the governor of his canton, and show
his means of living; or, failing to do so,
and to prove that he got an honest livelihood,
should be put to death. Solon the Athenian
borrowed this law from the Egyptians, and
imposed it on his countrymen, who have ob-
served it ever since. It is indeed an excellent
custom.

178. Amasis was partial to the Greeks, and
among other favours which he granted them,
gave to such as liked to settle in Egypt the city
of Naucratis for their residence. To those who
only wished to trade upon the coast, and did
not want to fix their abode in the country, he
granted certain lands where they might set up
altars and erect temples to the gods. Of these
temples the grandest and most famous, which
is also the most frequented, is that called "the
Hellenium." It Was built conjointly by the lo-
nians, Dorians, and yEolians, the following
cities taking part in the work: — the Ionian
states of Chios, Teos, Phocaea, and Clazomenae;
Rhodes, Cnidus,Halicarnassus,and Phaselis of
the Dorians; and Mytilene of the ^Eolians.
These are the states to whom the temple be-
longs, and they have the right of appointing
the governors of the factory; the other cities
which claim a share in the building, claim
what in no sense belongs to them. Three na-
tions, however, consecrated for themselves sep-
arate temples — the Eginetans one to Jupiter,

the Samians to Juno, and the Milesians to
Apollo.

179. In ancient times there was no factory
but Naucratis in the whole of Egypt; and if a
person entered one of the other mouths of the
Nile, he was obliged to swear that he had not
come there of his own free will. Having so
done, he was bound to sail in his ship to the
Canobic mouth, or were that impossible ow-
ing to contrary winds, he must take his wares
by boat all round the Delta, and so bring them
to Naucratis, which had an exclusive privilege.

1 80. It happened in the reign of Amasis that
the temple of Delphi had been accidentally
burnt, and the Amphictyons had contracted to
have it rebuilt for three hundred talents, of
which sum one-fourth was to be furnished by
the Dclphians. Under these circumstances the
Delphians went from city to city begging con-
tributions, and among their other wanderings
came to Egypt and asked for help. From few
other places did they obtain so much — Amasis
gave them a thousand talents of alum, and the
Greek settlers twenty minae.1

181. A league was concluded by Amasis
with the Cyrcnaeans, by which Gyrene* and
Egypt became close friends and allies. He like-
wise took a wife from that city, either as a sign
of his friendly feeling, or because he had a
fancy to marry a Greek woman. However this
may be, certain it is that he espoused a lady of
Gyrene, by name Ladice*, daughter, some say,
of Battus or Arcesilaiis, the king — others, of
Critobulus, one of the chief citizens. When the
time came to complete the contract, Amasis
was struck with weakness. Astonished hercat
— for he was not wont to be so afflicted — the
king thus addressed his bride: " Woman, thou
hast certainly bewitched me — now therefore
be sure thou shalt perish more miserably than
ever woman perished yet/' Ladice protested
her innocence, but in vain; Amasis was not
softened. Hereupon she made a vow internal-
ly, that if he recovered within the day (for no
longer time was allowed her), she would pre-
sent a statue to the temple of Venus at Gyrene.
Immediately she obtained her wish, and the
king's weakness disappeared. Amasis loved
her greatly ever after, and Ladice performed
her vow. The statue which she caused to be
made, and sent to Gyrene, continued there to
my day, standing with its face looking out-
wards from the city. Ladice herself, when Cam-

1 Twenty minae would be somewhat more than
£80. The entire sum which the Delphians had to
collect exceeded £18,000.

HERODOTUS

byses conquered Egypt, suffered no wrong;
for Cambyses, on learning of her who she was,
sent her back unharmed to her country.

182. Besides the marks of favour already
mentioned, Amasis also enriched with offer-
ings many of the Greek temples. He sent to
Gyrene' a statue of Minerva covered with plates
of gold, and a painted likeness of himself. To
the Minerva of Lindus he gave two statues in
stone, and a linen corslet well worth inspec-
tion. To the Samian Juno he presented two
statues of himself, made in wood, which stood

in the great temple to my day, behind the
doors. Samos was honoured with these gifts on
account of the bond of friendship subsisting
between Amasis and Polycrates, the son of
^Eaces: Lindus, for no such reason, but be-
cause of the tradition that the daughters of
Danaus touched there in their flight from the
sons of ^Egyptus, and built the temple of
Minerva. Such were the offerings of Amasis.
He likewise took Cyprus, which no man had
ever done before, and compelled it to pay him
a tribute.

The Third Book, Entitled
THALIA

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i. The above-mentioned Amasis was the Egyp-
tian king against whom Cambyses, son of Cy-
rus, made his expedition; and with him went
an army composed of the many nations under
his rule, among them being included both Io-
nic and ^Eolic Greeks. The reason of the inva-
sion was the following. Cambyses, by the ad-
vice of a certain Egyptian, who was angry with
Amasis for having torn him from his wife and
children and given him over to the Persians,
had sent a herald to Amasis to ask his daughter
in marriage. His adviser was a physician,
whom Amasis, when Cyrus had requested
that he would send him the most skilful of all
the Egyptian eye-doctors, singled out as the
best from the whole number. Therefore the
Egyptian bore Amasis a grudge, and his rea-
son for urging Cambyses to ask the hand of
the king's daughter was, that if he complied, it
might cause him annoyance; if he refused, it
might make Cambyses his enemy. When the
message came, Amasis, who much dreaded the
power of the Persians, was greatly perplexed
whether to give his daughter or no; for that
Cambyses did not intend to make her his wife,
but would only receive her as his concubine, he
knew for certain. He therefore cast the matter
in his mind, and finally resolved what he
would do. There was a daughter of the late
king Apries, named Nitetis, a tail and beautiful
woman, the last survivor of that royal house.
Amasis took this woman, and decking her
out with gold and costly garments, sent her to
Persia as if she had been his own child. Some
time afterwards, Cambyses, as he gave her an
embrace, happened to call her by her father's
name, whereupon she said to him, "I see, O
king, thou knowest not how thou has been
cheated by Amasis; who took me, and, trick-
ing me out with gauds, sent me to thee as his
own daughter. But I am in truth the child of
Apries, who was his lord and master, until he

89

rebelled against him, together with the rest of
the Egyptians, and put him to death." It was
this speech, and the cause of quarrel it dis-
closed, which roused the anger of Cambyses,
son of Cyrus, and brought his arms upon
Egypt. Such is the Persian story.

2. The Egyptians, however, claim Cambyses
as belonging to them, declaring that he was the
son of this Nitetis. It was Cyrus, they say, and
not Cambyses, who sent to Amasis for his
daughter. But here they mis-state the truth.
Acquainted as they are beyond all other men
with the laws and customs of the Persians, they
cannot but be well aware, first, that it is not
the Persian wont to allow a bastard to reign
when there is a legitimate heir; and next, that
Cambyses was the son of Cassandane, the
daughter of Pharnaspes, an Achaemenian, and
not of this Egyptian. But the fact is that they
pervert history in order to claim relationship
with the house of Cyrus. Such is the truth of
this matter.

3. I have also heard another account, which
I do not at all believe: that a Persian lady
came to visit the wives of Cyrus, and seeing
how tall and beautiful were the children of
Cassandane, then standing by, broke out into
loud praise of them, and admired trjem ex-
ceedingly. But Cassandan£, wife of Cyrus, an-
swered, "Though such the children I have
borne him, yet Cyrus slights me and gives all
his regard to the new-comer from Egypt."
Thus did she express her vexation on account
of Nitetis: whereupon Cambyses, the eldest of
her boys, exclaimed, "Mother, when I am a
man, I will turn Egypt upside down for you."
He was but ten years old, as the tale runs, when
he said this, and astonished all the women, yet
he never forgot it afterwards; and on this ac-
count, they say, when he came to be a man, and
mounted the throne, he made his expedition
against Egypt.

90

HERODOTUS

4. There was another matter, quite distinct,
which helped to bring about the expedition.
One of the mercenaries of Amasis, a Halicar-
nassian, Phanes by name, a man of good judg-
ment, and a brave warrior, dissatisfied for
some reason or other with his master, deserted
the service, and taking ship, fled to Cambyses,
wishing to get speech with him. As he was a
person of no small account among the mercen-
aries, and one who could give very exact in-
telligence about Egypt, Amasis, anxious to re-
cover him, ordered that he should be pursued.
He gave the matter in charge to one of the
most trusty of the eunuchs, who went in quest
of the Halicarnassian in a vessel of war. The
eunuch caught him in Lycia, but did not con-
trive to bring him back to Egypt, for Phanes
outwitted him by making his guards drunk,
and then escaping into Persia. Now it hap-
pened that Cambyses was meditating his at-
tack on Egypt, and doubting how he might
best pass the desert, when Phanes arrived, and
not only told him all the secrets of Amasis, but
advised him also how the desert might be
crossed. He counselled him to send an ambas-
sador to the king of the Arabs, and ask him
for safe-conduct through the region.

5. Now the only entrance into Egypt is by
this desert: the country from Phoenicia to the
borders of the city Cadytis belongs to the peo-
ple called the Palestine Syrians; from Cadytis,
which it appears to me is a city almost as large
as Sardis, the marts upon the coast till you
reach Jenysus are the Arabian king's; after
Jenysus the Syrians again come in, and extend
to Lake Serbonis, near the place where Mount
Casius juts out into the sea. At Lake Serb6nis,
where the tale goes that Typhon hid himself,
Egypt begins. Now the whole tract between
Jenysus on the one side, and Lake Serb6nis and
Mount Casius on the other, and this is no small
space, being as much as three days' journey, is
a dry desert without a drop of water.

6. I shall now mention a thing of which few
of those who sail to Egypt are aware. Twice a
year wine is brought into Egypt from every
part of Greece, as well as from Phoenicia, in
earthen jars; and yet in the whole country you
will nowhere see, as I may say, a single jar.
What then, every one will ask, becomes of the
jars? This, too, I will clear up. The burgomas-
ter of each town has to collect the wine-jars
within his district, and to carry them to Mem-
phis, where they are all filled with water by
the Memphians, who then convey them to this
desert tract of Syria. And so it comes to pass

[BooK ill

that all the jars which enter Egypt year by
year, and are there put up to sale, find their
way into Syria, whither all the old jars have
gone before them.

7. This way of keeping the passage into
Egypt fit for use by storing water there, was
begun by the Persians so soon as they became
masters of that country. As, however, at the
time of which we speak the tract had not yet
been so supplied, Cambyses took the advice of
his Halicarnassian guest, and sent messengers
to the Arabian to beg a safe-conduct through
the region. The Arabian granted his prayer,
and each pledged faith to the other.

8. The Arabs keep such pledges more re-
ligiously than almost any other people. They
plight faith with the forms following. When
two men would swear a friendship, they stand
on each side of a third: he with a sharp stone
makes a cut on the inside of the hand of each
near the middle finger, and, taking a piece
from their dress, dips it in the blood of each,
and moistens therewith seven stones lying in
the midst, calling the while on Bacchus and
Urania. After this, the man who makes the
pledge commends the stranger (or the citizen,
if citizen he be) to all his friends, and they
deem themselves bound to stand to the engage-
ment. They have but these two gods, to wit,
Bacchus and Urania; and they say that in their
mode of cutting the hair, they follow Bacchus.
Now their practice is to cut it in a ring, away
from the temples. Bacchus they call in their
language Orotal, and Urania, Alilat.

9. When, therefore, the Arabian had pledged
his faith to the messengers of Cambyses, he
straightway contrived as follows: — he filled a
number of camels' skins with water, and load-
ing therewith all the live camels that he pos-
sessed, drove them into the desert, and awaited
the coming of the army. This is the more like-
ly of the two tales that are told. The other is an
improbable story, but, as it is related, I think
that I ought not to pass it by. There is a great
river in Arabia, called the Corys, which emp-
ties itself into the Erythraean sea. The Arabian
king, they say, made a pipe of the skins of
oxen and other beasts, reaching from this river
all the way to the desert, and so brought the
water to certain cisterns which he had had dug
in the desert to receive it. It is a twelve days'
journey from the river to this desert tract. And
the water, they say, was brought through three
different pipes to three separate places.

10. Psammenitus, son of Amasis, lay en-
camped at the mouth of the Nile, called the

4-14 ]

THE HISTORY

91

Pelusiac, awaiting Cambyscs. For Cambyses,
when he went up against Egypt, found Amasis
no longer in life: he had died after ruling
Egypt forty and four years, during all which
time no great misfortune had befallen him.
When he died, his body was embalmed, and
buried in the tomb which he had himself
caused to be made in the temple. After his son
Psammenitus had mounted the throne, a
strange prodigy occurred in Egypt — rain fell
at Egyptian Thebes, a thing which never hap-
pened before, and which, to the present time,
has never happened again, as the Thebans
themselves testify. In Upper Egypt it does not
usually rain at all; but on this occasion, rain
fell at Thebes in small drops.

11. The Persians crossed the desert, and,
pitching their camp close to the Egyptians,
made ready for battle. Hereupon the merce-
naries in the pay of Psammenitus, who were
Greeks and Carians, full of anger against
Phanes for having brought a foreign army
upon Egypt, bethought themselves of a mode
whereby they might be revenged on him.
Phanes had left sons in Egypt. The mercena-
ries took these, and leading them to the camp,
displayed them before the eyes of their father;
after which they brought out a bowl, and,
placing it in the space between the two hosts,
they led the sons of Phanes, one by one, to the
vessel, and slew them over it. When the last
was dead, water and wine were poured into
the bowl, and all the soldiers tasted of the
blood, and so they went to the battle. Stubborn
was the fight which followed, and it was not
till vast numbers had been slain upon both
sides, that the Egyptians turned and fled.

12. On the field where this battle was fought
I saw a very wonderful thing which the natives
pointed out to me. The bones of the slain lie
scattered upon the field in two lots, those of
the Persians in one place by themselves, as the
bodies lay at the first — those of the Egyptians
in another place apart from them. If, then, you
strike the Persian skulls, even with a pebble,
they are so weak, that you break a hole in
them; but the Egyptian skulls are so strong,
that you may smite them with a stone and you
will scarcely break them in. They gave me the
following reason for this difference, which
seemed to me likely enough: — The Egyptians
(they said) from early childhood have the
head shaved, and so by the action of the sun
the skull becomes thick and hard. The same
cause prevents baldness in Egypt, where you
see fewer bald men than in any other land.

Such, then, is the reason why the skulls of the
Egyptians are so strong. The Persians, on the
other hand, have feeble skulls, because they
keep themselves shaded from the first, wearing
turbans upon their heads. What I have here
mentioned I saw with my own eyes, and I ob-
served also the like at Papremis, in the case of
the Persians who were killed with Achaemenes,
the son of Darius, by Inarus the Libyan.

13. The Egyptians who fought in the battle,
no sooner turned their backs upon the enemy,
than they fled away in complete disorder to
Memphis, where they shut themselves up with-
in the walls. Hereupon Cambyses sent a My-
tilenaean vessel, with a Persian herald on board,
who was to sail up the Nile to Memphis, and
invite the Egyptians to a surrender. They,
however, when they saw the vessel entering
the town, poured forth in crowds from the
castle, destroyed the ship, and, tearing the crew
limb from limb, so bore them into the fortress.
After this Memphis was besieged, and in due
time surrendered. Hereon the Libyans who
bordered upon Egypt, fearing the fate of that
country, gave themselves up to Cambyses with-
out a battle, made an agreement to pay tribute
to him, and forthwith sent him gifts. The Cy-
renacans too, and the Barcaeans, having the
same fear as the Libyans, immediately did the
like. Cambyses received the Libyan presents
very graciously, but not so the gifts of the Cy-
renaeans. They had sent no more than five hun-
dred minae of silver, which Cambyscs, I im-
agine, thought too little. He therefore snatched
the money from them, and with his own hands
scattered it among his soldiers.

14. Ten days after the fort had fallen, Cam-
byses resolved to try the spirit of Psammenitus,
the Egyptian king, whose whole reign had
been but six months. He therefore had him set
in one of the suburbs, and many other Egyp-
tians with him, and there subjected him to in-
sult. First of all he sent his daughter out from
the city, clothed in the garb of a slave, with a
pitcher to draw water. Many virgins, the
daughters of the chief nobles, accompanied
her, wearing the same dress. When the damsels
came opposite the place where their fathers
sate, shedding tears and uttering cries of woe,
the fathers, all but Psammenitus, wept and
wailed in return, grieving to see their children
in so sad a plight; but he, when he had looked
and seen, bent his head towards the ground.
In this way passed by the water-carriers. Next
to them came Psammenitus1 son, and two thou-
sand Egyptians of the same age with him — all

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of them having ropes round their necks and
bridles in their mouths — and they too passed
by on their way to suffer death for the murder
of the Mytilenaeans who were destroyed, with
their vessel, in Memphis. For so had the royal
judges given their sentence — "for each My-
tilenaean ten of the noblest Egyptians must for-
feit life." King Psammcnitus saw the train pass
on, and knew his son was being led to death,
but while the other Egyptians who sate
around him wept and were sorely troubled, he
showed no further sign than when he saw his
daughter. And now, when they too were gone,
it chanced that one of his former boon-com-
panions, a man advanced in years, who had
been stripped of all that he had and was a beg-
gar, came where Psammenitus, son of Amasis,
and the rest of the Egyptians were, asking alms
from the soldiers. At this sight the king burst
into tears, and weeping out aloud, called his
friend by his name, and smote himself on the
head. Now there were some who had been set
to watch Psammenitus and see what he would
do as each train went by; so these persons went
and told Cambyses of his behaviour. Then he,
astonished at what was done, sent a messenger
to Psammenitus, and questioned him, saying,
"Psammenitus, thy lord Cambyses asketh thee
why, when thou sawest thy daughter brought
to shame, and thy son on his way to death,
thou didst neither utter cry nor shed tear,
while to a beggar, who is, he hears, a stranger
to thy race, thou gavest those marks of hon-
our." To this question Psammenitus made an-
swer, "O son of Cyrus, my own misfortunes
were too great for tears; but the woe of my
friend deserved them. When a man falls from
splendour and plenty into beggary at the thres-
hold of old age, one may well weep for him."
When the messenger brought back this answer,
Cambyses owned it was just; Croesus, likewise,
the Egyptians say, burst into tears — for he too
had come into Egypt with Cambyses — and the
Persians who were present wept. Even Cam-
byses himself was touched with pity, and he
forthwith gave an order that the son of Psam-
menitus should be spared from the number of
those appointed to die, and Psammenitus him-
self brought from the suburb into his presence.
15. The messengers were too late to save the
life of Psammenitus* son, who had been cut
in pieces the first of all; but they took Psam-
menitus himself and brought him before the
king. Cambyses allowed him to live with him,
and gave him no more harsh treatment; nay,
could he have kept from intermeddling with

affairs, he might have recovered Egypt, and
ruled it as governor. For the Persian wont is to
treat the sons of kings with honour, and even
to give their fathers' kingdoms to the children
of such as revolt from them. There are many
cases from which one may collect that this is
the Persian rule, and especially those of Pau-
siris and Thannyras. Thannyras was son of
Inarus the Libyan, and was allowed to succeed
his father, as was also Pausiris, son of Amyr-
taeus; yet certainly no two persons ever did the
Persians more damage than Amyrtaeus and
Inarus. In this case Psammenitus plotted evil,
and received his reward accordingly. He was
discovered to be stirring up revolt in Egypt,
wherefore Cambyses, when his guilt clearly
appeared, compelled him to drink bull's blood,
which presently caused his death. Such was the
end of Psammenitus.

1 6. After this Cambyses left Memphis, and
went to Sai's, wishing to do that which he actu-
ally did on his arrival there. He entered the
palace of Amasis, and straightway commanded
that the body of the king should be brought
forth from the sepulchre. When the attendants
did according to his commandment, he further
bade them scourge the body, and prick it with
goads, and pluck the hair from it,1 and heap
upon it all manner of insults. The body, how-
ever, having been embalmed, resisted, and re-
fused to come apart, do what they would to it;
so the attendants grew weary of their work;
whereupon Cambyses bade them take the
corpse and burn it. This was truly an impious
command to give, for the Persians hold fire to
be a god, and never by any chance burn their
dead. Indeed this practice is unlawful, both
with them and with the Egyptians — with them
for the reason above mentioned, since they
deem it wrong to give the corpse of a man to a
god; and with the Egyptians, because they be-
lieve fire to be a live animal, which eats what-
ever it can seize, and then, glutted with the
food, dies with the matter which it feeds upon.
Now to give a man's body to be devoured by
beasts is in no wise agreeable to their customs,
and indeed this is the very reason why they
embalm their dead; namely, to prevent them
from being eaten in the grave by worms. Thus
Cambyses commanded what both nations ac-
counted unlawful. According to the Egyptians,

1 This is evidently a Greek statement, and not
derived from the Egyptian priests. There was no
hair to pluck out, the "head and all the body" of
the kings and priests being shaved. The whole
story may be doubted.

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93

it was not Amasis who was thus treated, but
another of their nation who was of about the
same height. The Persians, believing this man's
body to be the king's, abused it in the fashion
described above. Amasis, they say, was warned
by an oracle of what would happen to him
after his death: in order, therefore, to prevent
the impending fate, he buried the body, which
afterwards received the blows, inside his own
tomb near the entrance, commanding his son
to bury him, when he died, in the furthest re-
cess of the same sepulchre. For my own part
I do not believe that these orders were ever
given by Amasis; the Egyptians, as it seems to
me, falsely assert it, to save their own dignity.

17. After this Cambyses took counsel with
himself, and planned three expeditions. One
was against the Carthaginians, another against
the Ammonians, and a third against the long-
lived Ethiopians, who dwelt in that part of
Libya which borders upon the southern sea.
He judged it best to despatch his fleet against
Carthage and to send some portion of his land
army to act against the Ammonians, while his
spies went into Ethiopia, under the pretence of
carrying presents to the king, but in reality to
take note of all they saw, and especially to ob-
serve whether there was really what is called
"the table of the Sun" in Ethiopia.

1 8. Now the table of the Sun according to
the accounts given of it may be thus described:
— It is a meadow in the skirts of their city full
of the boiled flesh of all manner of beasts,
which the magistrates are careful to store with
meat every night, and where whoever likes
may come and eat during the day. The people
of the land say that the earth itself brings forth
the food. Such is the description which is given
of this table.

19. When Cambyses had made up his mind
that the spies should go, he forthwith sent to
Elephantine* for certain of the Icthyophagi who
were acquainted with the Ethiopian tongue;
and, while they were being fetched, issued or-
ders to his fleet to sail against Carthage. But the
Phoenicians said they would not go, since they
were bound to the Carthaginians by solemn
oaths, and since besides it would be wicked in
them to make war on their own children. Now
when the Phoenicians refused, the rest of the
fleet was unequal to the undertaking; and so it
was that the Carthaginians escaped, and were
not enslaved by the Persians. Cambyses
thought it not right to force the war upon the
Phoenicians, because they had yielded them-
selves to the Persians, and because upon the

Phoenicians all his sea-service depended. The
Cyprians had also joined the Persians of their
own accord, and took part with them in the
expedition against Egypt.

20. As soon as the Icthyophagi arrived from
Elephantine", Cambyses, having told them
what they were to say, forthwith despatched
them into Ethiopia with these following gifts:
to wit, a purple robe, a gold chain for the neck,
armlets, an alabaster box of myrrh, and a cask
of palm wine. The Ethiopians to whom this
embassy was sent are said to be the tallest and
handsomest men in the whole world. In their
customs they differ greatly from the rest of
mankind, and particularly in the way they
choose their kings; for they find out the man
who is the tallest of all the citizens, and of
strength equal to his height, and appoint him
to rule over them.

21. The Icthyophagi on reaching this peo-
ple, delivered the gifts to the king of the coun-
try, and spoke as follows: — "Cambyses, king
of the Persians, anxious to become thy ally and
sworn friend, has sept us to hold converse with
thee, and to bear thee the gifts thou seest,
which are the things wherein he himself de-
lights the most." Hereon the Ethiopian, who
knew they came as spies, made answer: — "The
king of the Persians sent you not with these
gifts because he much desired to become my
sworn friend — nor is the account which ye give
of yourselves true, for ye are come to search
out my kingdom. Also your king is not a just
man — for were he so, he had not coveted a
land which is not his own, nor brought slavery
on a people who never did him any wrong.
Bear him this bow, and say — 'The king of the
Ethiops thus advises the king of the Persians
— when the Persians can pull a bow of this
strength thus easily, then let him come with
an army of superior strength against the long-
lived Ethiopians — till then, let him thank the
gods that they have not put it into the heart of
the sons of the Ethiops to covet countries
which do not belong to them.' "

22. So speaking, he unstrung the bow, and
gave it into the hands of the messengers. Then,
taking the purple robe, he asked them what it
was, and how it had been made. They an-
swered truly, telling him concerning the pur-
ple, and the art of the dyer — whereat he ob-
served "that the men were deceitful, and their
garments also." Next he took the neck-chain
and the armlets, and asked about them. So the
Icthyophagi explained their use as ornaments.
Then the king laughed, and fancying they

94

HERODOTUS

were fetters, said, "the Ethiopians had much
stronger ones." Thirdly, he inquired about the
myrrh, and when they told him how it was
made and rubbed upon the limbs, he said the
same as he had said about the robe. Last of all
he came to the wine, and having learnt their
way of making it, he drank a draught, which
greatly delighted him; whereupon he asked
what the Persian king was wont to eat, and to
what age the longest-lived of the Persians had
been known to attain. They told him that the
king ate bread, and described the nature of
wheat — adding that eighty years was the
longest term of man's life among the Persians.
Hereat he remarked, "It did not surprise him,
if they fed on dirt, that they died so soon; in-
deed he was sure they never would have lived
so long as eighty years, except for the refresh-
ment they got from that drink (meaning the
wine), wherein he confessed the Persians sur-
passed the Ethiopians."

23. The Icthyophagi then in their turn ques-
tioned the king concerning the term of life,
and diet of his people, and were told that most
of them lived to be a hundred and twenty
years old, while some even went beyond that
age — they ate boiled flesh, and had for their
drink nothing but milk. When the Icthyo-
phagi showed wonder at the number of the
years, he led them to a fountain, wherein when
they had washed, they found their flesh all glos-
sy and sleek, as if they had bathed in oil — and
a scent came from the spring like that of vio-
lets. The water was so weak, they said, that
nothing would float in it, neither wood, nor
any lighter substance, but all went to the bot-
tom. If the account of this fountain be true, it
would be their constant use of the water from
it which makes them so long-lived. When they
quitted the fountain the king led them to a
prison, where the prisoners were all of them
bound with fetters of gold. Among these Ethi-
opians copper is of all metals the most scarce
and valuable. After they had seen the prison,
they were likewise shown what is called "the
table of the Sun."

24. Also, last of all, they were allowed to
behold the coffins of the Ethiopians, which are
made (according to report) of crystal, after the
following fashion: — When the dead body has
been dried, either in the Egyptian, or in some
other manner, they cover the whole with gyp-
sum, and adorn it with painting until it is as
like the living man as possible. Then they place
the body in a crystal pillar which has been hol-
lowed out to receive it, crystal being dug up

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in great abundance in their country, and of a
kind very easy to work. You may see the corpse
through the pillar within which it lies; and it
neither gives out any unpleasant odour, nor is
it in any respect unseemly; yet there is no part
that is not as plainly visible as if the body were
bare. The next of kin keep the crystal pillar in
their houses for a full year from the time of
the death, and give it the first fruits continual-
ly, and honour it with sacrifice. After the year
is out they bear the pillar forth, and set it up
near the town.

25. When the spies had now seen every-
thing, they returned back to Egypt, and made
report to Cambyses, who was stirred to anger
by their words. Forthwith he set out on his
march against the Ethiopians without having
made any provision for the sustenance of his
army, or reflected that he was about to wage
war in the uttermost parts of the earth. Like a
senseless madman as he was, no sooner did he
receive the report of the Icthyophagi than he
began his march, bidding the Greeks who
were with his army remain where they were,
and taking only his land force with him. At
Thebes, which he passed through on his way,
he detached from his main body some fifty
thousand men, and sent them against the Am-
monians with orders to carry the people into
captivity, and burn the oracle of Jupiter. Mean-
while he himself went on with the rest of his
forces against the Ethiopians. Before, however,
he had accomplished one-fifth part of the dis-
tance, all that the army had in the way of pro-
visions failed; whereupon the men began to eat
the sumpter beasts, which shortly failed also.
If then, at this time, Cambyses, seeing what
was happening, had confessed himself in the
wrong, and led his army back, he would have
done the wisest thing that he could after the
mistake made at the outset; but as it was, he
took no manner of heed, but continued to
march forwards. So long as the earth gave
them anything, the soldiers sustained life by
eating the grass and herbs; but when they
came to the bare sand, a portion of them were
guilty of a horrid deed: by tens they cast lots
for a man, who was slain to be the food of the
others. When Cambyses heard of these doings,
alarmed at such cannibalism, he gave up his
attack on Ethiopia, and retreating by the way
he had come, reached Thebes, after he had lost
vast numbers of his soldiers. From Thebes he
marched down to Memphis, where he dis-
missed the Greeks, allowing them to sail home.
And so ended the expedition against Ethiopia.

23-31 ]

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95

26. The men sent to attack the Ammonians,
started from Thebes, having guides with them,
and may be clearly traced as far as the city
Oasis, which is inhabited by Samians, said to
be of the tribe ^Eschrionia. The place is distant
from Thebes seven days' journey across the
sand, and is called in our tongue "the Island of
the Blessed." Thus far the army is known to
have made its way; but thenceforth nothing is
to be heard of them, except what the Ammo-
nians, and those who get their knowledge from
them, report.' It is certain they neither reached
the Ammonians, nor even came back to Egypt.
Further than this, the Ammonians relate as
follows: — That the Persians set forth from Oa-
sis across the sand, and had reached about half
way between that place and themselves when,
as they were at their midday meal, a wind
arose from the south, strong and deadly, bring-
ing with it vast columns of whirling sand,
which entirely covered up the troops and
caused them wholly to disappear. Thus, ac-
cording to the Ammonians, did it fare with
this army.

27. About the time when Cambyses arrived
at Memphis, Apis appeared to the Egyptians.
Now Apis is the god whom the Greeks call
Epaphus. As soon as he appeared, straightway
all the Egyptians arrayed themselves in their
gayest garments, and fell to feasting and jolli-
ty: which when Cambyses saw, making sure
that these rejoicings were on account of his
own ill success, he called before him the officers
who had charge of Memphis, and demanded of
them — "Why, when he was in Memphis be-
fore, the Egyptians had done nothing of this
kind, but waited until now, when he had re-
turned with the loss of so many of his troops?"
The officers made answer, "That one of their
gods had appeared to them, a god who at long
intervals of time had been accustomed to show
himself in Egypt — and that always on his ap-
pearance the whole of Egypt feasted and kept
jubilee." When Cambyses heard this, he told
them that they lied, and as liars he condemned
them all to suffer death.

28. When they were dead, he called the
priests to his presence, and questioning them
received the same answer; whereupon he ob-
served, "That he would soon know whether a
tame god had really come to dwell in Egypt"
— and straightway, without another word, he
bade them bring Apis to him. So they went out
from his presence to fetch the god. Now this
Apis, or Epaphus, is the calf of a cow which is
never afterwards able to bear young. The

Egyptians say that fire comes down from heav-
en upon the cow, which thereupon conceives
Apis. The calf which is so called has the fol-
lowing marks: — He is black, with a square
spot of white upon his forehead, and on his
back the figure of an eagle; the hairs in his tail
are double, and there is a beetle upon his
tongue.

29. When the priests returned bringing Apis
with them, Cambyses, like the harebrained
person that he was, drew his dagger, and
aimed at the belly of the animal, but missed
his mark, and stabbed him in the thigh. Then
he laughed, and said thus to the priests: — "Oh!
blockheads, and think ye that gods become
like this, of flesh and blood, and sensible to
steel? A fit god indeed for Egyptians, such an
one! But it shall cost you dear that you have
made me your laughing-stock." When he had
so spoken, he ordered those whose business it
was to scourge the priests, and if they found
any of the Egyptians keeping festival to put
them to death. Thus was the feast stopped
throughout the land of Egypt, and the priests
suffered punishment. Apis, wounded in the
thigh, lay some time pining in the temple; at
last he died of his wound, and the priests bur-
ied him secretly without the knowledge of
Cambyses.

30. And now Cambyses, who even before
had not been quite in his right mind, was
forthwith, as the Egyptians say, smitten with
madness for this crime. The first of his out-
rages was the slaying of Smerdis, his full broth-
er, whom he had sent back to Persia from
Egypt out of envy, because he drew the bow
brought from the Ethiopians by the Icthyo-
phagi (which none of the other Persians were
able to bend) the distance of two fingers'
breadth. When Smerdis was departed into
Persia, Cambyses had a vision in his sleep — he
thought a messenger from Persia came to him
with tidings that Smerdis sat upon the royal
throne and with his head touched the heav-
ens. Fearing therefore for himself, and think-
ing it likely that his brother would kill him
and rule in his stead, Cambyses sent into Per-
sia Prexaspes, whom he trusted beyond all the
other Persians, bidding him put Smerdis to
death. So this Prexaspes went up to Susa and
slew Smerdis. Some say he killed him as they
hunted together, others, that he took him
down to the Erythraean Sea, and there drowned
him.

31. This, it is said, was the first outrage
which Cambyses committed. The second was

96

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the slaying of his sister, who had accompanied
him into Egypt, and lived with him as his wife,
though she was his full sister, the daughter
both of his father and his mother. The way
wherein he had made her his wife was the fol-
lowing:— It was not the custom of the Per-
sians, before his time, to marry their sisters —
but Cambyses, happening to fall in love with
one of his and wishing to take her to wife, as
he knew that it was an uncommon thing, called
together the royal judges, and put it to them,
"whether there was any law which allowed a
brother, if he wished, to marry his sister?"
Now the royal judges are certain picked men
among the Persians, who hold their office for
life, or until they are found guilty of some mis-
conduct. By them justice is administered in
Persia, and they arc the interpreters of the old
laws, all disputes being referred to their deci-
sion. When Cambyses, therefore, put his ques-
tion to these judges, they gave him an answer
which was at once true and safe — "they did not
find any law," they said, "allowing a brother
to take his sister to wife, but they found a law,
that the king of the Persians might do what-
ever he pleased." And so they neither warped
the law through fear of Cambyses, nor ruined
themselves by over stiffly maintaining the law;
but they brought another quite distinct law to
the king's help, which allowed him to have his
wish. Cambyses, therefore, married the object
of his love, and no long time afterwards he
took to wife another sister. It was the younger
of these who went with him into Egypt, and
there suffered death at his hands.

32. Concerning the manner of her death, as
concerning that of Smerdis, two different ac-
counts are given. The story which the Greeks
tell is that Cambyses had set a young dog to
fight the cub of a lioness — his wife looking on
at the time. Now the dog was getting the
worse, when a pup of the same litter broke his
chain, and came to his brother's aid — then the
two dogs together fought the lion, and con-
quered him. The thing greatly pleased Cam-
byses, but his sister who was sitting by shed
tears. When Cambyses saw this, he asked her
why she wept: whereon she told him, that see-
ing the young dog come to his brother's aid
made her think of Smerdis, whom there was
none to help. For this speech, the Greeks say,
Cambyses put her to death. But the Egyptians
tell the story thus: — The two were sitting at
table, when the sister took a lettuce, and strip-
ping the leaves off, asked her brother "when
he thought the lettuce looked the prettiest —

when it had all its leaves on, or now that it was
stripped?" He answered, "When the leaves
were on." "But thou," she rejoined, "hast done
as I did to the lettuce, and made bare the house
of Cyrus." Then Cambyses was wroth, and
sprang fiercely upon her, though she was with
child at the time. And so it came to pass that
she miscarried and died.

33. Thus mad was Cambyses upon his own
kindred, and this either from his usage of Apis,
or from some other among the many causes
from which calamities are wont to arise. They
say that from his birth he was afflicted with a
dreadful disease, the disorder which some call
"the sacred sickness."1 It would be by no
means strange, therefore, if his mind were af-
fected in some degree, seeing that his body la-
boured under so sore a malady.

34. He was mad also upon others besides his
kindred; among the rest, upon Prexaspes, the
man whom he esteemed beyond all the rest of
the Persians, who carried his messages, and
whose son held the office — an honour of no
small account in Persia — of his cupbearer.
Him Cambyses is said to have once addressed
as follows: — "What sort of man, Prexaspes, do
the Persians think me? What do they say of
me?" Prexaspes answered, "Oh! sire, they
praise thee greatly in all things but one — they
say thou art too much given to love of wine."
Such Prexaspes told him was the judgment of
the Persians; whereupon Cambyses, full of
rage, made answer, "What? they say now that
I drink too much wine, and so have lost my
senses, and am gone out of my mind! Then
their former speeches about me were untrue."
For once, when the Persians were sitting with
him, and Crcesus was by, he had asked them,
"What sort of man they thought him com-
pared to his father Cyrus?" Hereon they had
answered, "That he surpassed his father, for he
was lord of all that his father ever ruled, and
further had made himself master of Egypt,
and the sea." Then Crcesus, who was standing
near, and misliked the comparison, spoke thus
to Cambyses: "In my judgment, O son of Cy-
rus, thou art not equal to thy father, for thou
hast not yet left behind thee such a son as he."
Cambyses was delighted when he heard this
reply, and praised the judgment of Croesus.

35. Recollecting these answers, Cambyses
spoke fiercely to Prexaspes, saying, "Judge now
thyself, Prexaspes, whether the Persians tell
the truth, or whether it is not they who are
mad for speaking as they do. Look there now

1 Epilepsy.

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97

at thy son standing in the vestibule — if I shoot
and hit him right in the middle of the heart,
it will be plain the Persians have no grounds
for what they say: if I miss him, then I allow
that the Persians are right, and that I am out
of my mind." So speaking he drew his bow to
the full, and struck the boy, who straightway
fell down dead. Then Cambyses ordered the
body to be opened, and the wound examined;
and when the arrow was found to have entered
the heart, the king was quite overjoyed, and
said to the father with a laugh, "Now thou
seest plainly, Prexaspes, that it is not I who am
mad, but the Persians who have lost their
senses. I pray thee tell me, sawest thou ever
mortal man send an arrow with a better aim?"
Prexaspes, seeing that the king was not in his
right mind, and fearing for himself, replied,
"Oh! my lord, I do not think that God himself
could shoot so dexterously." Such was the out-
rage which Cambyses committed at this time:
at another, he took twelve of the noblest Per-
sians, and, without bringing any charge wor-
thy of death against them, buried them all up
to the neck.

36. Hereupon Croesus the Lydian thought
it right to admonish Cambyses, which he did
in these words following: — "Oh! king, allow
not thyself to give way entirely to thy youth,
and the heat of thy temper, but check and con-
trol thyself. It is well to look to consequences,
and in forethought is true wisdom. Thou lay-
est hold of men, who are thy fellow-citizens,
and, without cause of complaint, slayest them
— thou even puttest children to death — bethink
thee now, if thou shalt often do things like
these, will not the Persians rise in revolt against
thee? It is by thy father's wish that I offer thee
advice; he charged me strictly to give thee
such counsel as I might see to be most for thy
good." In thus advising Cambyses, Croesus
meant nothing but what was friendly. But
Cambyses answered him, "Dost thou presume
to offer me advice? Right well thou ruledst
thy own country when thou wert a king, and
right sage advice thou gavest my father Cyrus,
bidding him cross the Araxes and fight the
Massagetae in their own land, when they were
willing to have passed over into ours. By thy
misdirection of thine own affairs thou brought-
est ruin upon thyself, and by thy bad counsel,
which he followed, thou broughtest ruin upon
Cyrus, my father. But thou shalt not escape
punishment now, for I have long been seeking
to find some occasion against thee." As he thus
spoke, Cambyses took up his bow to shoot at

Croesus; but Croesus ran hastily out, and es-
caped. So when Cambyses found that he could
not kill him with his bow, he bade his servants
seize him, and put him to death. The servants,
however, who knew their master's humour,
thought it best to hide Croesus; that so, if Cam-
byses relented, and asked for him, they might
bring him out, and get a reward for having
saved his life — if, on the other hand, he did not
relent, or regret the loss, they might then des-
patch him. Not long afterwards, Cambyses did
in fact regret the loss of Croesus, and the serv-
ants, perceiving it, let him know that he was
still alive. "I am glad," said he, "that Croesus
lives, but as for you who saved him, ye shall
not escape my vengeance, but shall all of you
be put to death." And he did even as he had
said.

37. Many other wild outrages of this sort
did Cambyses commit, both upon the Persians
and the allies, while he still stayed at Memphis;
among the rest he opened the ancient sepul-
chres, and examined the bodies that were bur-
ied in them. He likewise went into the temple
of Vulcan, and made great sport of the image.
For the image of Vulcan is very like the
Pataeci of the Phoenicians, wherewith they orna-
ment the prows of their ships of war. If per-
sons have not seen these, I will explain in a
different way — it is a figure resembling that of
a pigmy. He went also into the temple of the
Cabiri, which it is unlawful for any one to en-
ter except the priests, and not only made sport
of the images, but even burnt them. They are
made like the statue of Vulcan, who is said to
have been their father.

38. Thus it appears certain to me, by a great
variety of proofs, that Cambyses was raving
mad; he would not else have set himself to
make a mock of holy rites and long-established
usages. For if one were to offer men to choose
out of all the customs in the world such as
seemed to them the best, they would examine
the whole number, and end by preferring their
own; so convinced are they that their own us-
ages far surpass those of all others. Unless,
therefore, a man was mad, it is not likely that
he would make sport of such matters. That
people have this feeling about their laws may
be seen by very many proofs: among others, by
the following. Darius, after he had got the
kingdom, called into his presence certain
Greeks who were at hand, and asked — "What
he should pay them to eat the bodies of their
fathers when they died?" To which they an-
swered, that there was no sum that would

98

HERODOTUS

[BOOK m

tempt them to do such a thing. He then sent
for certain Indians, of the race called Callati-
ans, men who eat their fathers, and asked
them, while the Greeks stood by, and knew
by the help of an interpreter all that was said
— "What he should give them to burn the bod-
ies of their fathers at their decease?" The In-
dians exclaimed aloud, and bade him forbear
such language. Such is men's wont herein; and
Pindar was right, in my judgment, when he
said, "Law is the king o'er all."

39. While Cambyses was carrying on this
war in Egypt, the Lacedaemonians likewise
sent a force to Samos against Polycrates, the
son of jEaces, who had by insurrection made
himself master of that island. At the outset he
divided the state into three parts, and shared
the kingdom with his brothers, Pantagnotus
and Syloson; but later, having killed the for-
mer and banished the latter, who was the
younger of the two, he held the whole island.
Hereupon he made a contract of friendship
with Amasis the Egyptian king, sending him
gifts, and receiving from him others in return.
In a little while his power so greatly increased,
that the fame of it went abroad throughout Io-
nia and the rest of Greece. Wherever he turned
his arms, success waited on him. He had a fleet
of a hundred penteconters, and bowmen to the
number of a thousand. Herewith he plundered
all, without distinction of friend or foe; for he
argued that a friend was better pleased if you
gave him back what you had taken from him,
than if you spared him at the first. He cap-
tured many of the islands, and several towns
upon the mainland. Among his other doings
he overcame the Lesbians in a sea-fight, when
they came with all their forces to the help of
Miletus, and made a number of them prison-
ers. These persons, laden with fetters, dug the
moat which surrounds the castle at Samos.

40. The exceeding good fortune of Poly-
crates did not escape the notice of Amasis, who
was much disturbed thereat. When therefore
his successes continued increasing, Amasis
wrote him the following letter, and sent it to
Samos. "Amasis to Polycrates thus sayeth: It
is a pleasure to hear of a friend and ally pros-
pering, but thy exceeding prosperity does not
cause me joy, forasmuch as I know that the gods
are envious. My wish for myself and for those
whom I love is to be now successful, and now
to meet with a check; thus passing through life
amid alternate good and ill, rather than with
perpetual good fortune. For never yet did I
hear tell of any one succeeding in all his under-

takings, who did not meet with calamity at
last, and come to utter ruin. Now, therefore,
give ear to my words, and meet thy good luck
in this way: bethink thee which of all thy treas-
ures thou valuest most and canst least bear to
part with; take it, whatsoever it be, and throw
it away, so that it may be sure never to come
any more into the sight of man. Then, if thy
good fortune be not thenceforth chequered
with ill, save thyself from harm by again doing
as I have counselled."

41. When Polycrates read this letter, and
perceived that the advice of Amasis was good,
he considered carefully with himself which of
the treasures that he had in store it would
grieve him most to lose. After much thought
he made up his mind that it was a signet-ring
which he was wont to wear, an emerald set in
gold, the workmanship of Theodore, son of
Telecles, a Samian. So he determined to throw
this away; and, manning a penteconter, he
went on board, and bade the sailors put out
into the open sea. When he was now a long
way from the island, he took the ring from his
finger, and, in the sight of all those who were
on board, flung it into the deep. This done, he
returned home, and gave vent to his sorrow.

42. Now it happened five or six days after-
wards that a fisherman caught a fish so large
and beautiful that he thought it well deserved
to be made a present of to the king. So he took
it with him to the gate of the palace, and said
that he wanted to see Polycrates. Then Poly-
crates allowed him to come in, and the fisher-
man gave him the fish with these words fol-
lowing— "Sir king, when I took this prize, I
thought I would not carry it to market, though
I am a poor man who live by my trade. I said
to myself, it is worthy of Polycrates and his
greatness; and so I brought it here to give it to
you." The speech pleased the king, who thus
spoke in reply: — "Thou didst right well,
friend, and I am doubly indebted, both for the
gift, and for the speech. Come now, and sup
with me." So the fisherman went home, es-
teeming it a high honour that he had been
asked to sup with the king. Meanwhile the
servants, on cutting open the fish, found the
signet of their master in its belly. No sooner
did they see it than they seized upon it, and
hastening to Polycrates with great joy, restored
it to him, and told him in what way it had
been found. The king, who saw something
providential in the matter, forthwith wrote a
letter to Amasis, telling him all that had hap-
pened, what he had himself done, and what

39-48]

had been the upshot — and despatched the let-
ter to Egypt.

43. When Amasis had read the letter of
Polycrates, he perceived that it does not belong
to man to save his fellow-man from the fate
which is in store for him; likewise he felt cer-
tain that Polycrates would end ill, as he pros-
pered in everything, even finding what he had
thrown away. So he sent a herald to Samos,
and dissolved the contract of friendship. This
he did, that when the great and heavy mis-
fortune came, he might escape the grief which
he would have felt if the sufferer had been his
bond-friend.

44. It was with this Polycrates, so fortunate
in every undertaking, that the Lacedaemonians
now went to war. Certain Samians, the same
who afterwards founded the city of Cydonia
in Crete, had earnestly intreated their help.
For Polycrates, at the time when Cambyses,
son of Cyrus, was gathering together an arma-
ment against Egypt, had sent to beg him not
to omit to ask aid from Samos; whereupon
Cambyses with much readiness despatched a
messenger to the island, and made request that
Polycrates would give some ships to the naval
force which he was collecting against Egypt.
Polycrates straightway picked out from among
the citizens such as he thought most likely to
stir revolt against him, and manned with them
forty triremes, which he sent to Cambyses, bid-
ding him keep the men safe, and never allow
them to return home.

45. Now some accounts say that these Sa-
mians did not reach Egypt; for that when they
were off Carpathus, they took counsel together
and resolved to sail no further. But others
maintain that they did go to Egypt, and, find-
ing themselves watched, deserted, and sailed
back to Samos. There Polycrates went out
against them with his fleet, and a battle was
fought and gained by the exiles; after which
they disembarked upon the island and engaged
the land forces of Polycrates, but were defeated,
and so sailed off to Lacedxmon. Some relate
that the Samians from Egypt overcame Poly-
crates, but it seems to me untruly; for had the
Samians been strong enough to conquer Poly-
crates by themselves, they would not have
needed to call in the aid of the Lacedaemo-
nians. And moreover, it is not likely that a
king who had in his pay so large a body of for-
eign mercenaries, and maintained likewise
such a force of native bowmen, would have
been worsted by an army so small as that of the
returned Samians. As for his own subjects, to

THE HISTORY

99

hinder them from betraying him and joining
the exiles, Polycrates shut up their wives and
children in the sheds built to shelter his ships,
and was ready to burn sheds and all in case of
need.

46. When the banished Samians reached
Sparta, they had audience of the magistrates,
before whom they made a long speech, as was
natural with persons greatly in want of aid.
Accordingly at this first sitting the Spartans
answered them that they had forgotten the
first half of their speech, and could make noth-
ing of the remainder. Afterwards the Samians
had another audience, whereat they simply
said, showing a bag which they had brought
with them, "The bag wants flour." The Spar-
tans answered that they did not need to have
said "the bag"; however, they resolved to give
them aid.

47. Then the Lacedaemonians made ready
and set forth to the attack of Samos, from a
motive of gratitude, if we may believe the
Samians, because the Samians had once sent
ships to their aid against the Messenians; but
as the Spartans themselves say, not so much
from any wish to assist the Samians who beg-
ged their help, as from a desire to punish the
people who had seized the bowl which they
sent to Croesus, and the corselet which Amasis,
king of Egypt, sent as a present to them. The
Samians made prize of this corselet the year
before they took the bowl — it was of linen, and
had a vast number of figures of animals in-
woven into its fabric, and was likewise em-
broidered with gold and tree-wool. What is
most worthy of admiration in it is that each
of the twists, although of fine texture, contains
within it three hundred and sixty threads, all
of them clearly visible. The corselet which Am-
asis gave to the temple of Minerva in Lindus
is just such another.

48. The Corinthians likewise right willing-
ly lent a helping hand towards the expedition
against Samos; for a generation earlier, about
the time of the seizure of the wine-bowl, they
too had suffered insult at the hands of the Sa-
mians. It happened that Periander, son of
Cypselus, had taken three hundred boys, chil-
dren of the chief nobles among the Cor-
cyraeans, and sent them to Alyattes for eu-
nuchs; the men who had them in charge
touched at Samos on their way to Sardis;
whereupon the Samians, having found out
what was to become of the boys when they
reached that city, first prompted them to take
sanctuary at the temple of Diana; and after

100

HERODOTUS

this, when the Corinthians, as they were for-
bidden to tear the suppliants from the holy
place, sought to cut oft from them all supplies
of food, invented a festival in their behalf,
which they celebrate to this day with the self-
same rites. Each evening, as night closed in,
during the whole time that the boys continued
there, choirs of youths and virgins were placed
about the temple, carrying in their hands cakes
made of sesame and honey, in order that the
Corcyraean boys might snatch the cakes, and so
get enough to live upon.

49. And this went on for so long, that at last
the Corinthians who had charge of the boys
gave them up, and took their departure, upon
which the Samians conveyed them back to
Corcyra. If now, after the death of Periander,
the Corinthians and Corcyracans had been good
friends, it is not to be imagined that the former
would ever have taken part in the expedition
against Samos for such a reason as this; but as,
in fact, the two people have always, ever since
the first settlement of the island, been enemies
to one another, this outrage was remembered,
and the Corinthians bore the Samians a grudge
for it. Periander had chosen the youths from
among the first families in Corcyra, and sent
them a present to Alyattes, to avenge a wrong
which he had received. For it was the Cor-
cyraeans who began the quarrel and injured
Periander by an outrage of a horrid nature.

50. After Periander had put to death his
wife Melissa, it chanced that on this first afflic-
tion a second followed of a different kind. His
wife had borne him two sons, and one of them
had now reached the age of seventeen, the
other of eighteen years, when their mother's
father, Procles, tyrant of Epidaurus, asked
them to his court. They went, and Procles
treated them with much kindness, as was nat-
ural, considering they were his own daughter's
children. At length, when the time for parting
came, Procles, as he was sending them on their
way, said, "Know you now, my children, who
it was that caused your mother's death?" The
elder son took no account of this speech, but
the younger, whose name was Lycophron, was
sorely troubled at it — so much so, that when he
got back to Corinth, looking upon his father
as his mother's murderer, he would neither
speak to him, nor answer when spoken to, nor
utter a word in reply to all his questionings. So
Periander at last, growing furious at such be-
haviour, banished him from his house.

51. The younger son gone, he turned to the
elder and asked him, "what it was that their

[BooK in

grandfather had said to them?" Then he re-
lated in how kind and friendly a fashion he
had received them; but, not having taken any
notice of the speech which Procles had uttered
at parting, he quite forgot to mention it. Peri-
ander insisted that it was not possible this
should be all — their grandfather must have
given them some hint or other — and he went
on pressing him, till at last the lad remembered
the parting speech and told it. Periander, after
he had turned the whole matter over in his
thoughts, and felt unwilling to give way at all,
sent a messenger to the persons who had
opened their houses to his outcast son, and for-
bade them to harbour him. Then the boy, when
he was chased from one friend, sought refuge
with another, but was driven from shelter to
shelter by the threats of his father, who men-
aced all those that took him in, and command-
ed them to shut their doors against him. Still, as
fast as he was forced to leave one house he went
to another, and was received by the inmates; for
his acquaintance, although in no small alarm,
yet gave him shelter, as he was Periander's son.
52. At last Periander made proclamation
that whoever harboured his son or even spoke
to him, should forfeit a certain sum of money
to Apollo. On hearing this no one any longer
liked to take him in, or even to hold converse
with him, and he himself did not think it right
to seek to do what was forbidden; so, abiding
by his resolve, he made his lodging in the pub-
lic porticos. When four days had passed in this
way, Periander, seeing how wretched his son
was, that he neither washed nor took any food,
felt moved with compassion towards him;
wherefore, foregoing his anger, he approached
him, and said, " Which is better, oh' my son, to
fare as now thou farest, or to receive my crown
and all the good things that I possess, on the
one condition of submitting thyself to thy fa-
ther? See, now, though my own child, and
lord of this wealthy Corinth, thou hast brought
thyself to a beggar's life, because thou must re-
sist and treat with anger him whom it least be-
hoves thee to oppose. If there has been a calam-
ity, and thou bearest me ill will on that ac-
count, bethink thee that I too feel it, and am
the greatest sufferer, in as much as it was by
me that the deed was done. For thyself, now
that thou knowest how much better a thing it
is to be envied than pitied, and how dangerous
it is to indulge anger against parents and su-
periors, come back with me to thy home."
With such words as these did Periander chide
his son; but the son made no reply, except to re-

49-57]

THE HISTORY

101

mind his father that he was indebted to the
god in the penalty for coming and holding con-
verse with him. Then Periander knew that
there was no cure for the youth's malady, nor
means of overcoming it; so he prepared a ship
and sent him away out of his sight to Corcyra,
which island at that time belonged to him. As
for Procles, Periander, regarding him as the
true author of all his present troubles, went to
war with him as soon as his son was gone, and
not only made himself master of his kingdom
Epidaurus, but also took Procles himself, and
carried him into captivity.

53. As time went on, and Periander came to
be old, he found himself no longer equal to the
oversight and management of affairs. Seeing,
therefore, in his eldest son no manner of abil-
ity, but knowing him to be dull and blockish,
he sent to Corcyra and recalled Lycophron to
take the kingdom. Lycophron, however, did
not even deign to ask the bearer of this mes-
sage a question. But Periander's heart was set
upon the youth, so he sent again to him, this
time by his own daughter, the sister of Lyco-
phron, who would, he thought, have more
power to persuade him than any other person.
Then she, when she reached Corcyra, spoke
thus with her brother: — "Dost thou wish the
kingdom, brother, to pass into strange hands,
and our father's wealth to be made a prey,
rather than thyself return to enjoy it? Come
back home with me, and cease to punish thy-
self. It is scant gain, this obstinacy. Why seek
to cure evil by evil? Mercy, remember, is by
many set above justice. Many, also, while push-
ing their mother's claims have forfeited their
father's fortune. Power is a slippery thing — it
has many suitors; and he is old and stricken in
years — let not thy own inheritance go to anoth-
er." Thus did the sister, who had been tutored
by Periander what to say, urge all the argu-
ments most likely to have weight with her
brother. He however made answer, "That so
long as he knew his father to be still alive, he
would never go back to Corinth." When the
sister brought Periander this reply, he sent to his
son a third time by a herald, and said he would
come himself to Corcyra, and let his son take
his place at Corinth as heir to his kingdom. To
these terms Lycophron agreed; and Periander
was making ready to pass into Corcyra and his
son to return to Corinth, when the Corcyrae-
ans, being informed of what was taking place,
to keep Periander away, put the young man to
death. For this reason it was that Periander
took vengeance on the Corcyraeans.

54. The Lacedaemonians arrived before Sa-
mos with a mighty armament, and forthwith
laid siege to the place. In one of the assaults
upon the walls, they forced their way to the top
of the tower which stands by the sea on the side
where the suburb is, but Polycrates came in
person to the rescue with a strong force, and
beat them back. Meanwhile at the upper tower,
which stood on the ridge of the hill, the be-
sieged, both mercenaries and Samians, made a
sally; but after they had withstood the Lace-
daemonians a short time, they fled backwards,
and the Lacedaemonians, pressing upon them,
slew numbers.

55. If now all who were present had be-
haved that day like Archias and Lycopas, two
of the Lacedaemonians, Samos might have been
taken. For these two heroes, following hard
upon the flying Samians, entered the city along
with them, and, being all alone, and their re-
treat cut off, were slain within the walls of the
place. I myself once fell in with the grandson of
this Archias, a man named Archias like his
grandsire, and the son of Samius, whom I met
at Pitana, to which canton he belonged. He re-
spected the Samians beyond all other foreign-
ers, and he told me that his father was called
Samius, because his grandfather Archias died
in Samos so gloriously, and that the reason why
he respected the Samians so greatly was that
his grandsire was buried with public honours
by the Samian people.

56. The Lacedaemonians besieged Samos
during forty days, but not making any progress
before the place, they raised the siege at the
end of that time, and returned home to the
Peloponnese. There is a silly tale told that Poly-
crates struck a quantity of the coin of his
country in lead, and, coating it with gold, gave
it to the Lacedaemonians, who on receiving it
took their departure.

This was the first expedition into Asia of the
Lacedemonian Dorians.

57. The Samians who had fought against
Polycrates, when they knew that the Lacedae-
monians were about to forsake them, left Sa-
mos themselves, and sailed to Siphnos. They
happened to be in want of money; and the
Siphnians at that time were at the height of
their greatness, no islanders having so much
wealth as they. There were mines of gold and
silver in their country, and of so rich a yield,
that from a tithe of the ores the Siphnians
furnished out a treasury at Delphi which was
on a par with the grandest there. What the
mines yielded was divided year by year among

102

HERODOTUS

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the citizens. At the time when they formed the
treasury, the Siphnians consulted the oracle,
and asked whether their good things would re-
main to them many years. The Pythoness made
answer as follows: —

When the Prytanies* seat shines white in the island
of Stphnos,

White-browed all the jorum — need then of a true
seer's wisdom —

Danger will threat from a wooden host, and a her-
ald in scarlet.

Now about this time the forum of the Siph-
nians and their townhall or prytaneum had
been adorned with Parian marble.

58. The Siphnians, however, were unable
to understand the oracle, either at the time
when it was given, or afterwards on the ar-
rival of the Samians. For these last no sooner
came to anchor off the island than they sent
one of their vessels, with an ambassage on
board, to the city. All ships in these early times
were painted with vermilion; and this was
what the Pythoness had meant when she told
them to beware of danger "from a wooden
host, and a herald in scarlet." So the ambas-
sadors came ashore and besought the Siphnians
to lend them ten talents; but the Siphnians re-
fused, whereupon the Samians began to plun-
der their lands. Tidings of this reached the
Siphnians, who straightway sallied forth to
save their crops; then a battle was fought, in
which the Siphnians suffered defeat, and many
of their number were cut off from the city by
the Samians, after which these latter forced the
Siphnians to give them a hundred talents.

59. With this money they bought of the
Hermionians the island of Hydrea, off the
coast of the Peloponnese, and this they gave
in trust to the Troezenians, to keep for them,
while they themselves went on to Crete, and
founded the city of Cydonia. They had not
meant, when they set sail, to settle there, but
only to drive out the Zacynthians from the is-
land. However they rested at Cydonia, where
they flourished greatly for five years. It was
they who built the various temples that may
still be seen at that place, and among them the
fane of Dictyna. But in the sixth year they
were attacked by the Eginetans, who beat
them in a sea-fight, and, with the help of the
Cretans, reduced them all to slavery. The beaks
of their ships, which carried the figure of a
wild boar, they sawed off, and laid them up in
the temple of Minerva in Egina. The Egine-
tans took part against the Samians on account
of an ancient grudge, since the Samians had

first, when Amphicrates was king of Samos,
made war on them and done great harm to
their island, suffering, however, much damage
also themselves. Such was the reason which
moved the Eginetans to make this attack.

60. I have dwelt the longer on the affairs of
the Samians, because three of the greatest
works in all Greece were made by them. One
is a tunnel, under a hill one hundred and fifty
fathoms high, carried entirely through the base
of the hill, with a mouth at either end. The
length ot the cutting is seven furlongs — the
height and width are each eight feet. Along the
whole course there is a second cutting, twenty
cubits deep and three feet broad, whereby
water is brought, through pipes, from an
abundant source into the city. The architect of
this tunnel was Eupalinus, son of Naustroph-
us, a Megarian. Such is the first of their great
works; the second is a mole in the sea, which
goes all round the harbour, near twenty fath-
oms deep, and in length above two furlongs.
The third is a temple; the largest of all the
temples known to us, whereof Rhcecus, son
of Phileus, a Samian, was first architect. Be-
cause of these works I have dwelt the longer
on the affairs of Samos.

6r. While Cambyscs, son of Cyrus, after los-
ing his senses, still lingered in Egypt, two
Magi, brothers, revolted against him. One of
them had been left in Persia by Cambyses as
comptroller of his household; and it was he
who began the revolt. Aware that Smerdis
was dead, and that his death was hid and
known to few of the Persians, while most be-
lieved that he was still alive, he laid his plan,
and made a bold stroke for the crown. He had
a brother — the same of whom I spoke before
as his partner in the revolt — who happened
greatly to resemble Smerdis the son of Cyrus,
whom Cambyses his brother had put to death.
And not only was this brother of his like
Smerdis in person, but he also bore the self-
same name, to wit Smerdis. Patizeithes, the
other Magus, having persuaded him that he
would carry the whole business through, took
him and made him sit upon the royal throne.
Having so done, he sent heralds through all the
land, to Egypt and elsewhere, to make proc-
lamation to the troops that henceforth they
were to obey Smerdis the son of Cyrus, and not
Cambyses.

62. The other heralds therefore made proc-
lamation as they were ordered, and likewise
the herald whose place it was to proceed into
Egypt. He, when he reached Agbatana in

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103

Syria, finding Cambyses and his army there,
went straight into the middle of the host, and
standing forth before them all, made the proc-
lamation which Patizeithes the Magus had
commanded. Cambyses no sooner heard him,
than believing that what the herald said was
true, and imagining that he had been betrayed
by Prexaspes (who, he supposed, had not put
Smerdis to death when sent into Persia for that
purpose), he turned his eyes full upon Prex-
aspes, and said, "Is this the way, Prexaspes,
that thou didst my errand?" "Oh! my liege,**
answered the other, "there is no truth in the
tidings that Smerdis thy brother has revolted
against thee, nor hast thou to fear in time to
come any quarrel, great or small, with that
man. With my own hands I wrought thy will
on him, and with my own hands I buried him.
[f of a truth the dead can leave their graves,
expect Astyages the Mede to rise and fight
against thee; but if the course of nature be the
same as formerly, then be sure no ill will ever
come upon thee from this quarter. Now, there-
fore, my counsel is that we send in pursuit of
the herald, and strictly question him who it
was that charged him to bid us obey king
Smerdis.**

63. When Prexaspes had so spoken, and
Cambyses had approved his words, the herald
was forthwith pursued, and brought back to
the king. Then Prexaspes said to him, "Sirrah,
thou bear'st us a message, sayst thou, from
Smerdis, son of Cyrus. Now answer truly, and
go thy way scathless. Did Smerdis have thee to
his presence and give thee thy orders, or hadst
thou them from one of his officers?** The her-
ald answered, "Truly I have not set eyes on
Smerdis son of Cyrus, since the day when king
Cambyses led the Persians into Egypt. The
man who gave me my orders was the Magus
that Cambyses left in charge of the household;
but he said that Smerdis son of Cyrus sent you
the message." In all this the herald spoke noth-
ing but the strict truth. Then Cambyses said
thus to Prexaspes: — "Thou art free from all
blame, Prexaspes, since, as a right good man,
thou hast not failed to do the thing which I
:ommanded. But tell me now, which of the
Persians can have taken the name of Smerdis,
ind revolted from me?** "I think, my liege,**
tie answered, "that I apprehend the whole busi-
ness. The men who have risen in revolt
against thee are the two Magi, Patizeithes,
who was left comptroller of thy household, and
bis brother, who is named Smerdis.**

64. Cambyses no sooner heard the name of

Smerdis than he was struck with the truth of
Prexaspes' words, and the fulfilment of his
own dream — the dream, I mean, which he had
in former days, when one appeared to him in
his sleep and told him that Smerdis sate upon
the royal throne, and with his head touched
the heavens. So when he saw that he had need-
lessly slain his brother Smerdis, he wept and
bewailed his loss: after which, smarting with
vexation as he thought of all his ill luck, he
sprang hastily upon his steed, meaning to
march his army with all haste to Susa against
the Magus. As he made his spring, the button
of his sword-sheath fell off, and the bared point
entered his thigh, wounding him exactly
where he had himself once wounded the Egyp-
tian god Apis. Then Cambyses, feeling that he
had got his death-wound, inquired the name of
the place where he was, and was answered,
"Agbatana." Now before this it had been told
him by the oracle at Buto that he should end
his days at Agbatana. He, however, had under-
stood the Median Agbatana, where all his
treasures were, and had thought that he should
die there in a good old age; but the oracle
meant Agbatana in Syria. So when Cambyses
heard the name of the place, the double shock
that he had received, from the revolt of the
Magus and from his wound, brought him back
to his senses. And he understood now the true
meaning of the oracle, and said, "Here then
Cambyses, son of Cyrus, is doomed to die.**

65. At this time he said no more; but twenty
days afterwards he called to his presence all the
chief Persians who were with the army, and
addressed them as follows: — "Persians, needs
must I tell you now what hitherto I have striv-
en with the greatest care to keep concealed.
When I was in Egypt I saw in my sleep a vi-
sion, which would that I had never beheld! I
thought a messenger came to me from my
home, and told me that Smerdis sate upon the
royal throne, and with his head touched the
heavens. Then I feared to be cast from my
throne by Smerdis my brother, and I did what
was more hasty than wise. Ah! truly, do what
they may, it is impossible for men to turn aside
the coming fate. I, in my folly, sent Prexaspes
to Susa to put my brother to death. So this
great woe was accomplished, and I then lived
without fear, never imagining that, after Smer-
dis was dead, I need dread revolt from any
other. But herein I had quite mistaken what
was about to happen, and so I slew my brother
without any need, and nevertheless have lost
my crown. For it was Smerdis the Magus, and

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not Smerdis my brother, of whose rebellion
God forewarned me by the vision. The deed is
done, however, and Smerdis, son of Cyrus, be
sure is lost to you. The Magi have the royal
power — Patizeithes, whom I left at Susa to
overlook my household, and Smerdis his broth-
er. There was one who would have been
bound beyond ail others to avenge the wrongs
I have suffered from these Magians, but he,
alasl has perished by a horrid fate, deprived of
life by those nearest and dearest to him. In his
default, nothing now remains for me but to
tell you, O Persians, what I would wish to have
done after I have breathed my last. Therefore,
in the name of the gods that watch over our
royal house, I charge you all, and specially such
of you as are Achaemenids, that ye do not tame-
ly allow the kingdom to go back to the Medes.
Recover it one way or another, by force or
fraud; by fraud, if it is by fraud that they have
seized on it; by force, if force has helped them
in their enterprise. Do this, and then may your
land bring you forth fruit abundantly, and
your wives bear children, and your herds in-
crease, and freedom be your portion for ever:
but do it not — make no brave struggle to re-
gain the kingdom — and then my curse be on
you, and may the opposite of all these things
happen to you — and not only so, but may you,
one and all, perish at the last by such a fate as
mine!" Then Cambyses, when he left speak-
ing, bewailed his whole misfortune from be-
ginning to end.

66. Whereupon the Persians, seeing their
king weep, rent the garments that they had on,
and uttered lamentable cries; after which, as
the bone presently grew carious, and the limb
gangrened, Cambyses, son of Cyrus, died. He
had reigned in all seven years and five months,
and left no issue behind him, male or female.
The Persians who had heard his words, put no
faith in anything that he said concerning the
Magi having the royal power; but believed that
he spoke out of hatred towards Smerdis, and
had invented the tale of his death to cause the
whole Persian race to rise up in arms against
him. Thus they were convinced that it was
Smerdis the son of Cyrus who had rebelled and
now sate on the throne. For Prexaspes stoutly
denied that he had slain Smerdis, since it was
not safe for him, after Cambyses was dead, to
allow that a son of Cyrus had met with death
at his hands.

67, Thus then Cambyses died, and the
Magus now reigned in security, and passed
himself off for Smerdis the son of Cyrus. And

so went by the seven months which were
wanting to complete the eighth year of Cam-
byses. His subjects, while his reign lasted, re-
ceived great benefits from him, insomuch that,
when he died, all the dwellers in Asia
mourned his loss exceedingly, except only the
Persians. For no sooner did he come to the
throne than forthwith he sent round to every
nation under his rule, and granted them free-
dom from war-service and from taxes for the
space of three years.

68. In the eighth month, however, it was
discovered who he was in the mode following.
There was a man called Otanes, the son of
Pharnaspes, who for rank and wealth was
equal to the greatest of the Persians. This
Otanes was the first to suspect that the Magus
was not Smerdis the son of Cyrus, and to sur-
mise moreover who he really was. He was led
to guess the truth by the king never quitting
the citadel, and never calling before him any
of the Persian noblemen. As soon, therefore, as
his suspicions were aroused he adopted the fol-
lowing measures: — One of his daughters, who
was called Phaedima, had been married to Cam-
byses, and was taken to wife, together with the
rest of Cambyses' wives, by the Magus. To this
daughter Otanes sent a message, and inquired
of her "who it was whose bed she shared, —
was it Smerdis the son of Cyrus, or was it
some other man?" Phaedima in reply declared
she did not know — Smerdis the son of Cyrus
she had never seen, and so she could not tell
whose bed she shared. Upon this Otanes sent
a second time, and said, "If thou dost not
know Smerdis son of Cyrus thyself, ask queen
Atossa who it is with whom ye both live — she
cannot fail to know her own brother." To this
the daughter made answer, "I can neither get
speech with Atossa, nor with any of the women
who lodge in the palace. For no sooner did this
man, be he who he may, obtain the kingdom,
than he parted us from one another, and gave
us all separate chambers."

69. This made the matter seem still more
plain to Otanes. Nevertheless he sent a third
message to his daughter in these words follow-
ing:— "Daughter, thou art of noble blood —
thou wilt not shrink from a risk which thy
father bids thee encounter. If this fellow be
not Smerdis the son of Cyrus, but the man
whom I think him to be, his boldness in tak-
ing thee to be his wife, and lording it over the
Persians, must not be allowed to pass unpun-
ished. Now therefore do as I command — when
next he passes the night with thee, wait till

66-73]

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105

thou art sure he is fast asleep, and then feel for
his ears. If thou findest him to have ears, then
believe him to be Smerdis the son of Cyrus, but
if he has none, know him for Smerdis the
Magian." Phaedima returned for answer, "It
would be a great risk. If he was without ears,
and caught her feeling for them, she well knew
he would make away with her — nevertheless
she would venture." So Otanes got his daugh-
ter's promise that she would do as he desired.
Now Smerdis the Magian had had his ears cut
off in the lifetime of Cyrus son of Cambyses, as
a punishment for a crime of no slight heinous-
ness. Phaedima therefore, Otanes' daughter,
bent on accomplishing what she had promised
her father, when her turn came, and she was
taken to the bed of the Magus (in Persia a
man's wives sleep with him in their turns),
waited till he was sound asleep, and then felt
for his ears. She quickly perceived that he had
no ears; and of this, as soon as day dawned, she
sent word to her father.

70. Then Otanes took to him two of the
chief Persians, Aspathmes and Gobryas, men
whom it was most advisable to trust in such a
matter, and told them everything. Now they
had already of themselves suspected how the
matter stood. When Otanes therefore laid his
reasons before them they at once came into his
views; and it was agreed that each of the three
should take as companion in the work the
Persian in whom he placed the greatest con-
fidence. Then Otanes chose Intaphernes, Go-
bryas Megabyzus, and Aspathmes Hydarnes.
After the number had thus become six, Darius,
the son of Hystaspes, arrived at Susa from Per-
sia, whereof his father was governor. On his
coming it seemed good to the six to take him
likewise into their counsels.

71. After this, the men, being now seven in
all, met together to exchange oaths, and hold
discourse with one another. And when it
came to the turn of Darius to speak his mind,
he said as follows: — "Methought no one but I
knew that Smerdis, the son of Cyrus, was not
now alive, and that Smerdis the Magian ruled
over us; on this account I came hither with
speed, to compass the death of the Magian.
But as it seems the matter is known to you all,
and not to me only, my judgment is that we
should act at once, and not any longer delay.
For to do so were not well." Otanes spoke upon
this: — "Son of Hystaspes," said he, "thou art
the child of a brave father, and seemest likely
to show thyself as bold a gallant as he. Beware,
however, of rash haste in this matter; do not

hurry so, but proceed with soberness. We must
add to our number ere we adventure to strike
the blow." "Not so," Darius rejoined; "for let
all present be well assured that if the advice of
Otanes guide our acts, we shall perish most
miserably. Some one will betray our plot to the
Magians for lucre's sake. Ye ought to have
kept the matter to yourselves, and so made the
venture; but as ye have chosen to take others
into your secret, and have opened the matter to
me, take my advice and make the attempt to-
day— or if not, if a single day be suffered to
pass by, be sure that I will let no one betray me
to the Magian. I myself will go to him, and
plainly denounce you all."

72. Otanes, when he saw Darius so hot, re-
plied, "But if thou wilt force us to action, and
not allow a day's delay, tell us, I pray thee, hpw
we shall get entrance into the palace, so as to
set upon them. Guards are placed everywhere,
as thou thyself well knowest — for if thou hast
not seen, at least thou hast heard tell of them.
How are we to pass these guards, I ask thee?"
"Otanes," answered Darius, "there are many
things easy enough in act, which by speech it
is hard to explain. There are also things con-
cerning which speech is easy, but no noble ac-
tion follows when the speech is done. As for
these guards, ye know well that we shall not
find it hard to make our way through them.
Our rank alone would cause them to allow us
to enter — shame and fear alike forbidding
them to say us nay. But besides, I have the fair-
est plea that can be conceived for gaining ad-
mission. I can say that I have just come from
Persia, and have a message to deliver to the
king from my father. An untruth must be
spoken, where need requires. For whether men
lie, or say true, it is with one and the same ob-
ject. Men lie, because they think to gain by
deceiving others; and speak the truth, because
they expect to get something by their true
speaking, and to be trusted afterwards in more
important matters. Thus, though their conduct
is so opposite, the end of both is alike. If there
were no gain to be got, your true-speaking man
would tell untruths as much as your liar, and
your liar would tell the truth as much as your
true-speaking man. The doorkeeper, who lets
us in readily, shall have his guerdon some day
or other; but woe to the man who resists us,
he must forthwith be declared an enemy. Forc-
ing our way past him, we will press in and go
straight to our work."

73. After Darius had thus said, Gobryas
spoke as follows: — "Dear friends, when will

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a fitter occasion offer for us to recover the king-
dom, or, if we are not strong enough, at least
die in the attempt? Consider that we Persians
are governed by a Median Magus, and one, too,
who has had his ears cut off! Some of you were
present when Cambyses lay upon his death-
bed— such, doubtless, remember what curses
he called down upon the Persians if they made
no effort to recover the kingdom. Then, in-
deed, we paid but little heed to what he said,
because we thought he spoke out of hatred to
set us against his brother. Now, however, my
vote is that we do as Darius has counselled —
march straight in a body to the palace from the
place where we now are, and forthwith set
upon the Magian." So Gobryas spake, and the
others all approved.

74. While the seven were thus taking coun-
sel together, it so chanced that the following
events were happening: — The Magi had been
thinking what they had best do, and had re-
solved for many reasons to make a friend of
Prexaspes. They knew how cruelly he had
been outraged by Cambyses, who slew his son
with an arrow; they were also aware that it
was by his hand that Smerdis the son of Cyrus
fell, and that he was the only person privy to
that prince's death; and they further found
him to be held in the highest esteem by all the
Persians. So they called him to them, made
him their friend, and bound him by a promise
and by oaths to keep silence about the fraud
which they were practising upon the Persians,
and not discover it to any one; and they
pledged themselves that in this case they would
give him thousands of gifts of every sort and
kind. So Prexaspes agreed, and the Magi, when
they found that they had persuaded him so
far, went on to another proposal, and said they
would assemble the Persians at the foot of the
palace wall, and he should mount one of the
towers and harangue them from it, assuring
them that Smerdis the son of Cyrus, and none
but he, ruled the land. This they bade him do,
because Prexaspes was a man of great weight
with his countrymen, and had often declared
in public that Smerdis the son of Cyrus was
still alive, and denied being his murderer.

75. Prexaspes said he was quite ready to do
their will in the matter; so the Magi assembled
the people, and placed Prexaspes upon the top
of the tower, and told him to make his speech.
Then this man, forgetting of set purpose all
that the Magi had intreated him to say, began
with Achaemenes, and traced down the descent
of Cyrus; after which, when he came to that

king, he recounted all the services that had
been rendered by him to the Persians, from
whence he went on to declare the truth, which
hitherto he had concealed, he said, because it
would not have been safe for him to make it
known, but now necessity was laid on him to
disclose the whole. Then he told how, forced
to it by Cambyses, he had himself taken the life
of Smerdis, son of Cyrus, and how that Persia
was now ruled by the Magi. Last of all, with
many curses upon the Persians if they did not
recover the kingdom, and wreak vengeance on
the Magi, he threw himself headlong from the
tower into the abyss below. Such was the end
of Prexaspes, a man all his life of high repute
among the Persians.

76. And now the seven Persians, having re-
solved that they would attack the Magi with-
out more delay, first offered prayers to the gods
and then set off for the palace, quite unac-
quainted with what had been done by Prexas-
pes. The news of his doings reached them
upon their way, when they had accomplished
about half the distance. Hereupon they turned
aside out of the road, and consulted together.
Otanes and his party said they must certainly
put off the business, and not make the attack
when affairs were in such a ferment. Darius,
on the other hand, and his friends, were
against any change of plan, and wished to go
straight on, and not lose a moment. Now, as
they strove together, suddenly there came
in sight two pairs of vultures, and seven
pairs of hawks, pursuing them, and the hawks
tore the vultures both with their claws and
bills. At this sight the seven with one accord
came in to the opinion of Darius, and encour-
aged by the omen hastened on towards the
palace.

77. At the gate they were received as Darius
had foretold. The guards, who had no suspi-
cion that they came for any ill purpose, and
held the chief Persians in much reverence, let
them pass without difficulty — it seemed as if
they were under the special protection of the
gods — none even asked them any question.
When they were now in the great court they
fell in with certain of the eunuchs, whose bus-
iness it was to carry the king's messages, who
stopped them and asked what they wanted,
while at the same time they threatened the
doorkeepers for having let them enter. The
seven sought to press on, but the eunuchs
would not suffer them. Then these men, with
cheers encouraging one another, drew their
daggers, and stabbing those who strove to

]

THE HISTORY

107

withstand them, rushed forward to the apart-
ment of the males.

78. Now both the Magi were at this time
within, holding counsel upon the matter of
Prexaspes. So when they heard the stir among
the eunuchs, and their loud cries, they ran out
themselves, to see what was happening. In-
stantly perceiving their danger, they both flew
to arms; one had just time to seize his bow, the
other got hold of his lance; when straightway
the fight began. The one whose weapon was
the bow found it of no service at all; the foe
was too near, and the combat too close to allow
of his using it. But the other made a stout de-
fence with his lance, wounding two of the
seven, Aspathines in the leg, and Intaphernes
in the eye. This wound did not kill Intaphernes,
but it cost him the sight of that eye. The other
Magus, when he found his bow of no avail,
fled into a chamber which opened out into the
apartment of the males, intending to shut to
the doors. But two of the seven entered the
room with him, Darius and Gobryas. Gobryas
seized the Magus and grappled with him,
while Darius stood over them, not knowing
what to do; for it was dark, and he was afraid
that if he struck a blow he might kill Gobryas.
Then Gobyras, when he perceived that Darius
stood doing nothing, asked him, "why his
hand was idle?" "I fear to hurt thee," he
answered. "Fear not," said Gobryas; "strike,
though it be through both." Darius did as he
desired, drove his dagger home, and by good
hap killed the Magus.

79. Thus were the Magi slain; and the seven,
cutting off both the heads, and leaving their
own wounded in the palace, partly because
they were disabled, and partly to guard the cit-
adel, went forth from the gates with the heads
in their hands, shouting and making an up-
roar. They called out to all the Persians whom
they met, and told them what had happened,
showing them the heads of the Magi, while at
the same time they slew every Magus who fell
in their way. Then the Persians, when they
knew what the seven had done, and under-
stood the fraud of the Magi, thought it but just
to follow the example set them, and, drawing
their daggers, they killed the Magi wherever
they could find any. Such was their fury, that,
unless night had closed in, not a single Magus
would have been left alive. The Persians ob-
serve this day with one accord, and keep it
more strictly than any other in the whole year.
It is then that they hold the great festival,
which they call the Magophonia. No Magus

may show himself abroad during the whole
time that the feast lasts; but all must remain at
home the entire day.

80. And now when five days were gone, and
the hubbub had settled down, the conspirators
met together to consult about the situation of
affairs. At this meeting speeches were made, to
which many of the Greeks give no credence,
but they were made nevertheless. Otanes rec-
ommended that the management of public af-
fairs should be entrusted to the whole nation.
"To me," he said, "it seems advisable, that we
should no longer have a single man to rule
over us — the rule of one is neither good nor
pleasant. Ye cannot have forgotten to what
lengths Cambyses went in his haughty tyranny,
and the haughtiness of the Magi ye have your-
selves experienced. How indeed is it possible
that monarchy should be a well-adjusted thing,
when it allows a man to do as he likes without
being answerable? Such licence is enough to
stir strange and unwonted thoughts in the
heart of the worthiest of men. Give a person
this power, and straightway his manifold good
things puff him up with pride, while envy is
so natural to human kind that it cannot but
arise in him. But pride and envy together in-
clude all wickedness — both of them leading on
to deeds of savage violence. True it is that
kings, possessing as they do all that heart can de-
sire, ought to be void of envy; but the contrary
is seen in their conduct towards the citizens.
They are jealous of the most virtuous among
their subjects, and wish their death; while they
take delight in the meanest and basest, being
ever ready to listen to the tales of slanderers. A
king, besides, is beyond all other men incon-
sistent with himself. Pay him court in modera-
tion, and he is angry because you do not show
him more profound respect — show him pro-
found respect, and he is offended again, be-
cause (as he says) you fawn on him. But the
worst of all is, that he sets aside the laws of the
land, puts men to death without trial, and sub-
jects women to violence. The rule of the many,
on the other hand, has, in the first place, the
fairest of names, to wit, isonomy; and further
it is free from all those outrages which a king
is wont to commit. There, places are given by
lot, the magistrate is answerable for what he
does, and measures rest with the commonalty.
I vote, therefore, that we do away with mon-
archy, and raise the people to power. For the
people are all in all."

81. Such were the sentiments of Otancs«
Megabyzus spoke next, and advised the setting

108

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up of an oligarchy: — "In all that Otancs has
said to persuade you to put down monarchy,"
he observed, "I fully concur; but his recom-
mendation that we should call the people to
power seems to me not the best advice. For
there is nothing so void of understanding,
nothing so full of wantonness, as the unwieldy
rabble. It were folly not to be borne, for men,
while seeking to escape the wantonness of a
tyrant, to give themselves up to the wanton-
ness of a rude unbridled mob. The tyrant, in
all his doings, at least knows what is he about,
but a mob is altogether devoid of knowledge;
for how should there be any knowledge in a
rabble, untaught, and with no natural sense of
what is right and fit? It rushes wildly into state
affairs with all the fury of a stream swollen in
the winter, and confuses everything. Let the
enemies of the Persians be ruled by democra-
cies; but let us choose out from the citizens a
certain number of the worthiest, and put the
government into their hands. For thus both we
ourselves shall be among the governors, and
power being entrusted to the best men, it is
likely that the best counsels will prevail in the
state."

82. This was the advice which Megabyzus
gave, and after him Darius came forward, and
spoke as follows: — "All that Megabyzus said
against democracy was well said, I think; but
about oligarchy he did not speak advisedly; for
take these three forms of government — democ-
racy, oligarchy, and monarchy — and let them
each be at their best, I maintain that monarchy
far surpasses the other two. What government
can possibly be better than that of the very best
man in the whole state? The counsels of such
a man are like himself, and so he governs the
mass of the people to their heart's content;
while at the same time his measures against
evil-doers are kept more secret than in other
states. Contrariwise, in oligarchies, where men
vie with each other in the service of the com-
monwealth, fierce enmities are apt to arise be-
tween man and man, each wishing to be lead-
er, and to carry his own measures; whence vio-
lent quarrels come, which lead to open strife,
often ending in bloodshed. Then monarchy is
sure to follow; and this too shows how far that
rule surpasses all others. Again, in a democra-
cy, it is impossible but that there will be mal-
practices: these malpractices, however, do not
lead to enmities, but to close friendships,
which are formed among those engaged in
them, who must hold well together to carry on
their villainies. And so things go on until a

man stands forth as champion of the common-
alty, and puts down the evil-doers. Straight-
way the author of so great a service is admired
by all, and from being admired soon comes to
be appointed king; so that here too it is plain
that monarchy is the best government. Lastly,
to sum up all in a word, whence, I ask, was it
that we got the freedom which we enjoy? —
did democracy give it us, or oligarchy, or a
monarch? As a single man recovered our free-
dom for us, my sentence is that we keep to the
rule of one. Even apart from this, we ought not
to change the laws of our forefathers when they
work fairly; for to do so is not well."

83. Such were the three opinions brought
forward at this meeting; the four other Per-
sians voted in favour of the last. Otanes, who
wished to give his countrymen a democracy,
when he found the decision against him, arose
a second time, and spoke thus before the as-
sembly:— "Brother conspirators, it is plain that
the king who is to be chosen will be one of our-
selves, whether we make the choice by casting
lots for the prize, or by letting the people de-
cide which of us they will have to rule over
them, in or any other way. Now, as I have
neither a mind to rule nor to be ruled, I shall
not enter the lists with you in this matter. I
withdraw, however, on one condition — none of
you shall claim to exercise rule over me or my
seed for ever." The six agreed to these terms,
and Otancs withdraw and stood aloof from
the contest. And still to this day the family of
Otanes continues to be the only free family in
Persia; those who belong to it submit to the
rule of the king only so far as they themselves
choose; they are bound, however, to observe
the laws of the land like the other Persians.

84. After this the six took counsel together,
as to the fairest way of setting up a king: and
first, with respect to Otanes, they resolved, that
if any ot their own number got the kingdom,
Otanes and his seed after him should receive
year by year, as a mark of special honour, a
Median robe, and all such other gifts as are ac-
counted the most honourable in Persia. And
these they resolved to give him, because he was
the man who first planned the outbreak, and
who brought the seven together. These privi-
leges, therefore, were assigned specially to
Otanes. The following were made common to
them all: — It was to be free to each, whenever
he pleased, to enter the palace unannounced,
unless the king were in the company of one of
his wives; and the king was to be bound to
marry into no family excepting those of the

82-89]

THE HISTORY

109

conspirators. Concerning the appointment of
a king, the resolve to which they came was the
following: — They would ride out together
next morning into the skirts of the city, and he
whose steed first neighed after the sun was up
should have the kingdom.

85. Now Darius had a groom, a sharp-wit-
ted knave, called CEbares. After the meeting
had broken up, Darius sent for him, and said,
"CEbares, this is the way in which the king is
to be chosen — we are to mount our horses, and
the man whose horse first neighs after the sun
is up is to have the kingdom. If then you have
any cleverness, contrive a plan whereby the
prize may fall to us, and not go to another."
"Truly, master," CEbares answered, "if it de-
pends on this whether thou shalt be king or no,
set thine heart at ease, and fear nothing: I
have a charm which is sure not to fail." "If
thou hast really aught of the kind," said Dari-
us, "hasten to get it ready. The matter does
not brook delay, for the trial is to be to-mor-
row." So CEbares when he heard that, did as
follows: — When night came, he took one of
the mares, the chief favourite of the horse
which Darius rode, and tethering it in the sub-
urb, brought his master's horse to the place;
then, after leading him round and round the
mare several times, nearer and nearer at each
circuit, he ended by letting them come togeth-
er.

86. And now, when the morning broke, the
six Persians, according to agreement, met to-
gether on horseback, and rode out to the sub-
urb. As they went along they neared the spot
where the mare was tethered the night before,
whereupon the horse of Darius sprang for-
ward and neighed. Just at the same time,
though the sky was clear and bright, there was
a flash of lightning, followed by a thunder-
clap. It seemed as if the heavens conspired with
Darius, and hereby inaugurated him king: so
the five other nobles leaped with one accord
from their steeds, and bowed down before him
and owned him for their king.

87. This is the account which some of the
Persians gave of the contrivance of CEbares;
but there are others who relate the matter dif-
ferently. They say that in the morning he
stroked the mare with his hand, which he then
hid in his trousers until the sun rose and the
horses were about to start, when he suddenly
drew his hand forth and put it to the nostrils
of his master's horse, which immediately snort-
ed and neighed.

88. Thus was Darius, son of Hystaspes, ap-

pointed king; and, except the Arabians, all they
of Asia were subject to him; for Cyrus, and
after him Cambyses, had brought them all un-
der. The Arabians were never subject as slaves
to the Persians, but had a league of friendship
with them from the time when they brought
Cambyses on his way as he went into Egypt;
for had they been unfriendly the Persians
could never have made their invasion.

And now Darius contracted marriages of the
first rank, according to the notions of the Per-
sians: to wit, with two daughters of Cyrus,
Atossa and Artystone; of whom, Atossa had
been twice married before, once to Cambyses,
her brother, and once to the Magus, while the
other, Artystone, was a virgin. He married also
Parmys, daughter of Smerdis, son of Cyrus;
and he likewise took to wife the daughter of
Otanes, who had made the discovery about the
Magus. And now when his power was estab-
lished firmly throughout all the kingdoms, the
first thing that he did was to set up a carving
in stone, which showed a man mounted upon
a horse, with an inscription in these words fol-
lowing:— "Darius, son of Hystaspes, by aid of
his good horse" (here followed the horse's
name), "and of his good groom CEbares, got
himself the kingdom of the Persians."

89. This he set up in Persia; and afterwards
he proceeded to establish twenty governments
of the kind which the Persians call satrapies,
assigning to each its governor, and fixing the
tribute which was to be paid him by the sev-
eral nations. And generally he joined together in
one satrapy the nations that were neighbours,
but sometimes he passed over the nearer tribes,
and put in their stead those which were more
remote. The following is an^pcount of these
governments, and of the yearly tribute which
they paid to the king: — Such as brought their
tribute in silver were ordered to pay according
to the Babylonian talent; while the Euboic was
the standard measure for such as brought gold.
Now the Babylonian talent contains seventy
Euboic minac.1 During all the reign of Cyrus,
and afterwards when Cambyses ruled, there
were no fixed tributes, but the nations several-
ly brought gifts to the king. On account of this

Standards of weight probably passed into
Greece from Asia, when the word mina (M*^)
seems certainly to have been derived. That the
standard known to the Greeks as the Euboic was
an Asiatic one, is plain from this passage. If the
(later) Attic talent was worth ^243 155., the Eu-
boic (silver) talent would be £250 8s. 5d., and the
Babylonian ^292 3s- 3d*

110

HERODOTUS

[BooK m

and other like doings, the Persians say that
Darius was a huckster, Cambyses a master, and
Cyrus a father; for Darius looked to making a
gain in everything; Cambyses was harsh and
reckless; while Cyrus was gentle, and pro-
cured them all manner of goods.

90. The lonians, the Magnesians of Asia,
the jEolians, the Carians, the Lycians, the Mily-
ans, and the Pamphylians, paid their tribute
in a single sum, which was fixed at four hun-
dred talents of silver. These formed together
the first satrapy.

The Mysians, Lydians, Lasonians, Cabalians,
and Hygennians paid the sum of five hundred
talents. This was the second satrapy.

The Hellespontians, of the right coast as one
enters the straits, the Phrygians, the Asiatic
Thracians, the Paphlagonians, the Mariandy-
nians, and the Syrians paid a tribute of three
hundred and sixty talents. This was the third
satrapy.

The Cilicians gave three hundred and sixty
white horses, one for each day in the year, and
five hundred talents of silver. Of this sum one
hundred and forty talents went to pay the cav-
alry which guarded the country, while the
remaining three hundred and sixty were re-
ceived by Darius. This was the fourth satrapy.

91. The country reaching from the city of
Posideium (built by Amphilochus, son of Am-
phiaraiis, on the confines of Syria and Cilicia)
to the borders of Egypt, excluding therefrom
a district which belonged to Arabia and was
free from tax, paid a tribute of three hundred
and fifty talents. All Phoenicia, Palestine Syria,
and Cyprus, were herein contained. This was
the fifth satrapy.

From Egypt, nd the neighbouring parts of
Libya, together with the towns of Cyrene and
Barca, which belonged to the Egyptian satrapy,
the tribute which came in was seven hundred
talents. These seven hundred talents did not
include the profits of the fisheries of Lake Mce-
ris, nor the corn furnished to the troops at
Memphis. Corn was supplied to 120,000 Per-
sians, who dwelt at Memphis in the quarter
called the White Castle, and to a number of
auxiliaries. This was the sixth satrapy.

The Sattagydians, the Gandarians, the Da-
dicae, and the Aparytae, who were all reckoned
together, paid a tribute of a hundred and sev-
enty talents. This was the seventh satrapy.

Susa, and the other parts of Cissia, paid three
hundred talents. This was the eighth satrapy.

92. From Babylonia, and the rest of Assyria,
were drawn a thousand talents of silver, and

five hundred boy-eunuchs. This was the ninth
satrapy.

Agbatana, and the other parts of Media, to-
gether with the Paricanians and Orthocory-
bantes, paid in all four hundred and fifty tal-
ents. This was the tenth satrapy.

The Caspians, Pausicae, Pantimathi, and
Daritae, were joined in one government, and
paid the sum of two hundred talents. This was
the eleventh satrapy.

From the Bactrian tribes as far as the ^gli,
the tribute received was three hundred and
sixty talents. This was the twelfth satrapy.

93. From Pactyi'ca, Armenia, and the coun-
tries reaching thence to the Euxine, the sum
drawn was four hundred talents. This was the
thirteenth satrapy.

The Sagartians, Sarangians, Thamana^ans,
Utians, and Mycians, together with the inhab-
itants of the islands in the Erythraean sea,
where the king sends those whom he banishes,
furnished altogether a tribute of six hundred
talents. This was the fourteenth satrapy.

The Sacans and Caspians gave two hun-
dred and fifty talents. This was the fifteenth
satrapy.

The Parthians, Chorasmians, Sogdians, and
Anans, gave three hundred. This was the six-
teenth satrapy.

94. The Paricanians and Ethiopians of Asia
furnished a tribute of four hundred talents.
This was the seventeenth satrapy.

The Matienians, Saspeires, and Alarodians
were rated to pay two hundred talents. This
was the eighteenth satrapy.

The Moschi, Tibareni, Macrones, Mosynceci,
and Mares had to pay three hundred talents.
This was the nineteenth satrapy.

The Indians, who are more numerous than
any other nation with which we are acquaint-
ed, paid a tribute exceeding that of every other
people, to wit, three hundred and sixty talents
of gold-dust. This was the twentieth satrapy.

95. If the Babylonian money here spoken of
be reduced to the Euboic scale, it will make
nine thousand five hundred and forty such tal-
ents; and if the gold be reckoned at thirteen
times the worth of silver, the Indian gold-dust
will come to four thousand six hundred and
eighty talents. Add these two amounts togeth-
er and the whole revenue which came in to
Darius year by year will be found to be
in Euboic money fourteen thousand five hun-
dred and sixty talents, not to mention parts of
a talent.

96. Such was the revenue which Darius de-

90-102]

rived from Asia and a small part of Libya. La-
ter in his reign the sum was increased by the
tribute of the islands, and of the nations of Eu-
rope as far as Thessaly. The Great King stores
away the tribute which he receives after this
fashion — he melts it down, and, while it is in
a liquid state, runs it into earthen vessels,
which are afterwards removed, leaving the
metal in a solid mass. When money is wanted,
he coins as much of this bullion as the occasion
requires.

97. Such then were the governments, and
such the amounts of tribute at which they were
assessed respectively. Persia alone has not been
reckoned among the tributaries — and for this
reason, because the country of the Persians is
altogether exempt from tax. The following
peoples paid no settled tribute, but brought
gifts to the king: first, the Ethiopians border-
ing upon Egypt, who were reduced by Cam-
byses when he made war on the long-lived Ethi-
opians, and who dwell about the sacred city
of Nysa, and have festivals in honour of Bac-
chus. The grain on which they and their next
neighbours feed is the same as that used by the
Calantian Indians. Their dwelling-houses are
under ground. Every third year these two na-
tions brought — and they still bring to my day
— two choenices1 of virgin gold, two hundred
logs of ebony, five Ethiopian boys, and twenty
elephant tusks. The Colchians, and the neigh-
bouring tribes who dwell between them and
the Caucasus — for so far the Persian rule reach-
es, while north of the Caucasus no one fears
them any longer — undertook to furnish a gift,
which in my day was still brought every fifth
year, consisting of a hundred boys, and the
same number of maidens. The Arabs brought
every year a thousand talents of frankincense.
Such were the gifts which the king received
over and above the tribute-money.

98. The way in which the Indians get the
plentiful supply of gold which enables them
to furnish year by year so vast an amount of
gold-dust to the king, is the following: — east-
ward of India lies a tract which is entirely
sand. Indeed of all the inhabitants of Asia, con-
cerning whom anything certain is known, the
Indians dwell the nearest to the east, and the
rising of the sun. Beyond them the whole
country is desert on account of the sand. The
tribes of Indians are numerous, and do not all
speak the same language — some are wandering
tribes, others not. They who dwell in the
marshes along the river live on raw fish, which

1 About two quarts.

THE HISTORY

111

they take in boats made of reeds, each formed
out of a single joint. These Indians wear a
dress of sedge, which they cut in the river and
bruise; afterwards they weave it into mats, and
wear it as we wear a breast-plate.

99. Eastward of these Indians are another
tribe, called Padaeans, who are wanderers, and
live on raw flesji. This tribe is said to have the
following customs: — If one of their number
be ill, man or woman, they take the sick per-
son, and if he be a man, the men of his acquaint-
ance proceed to put him to death, because,
they say, his flesh would be spoilt for them if
he pined and wasted away with sickness. The
man protests he is not ill in the least; but his
friends will not accept his denial — in spite of
all he can say, they kill him, and feast them-
selves on his body. So also if a woman be sick,
the women, who are her friends, take her and
do with her exactly the same as the men. If one
of them reaches to old age, about which there
is seldom any question, as commonly before
that time they have had some disease or other,
and so have been put to death — but if a man,
notwithstanding, comes to be old, then they
ofTer him in sacrifice to their gods, and after-
wards eat his flesh.

100. There is another set of Indians whose
customs are very different. They refuse to put
any live animal to death, they sow no corn, and
have no dwelling-houses. Vegetables are their
only food. There is a plant which grows wild
in their country, bearing seed, about the size
of millet-seed, in a calyx: their wont is to gath-
er this seed and having boiled it, calyx and
all, to use it for food. If one of them is attacked
with sickness, he goes forth into the wilderness,
and lies down to die; no one has the least con-
cern either for the sick or for the dead.

101. All the tribes which I have mentioned
live together like the brute beasts: they have
also all the same tint of skin, which approaches
that of the Ethiopians. Their country is a long
way from Persia towards the south: nor had
king Darius ever any authority over them.

102. Besides these, there are Indians of an-
other tribe, who border on the city of Caspaty-
rus, and the country of Pactyica; these people
dwell northward of all the rest of the Indians,
and follow nearly the same mode of life as the
Bactrians. They are more warlike than any of
the other tribes, and from them the men are
sent forth who go to procure the gold. For it is
in this part of India that the sandy desert lies.
Here, in this desert, there live amid the sand
great ants, in size somewhat less than dogs,

112

HERODOTUS

[BOOK in

but bigger than foxes. The Persian king has a
number of them, which have been caught by
the hunters in the land whereof we are speak-
ing. Those ants make their dwellings under
ground, and like the Greek ants, which they
very much resemble in shape, throw up sand-
heaps as they burrow. Now the sand which
they throw up is full of golcj. The Indians,
when they go into the desert to collect this
sand, take three camels and harness them to-
gether, a female in the middle and a male on
either side, in a leading-rein. The rider sits on
the female, and they are particular to choose
for the purpose one that has but just dropped
her young; for their female camels can run as
fast as horses, while they bear burthens very
much better.

103. As the Greeks are well acquainted with
the shape of the camel, I shall not trouble to
describe it; but I shall mention what seems to
have escaped their notice. The camel has in its
hind legs four thigh-bones and four knee-
joints.1

104. When the Indians therefore have thus
equipped themselves they set off in quest of
the gold, calculating the time so that they may
be engaged in seizing it during the most sultry
part of the day, when the ants hide themselves
to escape the heat. The sun in those parts shines
fiercest in the morning, not, as elsewhere, at
noonday; the greatest heat is from the time
when he has reached a certain height, until the
hour at which the market closes. During this
space he burns much more furiously than at
midday in Greece, so that the men there are
said at that time to drench themselves with
water. At noon his heat is much the same in
India as in other countries, after which, as the
day declines, the warmth is only equal to that
of the morning sun elsewhere. Towards eve-
ning the coolness increases, till about sunset it
becomes very cold.

105. When the Indians reach the place
where the gold is, they fill their bags with the
sand, and ride away at their best speed: the
ants, however, scenting them, as the Persians
say, rush forth in pursuit. Now these animals
are, they declare, so swift, that there is nothing
in the world like them: if it were not, there-
fore, that the Indians get a start while the ants
are mustering, not a single gold-gatherer could

1 This is of course untrue, and it is difficult to
understand how Herodotus could entertain such a
notion. There is no real difference, as regards the
anatomy of the leg, between the horse and the
camel.

escape. During the flight the male camels,
which are not so fleet as the females, grow
tired, and begin to drag, first one, and then the
other; but the females recollect the young
which they have left behind, and never give
way or flag. Such, according to the Persians, is
the manner in which the Indians get the great-
er part of their gold; some is dug out of the
earth, but of this the supply is more scanty.

106. It seems as if the extreme regions of the
earth were blessed by nature with the most ex-
cellent productions, just in the same way that
Greece enjoys a climate more excellently tem-
pered than any other country. In India, which,
as I observed lately, is the furthest region of the
inhabited world towards the east, all the four-
footed beasts and the birds are very much big-
ger than those found elsewhere, except only the
horses, which are surpassed by the Median
breed called the Nissan. Gold too is produced
there in vast abundance, some dug from the
earth, some washed down by the rivers, some
carried off in the mode which I have but now
described. And further, there are trees which
grow wild there, the fruit whereof is a wool
exceeding in beauty and goodness that of
sheep. The natives make their clothes of this
tree- wool.

107. Arabia is the last of inhabited lands to-
wards the south, and it is the only country
which produces frankincense, myrrh, cassia,
cinnamon, and ledanum. The Arabians do not
get any of these, except the myrrh, without
trouble. The frankincense they procure by
means of the gum styrax, which the Greeks ob-
tain from the Phoenicians; this they burn, and
thereby obtain the spice. For the trees which
bear the frankincense are guarded by winged
serpents, small in size, and of varied colours,
whereof vast numbers hang about every tree.
They are of the same kind as the serpents that
invade Egypt; and there is nothing but the
smoke of the styrax which will drive them
from the trees.

108. The Arabians say that the whole world
would swarm with these serpents, if they were
not kept in check in the way in which I know
that vipers are. Of a truth Divine Providence
does appear to be, as indeed one might expect
beforehand, a wise contriver. For timid ani-
mals which are a prey to others are all made
to produce young abundantly, that so the spe-
cies may not be entirely eaten up and lost;
while savage and noxious creatures are made
very unfruitful. The hare, for instance, which
is hunted alike by beasts, birds, and men,

103-114]

THE HISTORY

113

breeds so abundantly as even to superfetate, a
thing which is true of no other animal. You
find in a hare's belly, at one and the same time,
some of the young all covered with fur, others
quite naked, others again just fully formed in
the womb, while the hare perhaps has lately
conceived afresh. The lioness, on the other
hand, which is one of the strongest and boldest
of brutes, brings forth young but once in her
lifetime,1 and then a single cub; she cannot pos-
sibly conceive again, since she loses her womb
at the same time that she drops her young.
The reason of this is that as soon as the cub
begins to stir inside the dam, his claws, which
are sharper than those of any other animal,
scratch the womb; as the time goes on, and he
grows bigger, he tears it ever more and more;
so that at last, when the birth comes, there is
not a morsel in the whole womb that is sound.

109. Now with respect to the vipers and the
winged snakes of Arabia, if they increased as
fast as their nature would allow, impossible
were it for man to maintain himself upon the
earth. Accordingly it is found that when the
male and female come together, at the very
moment of impregnation, the female seizes the
male by the neck, and having once fastened,
cannot be brought to leave go till she has bit
the neck entirely through. And so the male
perishes; but after a while he is revenged upon
the female by means of the young, which,
while still unborn, gnaw a passage through
the womb, and then through the belly of their
mother, and so make their entrance into the
world. Contrariwise, other snakes, which are
harmless, lay eggs, and hatch a vast number of
young. Vipers are found in all parts of the
world, but the winged serpents are nowhere
seen except in Arabia, where they are all con-
gregated together. This makes them appear so
numerous.

no. Such, then, is the way in which the
Arabians obtain their frankincense; their man-
ner of collecting the cassia is the following: —
They cover all their body and their face with
the hides of oxen and other skins, leaving only
holes for the eyes, and thus protected go in
search of the cassia, which grows in a lake of
no great depth. All round the shores and in
the lake itself there dwell a number of winged
animals, much resembling bats, which screech
horribly, and are very valiant. These creatures
they must keep from their eyes all the while
that they gather the cassia.

1 The fabulous character of the whole of this ac-
count was known to Aristotle.

in. Still more wonderful is the mode in
which they collect the cinnamon. Where the
wood grows, and what country produces it,
they cannot tell — only some, following proba-
bility, relate that it comes from the country in
which Bacchus was brought up. Great birds,
they say, bring the sticks which we Greeks,
taking the word from the Phoenicians, call cin-
namon, and carry them up into the air to make
their nests. These are fastened with a sort of
mud to a sheer face of rock, where no foot of
man is able to climb. So the Arabians, to get
the cinnamon, use the following artifice. They
cut all the oxen and asses and beasts of burthen
that die in their land into large pieces, which
they carry with them into those regions, and
place near the nests: then they withdraw to a
distance, and the old birds, swooping down,
seize the pieces of meat and fly with them up
to their nests; which, not being able to support
the weight, break off and fall to the ground.
Hereupon the Arabians return and collect the
cinnamon, which is afterwards carried from
Arabia into other countries.

112. Ledanum, which the Arabs call lada-
num, is procured in a yet stranger fashion.
Found in a most inodorous place, it is the
sweetest-scented of all substances. It is gathered
from the beards of he-goats, where it is found
sticking like gum, having come from the bush-
es on which they browse. It is used in many
sorts of unguents, and is what the Arabs burn
chiefly as incense.

113. Concerning the spices of Arabia let no
more be said. The whole country is scented
with them, and exhales an odour marvellously
sweet. There are also in Arabia two kinds of
sheep worthy of admiration, the like of which
is nowhere else to be seen; the one kind has
long tails, not less than three cubits in length,
which, if they were allowed to trail on the
ground, would be bruised and fall into sores.
As it is, all the shepherds know enough of car-
pentering to make little trucks for their sheep's
tails. The trucks are placed under the tails, each
sheep having one to himself, and the tails are
then tied down upon them. The other kind
has a broad tail, which is a cubit across some-
times.

114. Where the south declines towards the
setting sun lies the country called Ethiopia, the
last inhabited land in that direction. There
gold is obtained in great plenty, huge elephants
abound, with wild trees of all sorts, and ebony;
and the men are taller, handsomer, and longer
lived than anywhere else.

114

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115. Now these are the farthest regions of
the world in Asia and Libya. Of the extreme
tracts of Europe towards the west I cannot
speak with any certainty; for I do not allow
that there is any river, to which the bar-
barians give the name of Eridanus, emptying
itself into the northern sea, whence (as the tale
goes) amber is procured; nor do I know of
any islands called the Cassiterides (Tin Is-
lands), whence the tin comes which we use.
For in the first place the name Eridanus is
manifestly not a barbarian word at all, but a
Greek name, invented by some poet or other;
and secondly, though I have taken vast pains,
I have never been able to get an assurance from
an eye-witness that there is any sea on the fur-
ther side of Europe. Nevertheless, tin and am-
ber do certainly come to us from the ends of
the earth.

1 1 6. The northern parts of Europe are very
much richer in gold than any other region:
but how it is procured I have no certain knowl-
edge. The story runs that the one-eyed An-
maspi purloin it from the griffins; but here
too I am incredulous, and cannot persuade my-
self that there is a race of men born with one
eye, who in all else resemble the rest of man-
kind. Nevertheless it seems to be true that the
extreme regions of the earth, which surround
and shut up within themselves all other coun-
tries, produce the things which are the rarest,
and which men reckon the most beautiful.

117. There is a plain in Asia which is shut
in on all sides by a mountain-range, and in this
mountain-range are five openings. The plain
lies on the confines of the Chorasmians, Hyr-
canians, Parthians, Sarangians, and Thamanae-
ans, and belonged formerly to the first-men-
tioned of those peoples. Ever since the Per-
sians, however, obtained the mastery of Asia,
it has been the property of the Great King. A
mighty river, called the Aces, flows from the
hills inclosing the plain; and this stream, for-
merly splitting into five channels, ran through
the five openings in the hills, and watered the
lands of the five nations which dwell around.
The Persian came, however, and conquered
the region, and then it went ill with the peo-
ple of these lands. The Great King blocked
up all the passages between the hills with dykes
and flood-gates, and so prevented the water
from flowing out. Then the plain within the
hills became a sea, for the river kept rising, and
the water could find no outlet. From that time
the five nations which were wont formerly to
have the use of the stream, losing their accus-

tomed supply of water, have been in great dis-
tress. In winter, indeed, they have rain from
heaven like the rest of the world, but in sum-
mer, after sowing their millet and their sesame,
they always stand in need of water from the
river. When, therefore, they suffer from this
want, hastening to Persia, men and women
alike, they take their station at the gate of the
king's palace, and wail aloud. Then the king
orders the flood-gates to be opened towards the
country whose need is greatest, and lets the
soil drink until it has had enough; after which
the gates on this side are shut, and others are
unclosed for the nation which, of the remain-
der, needs it most. It has been told me that the
king never gives the order to open the gates
till the suppliants have paid him a large sum
of money over and above the tribute.

118, Of the seven Persians who rose up
against the Magus, one, Intaphernes, lost his
life very shortly after the outbreak, for an act
of insolence. He wished to enter the palace and
transact a certain business with the king. Now
the law was that all those who had taken part
in the rising against the Magus might enter
unannounced into the king's presence, unless
he happened to be in private with his wife. So
Intaphernes would not have any one announce
him, but, as he belonged to the seven, claimed
it as his right to go in. The doorkeeper, how-
ever, and the chief usher forbade his entrance,
since the king, they said, was with his wife.
But Intaphernes thought they told lies; so,
drawing his scymitar, he cut off their noses and
their ears, and, hanging them on the bridle of
his horse, put the bridle round their necks, and
so let them go.

119. Then these two men went and showed
themselves to the king, and told him how it
had come to pass that they were thus treated.
Darius trembled lest it was by the common
consent of the six that the deed had been done;
he therefore sent for them all in turn, and
sounded them to know if they approved the
conduct of Intaphernes. When he found by
their answers that there had been no concert be-
tween him and them, he laid hands on Intaph-
ernes, his children, and all his near kindred;
strongly suspecting that he and his friends
were about to raise a revolt. When all had been
seized and put in chains, as malefactors con-
demned to death, the wife of Intaphernes came
and stood continually at the palace-gates, weep-
ing and wailing sore. So Darius after a while,
seeing that she never ceased to stand and weep,
was touched with pity for her, and bade a mes-

II5-I23]

senger go to her and say, "Lady, king Darius
gives thee as a boon the life of one of thy kins-
men— choose which thou wilt of the prison-
ers." Then she pondered awhile before she an-
swered, "If the king grants me the life of one
alone, I make choice of my brother." Darius,
when he heard the reply, was astonished, and
sent again, saying, "Lady, the king bids thee
tell him why it is that thou passest by thy hus-
band and thy children, and preferrest to have
the life of thy brother spared. He is not so near
to thee as thy children, nor so dear as thy hus-
band." She answered, "O king, if the gods will,
I may have another husband and other chil-
dren when these are gone. But as my father
and my mother are no more, it is impossible
that I should have another brother. This was
my thought when I asked to have my brother
spared." Then it seemed to Darius that the
lady spoke well, and he gave her, besides the
life that she had asked, the life also of her eld-
est son, because he was greatly pleased with
her. But he slew all the rest. Thus one of the
seven died, in the way I have described, very
shortly after the insurrection.

120. About the time of Cambyses' last sick-
ness, the following events happened. There
was a certain Oroetes, a Persian, whom Cyrus
had made governor of Sardis. This man con-
ceived a most unholy wish. He had never suf-
fered wrong or had an ill word from Polycrates
the Samian — nay, he had not so much as seen
him in all his life; yet, notwithstanding, he
conceived the wish to seize him and put him
to death. This wish, according to the account
which the most part give, arose from what hap-
pened one day as he was sitting with another
Persian in the gate of the king's palace. The
man's name was Mitrobates, and he was ruler
of the satrapy of Dascyleium. He and Oroetes
had been talking together, and from talking
they fell to quarrelling and comparing their
merits; whereupon Mitrobates said to Oroetes
reproachfully, "Art thou worthy to be called a
man, when, near as Samos lies to thy govern-
ment, and easy as it is to conquer, thou hast
omitted to bring it under the dominion of the
king? Easy to conquer, said I? Why, a mere
common citizen, with the help of fifteen men-
at-arms, mastered the island, and is still king
of it." Oroetes, they say, took this reproach
greatly to heart; but, instead of seeking to re-
venge himself on the man by whom it was ut-
tered, he conceived the desire of destroying
Polycrates, since it was on Polycrates' account
that the reproach had fallen on him.

THE HISTORY

115

121. Another less common version of the
story is that Oroetes sent a herald to Samos to
make a request, the nature of which is not stat-
ed; Polycrates was at the time reclining in the
apartment of the males, and Anacreon the Te-
ian was with him; when therefore the herald
came forward to converse, Polycrates, either
out of studied contempt for the power of Oroe-
tes, or it may be merely by chance, was lying
with his face turned away towards the wall;
and so he lay all the time that the herald spake,
and when he ended, did not even vouchsafe
him a word.

122. Such are the two reasons alleged for the
death of Polycrates; it is open to all to believe
which they please. What is certain is that Oroe-
tes, while residing at Magnesia on the Maean-
der, sent a Lydian, by name Myrsus, the son
of Gyges, with a message to Polycrates at Sa-
mos, well knowing what that monarch de-
signed. For Polycrates entertained a design
which no other Greek, so far as we know, ever
formed before him, unless it were Minos the
Cnossian, and those (if there were any such)
who had the mastery of the Egaean at an earli-
er time — Polycrates, I say, was the first of mere
human birth who conceived the design of
gaining the empire of the sea, and aspired to
rule over Ionia and the islands. Knowing then
that Polycrates was thus minded, Oroetes sent
his message, which ran as follows: —

"Oroetes to Polycrates thus sayeth : I hear thou
raisest thy thoughts high, but thy means are
not equal to thy ambition. Listen then to my
words, and learn how thou mayest at once
serve thyself and preserve me. King Cambyses
is bent on my destruction — of this I have warn-
ing from a sure hand. Come thou, therefore,
and fetch me away, me and all my wealth —
share my wealth with me, and then, so far as
money can aid, thou mayest make thyself mas-
ter of the whole of Greece. But if thou doubt-
est of my wealth, send the trustiest of thy fol-
lowers, and I will show my treasures to him."

123. Polycrates, when he heard this message,
was full of joy, and straightway approved the
terms; but, as money was what he chiefly de-
sired, before stirring in the business he sent his
secretary, Maeandrius, son of Macandrius, a Sa-
mian, to look into the matter. This was the
man who, not very long afterwards, made an
offering at the temple of Juno of all the furni-
ture which had adorned the male apartments
in the palace of Polycrates, an offering well
worth seeing. Oroetes learning that one was
coming to view his treasures, contrived as fol*

116

HERODOTUS

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lows: — he filled eight great chests almost brim-
ful of stones, and then covering over the stones
with gold, corded the chests, and so held them
in readiness. When Maeandrius arrived, he was
shown this as Orcetes' treasure, and having
seen it returned to Samos.

124. On hearing his account, Polycrates,
notwithstanding many warnings given him by
the soothsayers, and much dissuasion of his
friends, made ready to go in person. Even the
dream which visited his daughter failed to
check him. She had dreamed that she saw her
father hanging high in air, washed by Jove, and
anointed by the sun. Having therefore thus
dreamed, she used every effort to prevent her
father from going; even as he went on board
his pcnteconter crying after him with words of
evil omen. Then Polycrates threatened her
that, if he returned in safety, he would keep
her unmarried many years. She answered,
"Oh! that he might perform his threat; far
better for her to remain long unmarried than
to be bereft of her father!"

125. Polycrates, however, making light of
all the counsel offered him, set sail and went
to Orcetes. Many friends accompanied him;
among the rest, Democedes, the son of Calli-
phon, a native of Crotona, who was a physi-
cian, and the best skilled in his art of all men
then living. Polycrates, on his arrrval at Mag-
nesia, perished miserably, in a way unworthy
of his rank and of his lofty schemes. For, if we
except the Syracusans, there has never been
one of the Greek tyrants who was to be com-
pared with Polycrates for magnificence. Orce-
tes, however, slew him in a mode which is not
fit to be described, and then hung his dead
body upon a cross. His Samian followers Orce-
tes let go free, bidding them thank him that
they were allowed their liberty; the rest, who
were in part slaves, in part free foreigners, he
alike treated as his slaves by conquest. Then
was the dream of the daughter of Polycrates
fulfilled; for Polycrates, as he hung upon the
cross, and rain fell on him, was washed by Ju-
piter; and he was anointed by the sun, when
his own moisture overspread his body. And so
the vast good fortune of Polycrates came at last
to the end which Amasis the Egyptian king
had prophesied in days gone by.

126. It was not long before retribution for
the murder of Polycrates overtook Orcetes.
After the death of Cambyses, and during all the
time that the Magus sat upon the throne, Orce-
tes remained in Sardis, and brought no help
to the Persians, whom the Medes had robbed

of the sovereignty. On the contrary, amid the
troubles of this season, he slew Mitrobates, the
satrap of Dascyleium, who had cast the re-
proach upon him in the matter of Polycrates;
and he slew also Mitrobates's son, Cranaspes
— both men of high repute among the Per-
sians. He was likewise guilty of many other
acts of insolence; among the rest, of the follow-
ing:— there was a courier sent to him by Da-
rius whose message was not to his mind —
Orcetes had him waylaid and murdered on his
road back to the king; the man and his horse
both disappeared, and no traces were left of
either.

127. Darius therefore was no sooner settled
upon the throne than he longed to take ven-
geance upon Orcetes for all his misdoings, and
especially for the murder of Mitrobates and his
son. To send an armed force openly against
him, however, he did not think advisable, as
the whole kingdom was still unsettled, and he
too was but lately come to the throne, while
Orcetes, as he understood, had a great power.
In truth a thousand Persians attended on him
as a bodyguard, and he held the satrapies of
Phrygia, Lydia, and Ionia. Darius therefore
proceeded by artifice. He called together a
meeting of all the chief of the Persians, and
thus addressed them: — "Who among you, O
Persians, will undertake to accomplish me a
matter by skill without force or tumult? Force
is misplaced where the work wants skilful
management. Who, then, will undertake to
bring me Orcetes alive, or else to kill him? He
never did the Persians any good in his life, and
he has wrought us abundant injury. Two of
our number, Mitrobates and his son, he has
slain; and when messengers go to recall him,
even though they have their mandate from
me, with an insolence which is not to be en-
dured, he puts them to death. We must kill this
man, therefore, before he does the Persians any
greater hurt."

128. Thus spoke Darius; and straightway
thirty of those present came forward and of-
fered themselves for the work. As they strove
together, Darius interfered, and bade them
have recourse to the lot. Accordingly lots were
cast, and the task fell to Bagaeus, son of Ar-
tontes. Then Bagaeus caused many letters to be
written on divers matters, and sealed them all
with the king's signet; after which he took the
letters with him, and departed for Sardis. On
his arrival he was shown into the presence of
Orcetes, when he uncovered the letters one by
one, and giving them to the king's secretary — •

124-132]

THE HISTORY

117

every satrap has with him a king's secretary-
commanded him to read their contents. Here-
in his design was to try the fidelity of the body-
guard, and to see if they would be likely to fall
away from Orcetes. When therefore he saw
that they showed the letters all due respect, and
even more highly reverenced their contents, he
gave the secretary a paper in which was writ-
ten, "Persians, king Darius forbids you to
guard Orcetes." The soldiers at these words
laid aside their spears. So Bagaeus, finding that
they obeyed this mandate, took courage, and
gave into the secretary's hands the last letter,
wherein it was written, "King Darius com-
mands the Persians who are in Sardis to kill
Orcetes." Then the guards drew their swords
and slew him upon the spot. Thus did retribu-
tion for the murder of Polycrates the Samian
overtake Oroetes the Persian.

129. Soon after the treasures of Orcetes had
been conveyed to Sardis it happened that king
Darius, as he leaped from his horse during the
chase, sprained his foot. The sprain was one of
no common seventy, for the ankle-bone was
forced quite out of the socket. Now Darius al-
ready had at his court certain Egyptians whom
he reckoned the best-skilled physicians in all
the world; to their aid, therefore, he had re-
course; but they twisted the foot so clumsily,
and used such violence, that they only made
the mischief greater. For seven days and seven
nights the king lay without sleep, so grievous
was the pain he suffered. On the eighth day of
his indisposition, one who had heard before
leaving Sardis of the skill of Democedes the
Crotoniat, told Darius, who commanded that
he should be brought with all speed into his
presence. When, therefore, they had found him
among the slaves of Orcetes, quite uncared for
by any one, they brought him just as he was,
clanking his fetters, and all clothed in rags,
before the king.

130. As soon as he was entered into the
presence, Darius asked him if he knew medi-
cine— to which he answered "No," for he
feared that if he made himself known he
would lose all chance of ever again beholding
Greece. Darius, however, perceiving that he
dealt deceitfully, and really understood the art,
bade those who had brought him to the pres-
ence go fetch the scourges and the pricking-
irons. Upon this Democedes made confession,
but at the same time said, that he had no thor-
ough knowledge of medicine — he had but
lived some time with a physician, and in this
way had gained a slight smattering of the art.

However, Darius put himself under his care,
and Democedes, by using the remedies cus-
tomary among the Greeks, and exchanging the
violent treatment of the Egyptians for milder
means, first enabled him to get some sleep, and
then in a very little time restored him alto-
gether, after he had quite lost the hope of ever
having the use of his foot. Hereupon the king
presented Democedes with two sets of fetters
wrought in gold; so Democedes asked if he
meant to double his sufferings because he had
brought him back to health? Darius was
pleased at the speech, and bade the eunuchs
take Democedes to see his wives, which they
did accordingly, telling them all that this was
the man who had saved the king's life. Then
each of the wives dipped with a saucer into a
chest of gold, and gave so bountifully to Dem-
ocedes, that a slave named Sciton, who fol-
lowed him, and picked up the staters1 which
fell from the saucers, gathered together a great
heap of gold.

131. This Democedes left his country and
became attached to Polycrates in the following
way: — His father, who dwelt at Crotona, was
a man of a savage temper, and treated him
cruelly. When, therefore, he could no longer
bear such constant ill-usage, Democedes left
his home, and sailed away to Egina. There he
set up in business, and succeeded the first year
in surpassing all the best-skilled physicians of
the place, notwithstanding that he was without
instruments, and had with him none of the ap-
pliances needful for the practice of his art. In
the second year the state of Egina hired his
services at the price of a talent; in the third the
Athenians engaged him at a hundred minae;
and in the fourth Polycrates at two talents. So
he went to Samos, and there took up his abode.
It was in no small measure from his success
that the Crotoniats came to be reckoned such
good physicians; for about this period the phy-
sicians of Crotona had the name of being the
best, and those of Gyrene the second best, in all
Greece. The Argives, about the same time,
were thought to be the first musicians in
Greece.

132. After Democedes had cured Darius at
Susa, he dwelt there in a large house, and
feasted daily at the king's table, nor did he
lack anything that his heart desired, excepting
liberty to return to his country. By interceding
for them with Darius, he saved the lives of the
Egyptian physicians who had had the care of
the king before he came, when they were about

1 A stater was worth $5.72.

118

HERODOTUS

[ BOOK ni

to be impaled because they had been surpassed
by a Greek; and further, he succeeded in rescu-
ing an Elean soothsayer, who had followed the
fortunes of Polycrates, and was lying in utter
neglect among his slaves. In short there was no
one who stood so high as Democedes in the
favour of the king.

133. Moreover, within a little while it hap-
pened that Atossa, the daughter of Cyrus, who
was married to Darius, had a boil form upon
her breast, which, after it burst, began to
spread and increase. Now so long as the sore
was of no great size, she hid it through shame
and made no mention of it to any one; but
when it became worse, she sent at last for
Democedes, and showed it to him. Democedes
said that he would make her well, but she must
first promise him with an oath that if he cured
her she would grant him whatever request he
might prefer; assuring her at the same time
that it should be nothing which she could
blush to hear.

134. On these terms Democedes applied his
art, and soon cured the abscess; and Atossa,
when she had heard his request, spake thus
one night to Darius: —

"It seemeth to me strange, my lord, that, with
the mighty power which is thine, thou sittest
idle, and neither makest any conquest, nor ad-
vancest the power of the Persians. Methinks
that one who is so young, and so richly en-
dowed with wealth, should perform some no-
ble achievement to prove to the Persians that
it is a man who governs them. Another reason,
too, should urge thee to attempt some enter-
prise. Not only does it befit thee to show the
Persians that a man rules them, but for thy
own peace thou shouldest waste their strength
in wars lest idleness breed revolt against thy
authority. Now, too, whilst thou art still young,
thou mayest well accomplish some exploit; for
as the body grows in strength the mind too
ripens, and as the body ages, the mind's pow-
ers decay, till at last it becomes dulled to every-
thing."

So spake Atossa, as Democedes had instruct-
ed her. Darius answered: — "Dear lady, thou
hast uttered the very thoughts that occupy my
brain. I am minded to construct a bridge which
shall join our continent with the other, and
so carry war into Scythia. Yet a brief space and
all will be accomplished as thou desirest."

But Atossa rejoined: — "Look now, this war
with Scythia were best reserved awhile — for
the Scythians may be conquered at any time.
Prithee, lead me thy host first into Greece. I

long to be served by some of those Lacedae-
monian maids of whom I have heard so much.
I want also Argive, and Athenian, and Corin-
thian women. There is now at the court a man
who can tell thee better than any one else in the
whole world whatever thou wouldst know con-
cerning Greece, and who might serve thee
right well as guide; I mean him who per-
formed the cure on thy foot."

"Dear lady," Darius answered, "since it is
thy wish that we try first the valour of the
Greeks, it were best, methinks, before march-
ing against them, to send some Persians to spy
out the land; they may go in company with
the man thou mentionest, and when they have
seen and learnt all, they can bring us back a
full report. Then, having a more perfect
knowledge of them, I will begin the war."

135. Darius, having so spoke, put no long
distance between the word and the deed, but
as soon as day broke he summoned to his pres-
ence fifteen Persians of note, and bade them
take Democedes for their guide, and explore
the sea-coasts of Greece. Above all, they were
to be sure to bring Democedes back with them,
and not suffer him to run away and escape.
After he had given these orders, Darius sent
for Democedes, and besought him to serve as
guide to the Persians, and when he had shown
them the whole of Greece to come back to
Persia. He should take, he said, all the valu-
ables he possessed as presents to his father and
his brothers, and he should receive on his re-
turn a far more abundant store. Moreover, the
king added, he would give him, as his contri-
bution towards the presents, a merchantship
laden with all manner of precious things,
which should accompany him on his voyage.
Now I do not believe that Darius, when he
made these promises, had any guile in his
heart: Democedes, however, who suspected
that the king spoke to try him, took care not to
snatch at the offers with any haste; but said,
"he would leave his own goods behind to en-
joy upon his return — the merchant-ship which
the king proposed to grant him to carry gifts
to his brothers, that he would accept at the
king's hands." So when Darius had laid his
orders upon Democedes, he sent him and the
Persians away to the coast.

136. The men went down to Phoenicia, to
Sidon, the Phoenician town, where straightway
they fitted out two triremes and a trading-ves-
sel, which they loaded with all manner of pre-
cious merchandise; and, everything being now
ready, they set sail for Greece. When they had

133-140]

made the land, they kept along the shore and
examined it, taking notes of all that they saw;
and in this way they explored the greater por-
tion of the country, and all the most famous
regions, until at last they reached Tarentum in
Italy. There Aristophilides, king of the Taren-
tines, out of kindness to Democedes, took the
rudders off the Median ships, and detained
their crews as spies. Meanwhile Democedes es-
caped to Crotona, his native city, whereupon
Aristophilides released the Persians from pris-
on, and gave their rudders back to them.

137. The Persians now quitted Tarentum,
and sailed to Crotona in pursuit of Democedes;
they found him in the market-place, where
they straightway laid violent hands on him.
Some of the Crotoniats, who greatly feared the
power of the Persians, were willing to give
him up; but others resisted, held Democedes
fast, and even struck the Persians with their
walking-sticks. They, on their part, kept cry-
ing out, "Men of Crotona, beware what you
do. It is the king's runaway slave that you are
rescuing. Think you Darius will tamely sub-
mit to such an insult? Think you, that if you
carry off the man from us, it will hereafter go
well with you? Will you not rather be the first
persons on whom we shall make war? Will
not your city be the first we shall seek to lead
away captive?" Thus they spake, but the Cro-
toniats did not heed them; they rescued Demo-
cedes, and seized also the trading-ship which
the Persians had brought with them from
Phoenicia. Thus robbed, and bereft of their
guide, the Persians gave up all hope of explor-
ing the rest of Greece, and set sail for Asia. As
they were departing, Democedes sent to them
and begged they would inform Darius that the
daughter of Milo was affianced to him as his
bride. For the name of Milo the wrestler was
in high repute with the king. My belief is, that
Democedes hastened his marriage by the pay-
ment of a large sum of money for the purpose
of showing Darius that he was a man of mark
in his own country.

138. The Persians weighed anchor and left
Crotona, but, being wrecked on the coast of
lapygia, were made slaves by the inhabitants.
From this condition they were rescued by Gil-
lus, a banished Tarentine, who ransomed them
at his own cost, and took them back to Darius.
Darius offered to repay this service by granting
Gillus whatever boon he chose to ask; where-
upon Gillus told the king of his misfortune,
and begged to be restored to his country. Fear-
ing, however, that he might bring trouble on

THE HISTORY 119

Greece if a vast armament were sent to Italy
on his account, he added that it would content
him if the Cnidians undertook to obtain his
recall. Now the Cnidians were close friends of
the Tarentines, which made him think there
was no likelier means of procuring his return.
Darius promised and performed his part; for
he sent a messenger to Cnidus, and command-
ed the Cnidians to restore Gillus. The Cnidi-
ans did as he wished, but found themselves
unable to persuade the Tarentines, and were
too weak to attempt force. Such then was the
course which this matter took. These were the
first Persians who ever came from Asia to
Greece; and they were sent to spy out the land
for the reason which I have before mentioned.

139. After this, king Darius besieged and
took Samos, which was the first city, Greek or
Barbarian, that he conquered. The cause of his
making war upon Samos was the following: —
at the time when Cambyses, son of Cyrus,
marched against Egypt, vast numbers of
Greeks flocked thither; some, as might have
been looked for, to push their trade; others, to
serve in his army; others again, merely to see
the land: among these last was Syloson, son
of ^Eaces, and brother of Polycrates, at that
time an exile from Samos. This Syloson, dur-
ing his stay in Egypt, met with a singular piece
of good fortune. He happened one day to put
on a scarlet cloak, and thus attired to go into
the market-place at Memphis, when Darius,
who was one of Cambyses' bodyguard, and not
at that time a man of any account, saw him,
and taking a strong liking to the dress, went up
and offered to purchase it. Syloson perceived
how anxious he was, and by a lucky inspira-
tion answered: "There is no price at which I
would sell my cloak; but I will give it thee for
nothing, if it must needs be thine." Darius
thanked him, and accepted the garment.

140. Poor Syloson felt at the time that he
had fooled away his cloak in a very simple
manner; but afterwards, when in the course
of years Cambyses died, and the seven Persians
rose in revolt against the Magus, and Darius
was the man chosen out of the seven to have
the kingdom, Syloson learnt that the person to
whom the crown had come was the very man
who had coveted his cloak in Egypt, and to
whom he had freely given it. So he made his
way to Susa, and seating himself at the portal
of the royal palace, gave out that he was a ben-
efactor of the king. Then the doorkeeper went
and told Darius. Amazed at what he heard, the
king said thus within himself: — "What Greek

120

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[BOOK in

can have been my benefactor, or to which of
them do I owe anything, so lately as I have got
the kingdom? Scarcely a man of them all has
been here, not more than one or two certainly,
since I came to the throne. Nor do I remember
that I am in the debt of any Greek. However,
bring him in, and let me hear what he means
by his boast." So the doorkeeper ushered Sylo-
son into the presence, and the interpreters
asked him who he was, and what he had done
that he should call himself a benefactor of the
king. Then Syloson told the whole story of the
cloak, and said that it was he who had made
Darius the present. Hereupon Darius ex-
claimed, "Oh! thou most generous of men, art
thou indeed he who, when I had no power at
all, gavest me something, albeit little? Truly
the favour is as great as a very grand present
would be nowadays. I will therefore give thee
in return gold and silver without stint, that
thou mayest never repent of having rendered a
service to Darius, son of Hystaspes." "Give me
not, O king," replied Syloson, "either silver or
gold, but recover me Samos, my native land,
and let that be thy gift to me. It belongs now
to a slave of ours, who, when Oroetes put my
brother Polycrates to death, became its master.
Give me Samos, I beg; but give it unharmed,
with no bloodshed — no leading into captivity."

141. When he heard this, Darius sent off an
army, under Otanes, one of the seven, with
orders to accomplish all that Syloson had de-
sired. And Otanes went down to the coast and
made ready to cross over.

142. The government of Samos was held at
this time by Maeandrius, son of Maeandrius,
whom Polycrates had appointed as his deputy.
This person conceived the wish to act like the
justest of men, but it was not allowed him to
do so. On receiving tidings of the death of
Polycrates, he forthwith raised an altar to Jove
the Protector of Freedom, and assigned it the
piece of ground which may still be seen in the
suburb. This done, he assembled all the citi-
zens, and spoke to them as follows: —

"Ye know, friends, that the sceptre of Poly-
crates, and all his power, has passed into my
hands, and if I choose I may rule over you. But
what I condemn in another I will, if I may,
avoid myself. I never approved the ambition of
Polycrates to lord it over men as good as him-
self, nor looked with favour on any of those
who have done the like. Now therefore, since
he has fulfilled his destiny, I lay down my
office, and proclaim equal rights. All that I
claim in return is six talents from the treasures

of Polycrates, and the priesthood of Jove the
Protector of Freedom, for myself and my de-
scendants for ever. Allow me this, as the man
by whom his temple has been built, and by
whom ye yourselves are now restored to lib-
erty." As soon as Mseandrius had ended, one of
the Samians rose up and said, "As if thou wert
fit to rule us, base-born and rascal as thou art!
Think rather of accounting for the monies
which thou hast fingered."

143. The man who thus spoke was a certain
Telesarchus, one of the leading citizens. Mae-
andrius, therefore, feeling sure that if he laid
down the sovereign power some one else
would become tyrant in his room, gave up the
thought of relinquishing it. Withdrawing to
the citadel, he sent for the chief men one by
one, under pretence of showing them his ac-
counts, and as fast as they came arrested them
and put them in irons. So these men were
bound; and Maeandrius within a short time
fell sick: whereupon Lycaretus, one of his
brothers, thinking that he was going to die,
and wishing to make his own accession to the
throne the easier, slew all the prisoners. It
seemed that the Samians did not choose to be
a free people.

144. When the Persians whose business it
was to restore Syloson reached Samos, not a
man was found to lift up his hand against
them. Maeandrius and his partisans expressed
themselves willing to quit the island upon cer-
tain terms, and these terms were agreed to by
Otanes. After the treaty was made, the most
distinguished of the Persians had their thrones
brought, and seated themselves over against
the citadel.

145. Now the king Maeandrius had a light-
headed brother — Charilaiis by name — whom
for some offence or other he had shut up in
prison: this man heard what was going on, and
peering through his bars, saw the Persians
sitting peacefully upon their seats, whereupon
he exclaimed aloud, and said he must speak
with Masandrius. When this was reported to
him, Maeandrius gave orders that Charilaiis
should be released from prison and brought
into his presence. No sooner did he arrive than
he began reviling and abusing his brother, and
strove to persuade him to attack the Persians.
"Thou meanest-spirited of men," he said,
"thou canst keep me, thy brother, chained in a
dungeon, notwithstanding that I have done
nothing worthy of bonds; but when the Per-
sians come and drive thee forth a houseless
wanderer from thy native land, thou lookest

141-152]

THE HISTORY

121

on, and hast not the heart to seek revenge,
though they might so easily be subdued. If
thou, however, art afraid, lend me thy soldiers,
and I will make them pay dearly for their com-
ing here. I engage too to send thee first safe
out of the island."

146. So spake Charilaiis, and Maeandrius
gave consent; not (I believe) that he was so
void of sense as to imagine that his own forces
could overcome those of the king, but because
he was jealous of Syloson, and did not wish
him to get so quietly an unharmed city. He
desired therefore to rouse the anger of the Per-
sians against Samos, that so he might deliver it
up to Syloson with its power at the lowest pos-
sible ebb; for he knew well that if the Persians
met with a disaster they would be furious
against the Samians, while he himself felt
secure of a retreat at any time that he liked,
since he had a secret passage under ground
leading from the citadel to the sea. Maeandrius
accordingly took ship and sailed away from
Samos; and Charilaiis, having armed all the
mercenaries, threw open the gates, and fell
upon the Persians, who looked for nothing
less, since they supposed that the whole matter
had been arranged by treaty. At the first on-
slaught therefore all the Persians of most note,
men who were in the habit of using litters,
were slain by the mercenaries; the rest of the
army, however, came to the rescue, defeated
the mercenaries, and drove them back into the
citadel.

147. Then Otanes, the general, when he saw
the great calamity which had befallen the Per-
sians, made up his mind to forget the orders
which Darius had given him, "not to kill or
enslave a single Samian, but to deliver up the
island unharmed to Syloson,'* and gave the
word to his army that they should slay the Sa-
mians, both men and boys, wherever they
could find them. Upon this some of his troops
laid siege to the citadel, while others began the
massacre, killing all they met, some outside,
some inside the temples.

148. Maeandrius fled from Samos to Lacedae-
mon, and conveyed thither all the riches which
he had brought away from the island, after
which he acted as follows. Having placed upon
his board all the gold and silver vessels that he
had, and bade his servants employ themselves
in cleaning them, he himself went and entered
into conversation with Cleomenes, son of Ana-
xandridas, king of Sparta, and as they talked
brought him along to his house. There Cleo-
menes, seeing the plate, was filled with wonder

and astonishment; whereon the other begged
that he would carry home with him any of the
vessels that he liked. Maeandrius said this two
or three times; but Cleomenes here displayed
surpassing honesty. He refused the gift, and
thinking that if Maeandrius made the same
offers to others he would get the aid he sought,
the Spartan king went straight to the ephors
and told them "it would be best for Sparta
that the Samian stranger should be sent away
from the Peloponnese; for otherwise he might
perchance persuade himself or some other
Spartan to be base." The ephors took his ad-
vice, and let Maeandrius know by a herald that
he must leave the city.

149. Meanwhile the Persians netted Samos,
and delivered it up to Syloson, stripped of all
its men. After some time, however, this same
general Otanes was induced to repeople it by
a dream which he had, and a loathsome disease
that seized on him.

150. After the armament of Otanes had set
sail for Samos, the Babylonians revolted, hav-
ing made every preparation for defence. Dur-
ing all the time that the Magus was king, and
while the seven were conspiring, they had
profited by the troubles, and had made them-
selves ready against a siege. And it happened
somehow or other that no one perceived what
they were doing. At last when the time came
for rebelling openly, they did as follows: —
having first set apart their mothers, each man
chose besides out of his whole household one
woman, whomsoever he pleased; these alone
were allowed to live, while all the rest were
brought to one place and strangled. The wom-
en chosen were kept to make bread for the
men; while the others were strangled that they
might not consume the stores.

151. When tidings reached Darius of what
had happened, he drew together all his power,
and began the war by marching straight upon
Babylon, and laying siege to the place. The
Babylonians, however, cared not a whit for his
siege. Mounting upon the battlements that
crowned their walls, they insulted and jeered at
Darius and his mighty host. One even shouted
to them and said, "Why sit ye there, Persians?
why do ye not go back to your homes? Till
mules foal ye will not take our city." This was
said by a Babylonian who thought that a mule
would never foal.

152. Now when a year and seven months
had passed, Darius and his army were quite
wearied out, finding that they could not any-
how take the city. All stratagems and all arts

122

HERODOTUS

[BOOK in

had been used, and yet the king could not pre-
vail— not even when he tried the means by
which Cyrus made himself master of the place.
The Babylonians were ever upon the watch,
and he found no way of conquering them.

153. At last, in the twentieth month, a mar-
vellous thing happened to Zopyrus, son of the
Megabyzus who was among the seven men
that overthrew the Magus. One of his sumpter-
mules gave birth to a foal. Zopyrus, when they
told him, not thinking that it could be true,
went and saw the colt with his own eyes; after
which he commanded his servants to tell no
one what had come to pass, while he himself
pondered the matter. Calling to mind then the
words of the Babylonian at the beginning of
the siege, "Till mules foal ye shall not take our
city" — he thought, as he reflected on this
speech, that Babylon might now be taken. For
it seemed to him that there was a Divine Prov-
idence in the man having used the phrase, and
then his mule having foaled.

154. As soon therefore as he felt within him-
self that Babylon was fated to be taken, he
went to Darius and asked him if he set a very
high value on its conquest. When he found
that Darius did indeed value it highly, he con-
sidered further with himself how he might
make the deed his own, and be the man to take
Babylon. Noble exploits in Persia are ever
highly honoured and bring their authors to
greatness. He therefore reviewed all ways of
bringing the city under, but found none by
which he could hope to prevail, unless he
maimed himself and then went over to the
enemy. To do this seeming to him a light mat-
ter, he mutilated himself in a way that was
utterly without remedy. For he cut oft his own
nose and ears, and then, clipping his hair close
and flogging himself with a scourge, he came
in this plight before Darius.

155. Wrath stirred within the king at the
sight of a man of his lofty rank in such a con-
3hion; leaping down from his throne, he ex-
claimed aloud, and asked Zopyrus who it was
that had disfigured him, and what he had done
to be so treated. Zopyrus answered, "There is
not a man in the world, but thou, O king, that
could reduce me to such a plight — no strang-
er's hands have wrought this work on me, but
my own only. I maimed myself because I could
not endure that the Assyrians should laugh at
the Persians." "Wretched man," said Darius,
"thou coverest the foulest deed with the fairest
possible name, when thou sayest thy maiming
is to help our siege forward. How will thy dis-

figurement, thou simpleton, induce the enemy
to yield one day the sooner? Surely thou hadst
gone out of thy mind when thou didst so mis-
use thyself." "Had I told thee," rejoined the
other, "what I was bent on doing, thou would-
est not have suffered it; as it is, I kept my own
counsel, and so accomplished my plans. Now,
therefore, if there be no failure on thy part, we
shall take Babylon. I will desert to the enemy
as I am, and when I get into their city I will
tell them that it is by thee I have been thus
treated. I think they will believe my words,
and entrust me with a command of troops.
Thou, on thy part, must wait till the tenth day
after I am entered within the town, and then
place near to the gates of Semiramis a detach-
ment of thy army, troops for whose loss thou
wilt care little, a thousand men. Wait, after
that, seven days, and post me another detach-
ment, two thousand strong, at the Nineveh
gates; then let twenty days pass, and at the end
of that time station near the Chaldaean gates
a body of four thousand. Let neither these nor
the former troops be armed with any weapons
but their swords — those thou mayest leave
them. After the twenty days are over, bid thy
whole army attack the city on every side, and
put me two bodies of Persians, one at the Be-
lian, the other at the Cissian gates; for I expect,
that, on account of my successes, the Baby-
lonians will entrust everything, even the keys
of their gates, to me. Then it will be for me
and my Persians to do the rest."

156. Having left these instructions, Zopyrus
fled towards the gates of the town, often look-
ing back, to give himself the air of a deserter.
The men upon the towers, whose business it
was to keep a lookout, observing him, has-
tened down, and setting one of the gates slight-
ly ajar, questioned him who he was, and on
what errand he had come. He replied that he
was Zopyrus, and had deserted to them from
the Persians. Then the doorkeepers, when they
heard this, carried him at once before the Mag-
istrates. Introduced into the assembly, he be-
gan to bewail his misfortunes, telling them
that Darius had maltreated him in the way
they could see, only because he had given ad-
vice that the siege should be raised, since there
seemed no hope of taking the city. "And now,"
he went on to say, "my coming to you, Baby-
lonians, will prove the greatest gain that you
could possibly receive, while to Darius and the
Persians it will be the severest loss. Verily he
by whom I have been so mutilated shall not
escape unpunished. And truly all the paths of

153-160]

THE HISTORY

123

his counsels are known to me." Thus did Zopy-
rus speak.

157. The Babylonians, seeing a Persian of
such exalted rank in so grievous a plight, his
nose and ears cut off, his body red with marks
of scourging and with blood, had no suspicion
but that he spoke the truth, and was really
come to be their friend and helper. They were
ready, therefore, to grant him anything that he
asked; and on his suing for a command, they
entrusted to him a body of troops, with the help
of which he proceeded to do as he had ar-
ranged with Darius. On the tenth day after his
flight he led out his detachment, and surround-
ing the thousand men, whom Darius accord-
ing to agreement had sent first, he fell upon
them and slew them all. Then the Babylonians,
seeing that his deeds were as brave as his
words, were beyond measure pleased, and set
no bounds to their trust. He waited, however,
and when the next period agreed on had
elapsed, again with a band of picked men he
sallied forth, and slaughtered the two thou-
sand. After this second exploit, his praise was
in all mouths. Once more, however, he waited
till the interval appointed had gone by, and
then leading the troops to the place where the
four thousand were, he put them also to the
sword. This last victory gave the finishing
stroke to his power, and made him all in all
with the Babylonians: accordingly they com-
mitted to him the command of their whole
army, and put the keys of their city into his
hands.

158. Darius now, still keeping to the plan
agreed upon, attacked the walls on every side,
whereupon Zopyrus played out the remainder
of his stratagem. While the Babylonians,
crowding to the walls, did their best to resist
the Persian assault, he threw open the Cissian
and the Belian gates, and admitted the enemy.

Such of the Babylonians as witnessed the
treachery, took refuge in the temple of Jupiter
Belus; the rest, who did not see it, kept at their
posts, till at last they too learnt that they were
betrayed.

159. Thus was Babylon taken for the sec-
ond time. Darius having become master of the
place, destroyed the wall, and tore down all the
gates; for Cyrus had done neither the one nor
the other when he took Babylon. He then chose
out near three thousand of the leading citizens,
and caused them to be crucified, while he al-
lowed the remainder still to inhabit the city.
Further, wishing to prevent the race of the
Babylonians from becoming extinct, he provid-
ed wives for them in the room of those whom
(as I explained before) they strangled, to save
their stores. These he levied from the nations
bordering on Babylonia, who were each re-
quired to send so large a number to Babylon,
that in all there were collected no fewer than
fifty thousand. It is from these women that the
Babylonians of our times are sprung.

1 60. As for Zopyrus, he was considered by
Darius to have surpassed, in the greatness of
his achievements, all other Persians, whether of
former or of later times, except only Cyrus —
with whom no Persian ever yet thought him-
self worthy to compare. Darius, as the story
goes, would often say that "he had rather Zopy-
rus were unmaimed, than be master of twen-
ty more Babylons." And he honoured Zopyrus
greatly; year by year he presented him with all
the gifts which are held in most esteem among
the Persians; he gave him likewise the govern-
ment of Babylon for his life, free from tribute;
and he also granted him many other favours.
Megabyzus, who held the command in Egypt
against the Athenians and their allies, was a son
of this Zopyrus. And Zopyrus, who fled from
Persia to Athens, was a son of this Megabyzus.

The Fourth Book, Entitled
MELPOMENE

i. After the taking of Babylon, an expedition
was led by Darius into Scythia. Asia abound-
ing in men, and vast sums flowing into the
treasury, the desire seized him to exact ven-
geance from the Scyths, who had once in days
gone by invaded Media, defeated those who
met them in the field, and so begun the quarrel.
During the space of eight-and-twenty years, as
I have before mentioned, the Scyths continued
lords of the whole of Upper Asia. They en-
tered Asia in pursuit of the Cimmerians, and
overthrew the empire of the Medes, who till
they came possessed the sovereignty. On their
return to their homes after the long absence of
twenty-eight years, a task awaited them little
less troublesome than their struggle with the
Medes. They found an army of no small size
prepared to oppose their entrance. For the
Scythian women, when they saw that time
went on, and their husbands did not come
back, had intermarried with their slaves.

2. Now the Scythians blind all their slaves,
to use them in preparing their milk. The plan
they follow is to thrust tubes made of bone, not
unlike our musical pipes, up the vulva of the
mare, and then to blow into the tubes with
their mouths, some milking while the others
blow. They say that they do this because when
the veins of the animal are full of air, the udder
is forced down. The milk thus obtained is
poured into deep wooden casks, about which
the blind slaves are placed, and then the milk
is stirred round. That which rises to the top is
drawn off, and considered the best part; the
under portion is of less account. Such is the rea-
son why the Scythians blind all those whom
they take in war; it arises from their not being
tillers of the ground, but a pastoral race.

3. When therefore the children sprung from
fhese slaves and the Scythian women grew to
manhood, and understood the circumstances of
their birth, they resolved to oppose the army

124

which was returning from Media. And, first of
all, they cut off a tract of country from the rest
of Scythia by digging a broad dyke from the
Tauric mountains to the vast lake of the Maeo-
tis. Afterwards, when the Scythians tried to
force an entrance, they marched out and en-
gaged them. Many battles were fought, and
the Scythians gained no advantage, until at last
one of them thus addressed the remainder:
"What are we doing, Scythians? We are fight-
ing our slaves, diminishing our own number
when we fall, and the number of those that be-
long to us when they fall by our hands. Take
my advice — lay spear and bow aside, and let
each man fetch his horsewhip, and go boldly
up to them. So long as they see us with arms
in our hands, they imagine themselves our
equals in birth and bravery; but let them be-
hold us with no other weapon but the whip,
and they will feel that they are our slaves, and
flee before us."

4. The Scythians followed this counsel, and
the slaves were so astounded, that they forgot
to fight, and immediately ran away. Such was
the mode in which the Scythians, after being
for a time the lords of Asia, and being forced
to quit it by the Medes, returned and settled in
their own country. This inroad of theirs it was
that Darius was anxious to avenge, and such
was the purpose for which he was now col-
lecting an army to invade them.

5. According to the account which the
Scythians themselves give, they are the young-
est of all nations. Their tradition is as follows.
A certain Targitaiis was the first man who ever
lived in their country, which before his time
was a desert without inhabitants. He was a
child — I do not believe the tale, but it is told
nevertheless — of Jove and a daughter of the
Borysthenes. Targitaiis, thus descended, begat
three sons, Leipoxais, Arpoxais, and Colaxais,
who was the youngest born of the three. While

THE HISTORY

125

they still ruled the land, there fell from the
sky four implements, all of gold — a plough, a
yoke, a battle-axe, and a drinking-cup. The
eldest of the brothers perceived them first, and
approached to pick them up; when lo! as he
came near, the gold took fire, and blazed. He
therefore went his way, and the second com-
ing forward made the attempt, but the same
thing happened again. The gold rejected both
the eldest and the second brother. Last of all
the youngest brother approached, and immedi-
ately the flames were extinguished; so he
picked up the gold, and carried it to his home.
Then the two elder agreed together, and made
the whole kingdom over to the youngest born.

6. From Leipoxais sprang the Scythians of
the race called Auchatar, from Arpoxais, the
middle brother, those known as the Catiari
and Traspians; from Colaxais, the youngest,
the Royal Scythians, or Paralatae. All together
they are named Scoloti, after one of their
kings: the Greeks, however, call them Scythi-
ans.

7. Such is the account which the Scythians
give of their origin. They add that from the
time of Targitaiis, their first king, to the inva-
sion of their country by Darius, is a period of
one thousand years, neither less nor more. The
Royal Scythians guard the sacred gold with
most especial care, and year by year offer great
sacrifices in its honour. At this feast, if the man
who has the custody of the gold should fall
asleep in the open air, he is sure (the Scythians
say) not to outlive the year. His pay therefore
is as much land as he can ride round on horse-
back in a day. As the extent of Scythia is very
great, Colaxais gave each of his three sons a
separate kingdom, one of which was of ampler
size than the other two: in this the gold was
preserved. Above, to the northward of the far-
thest dwellers in Scythia, the country is said to
be concealed from sight and made impassable
by reason of the feathers which are shed abroad
abundantly. The earth and air are alike full of
them, and this it is which prevents the eye
from obtaining any view of the region.

8. Such is the account which the Scythians
give of themselves, and of the country which
lies above them. The Greeks who dwell about
the Pontus tell a different story. According to
them, Hercules, when he was carrying of? the
cows of Geryon, arrived in the region which is
now inhabited by the Scyths, but which was
then a desert. Geryon lived outside the Pontus,
in an island called by the Greeks Erytheia,
near Gadcs, which is beyond the Pillars of Her-

cules upon the Ocean. Now some say that the
Ocean begins in the east, and runs the whole
way round the world; but they give no proof
that this is really so. Hercules came from
thence into the region now called Scythia, and,
being overtaken by storm and frost, drew his
lion's skin about him, and fell fast asleep.
While he slept, his mares, which he had loosed
from his chariot to graze, by some wonderful
chance disappeared.

9. On waking, he went in quest of them,
and, after wandering over the whole country,
came at last to the district called "the Wood-
land," where he found in a cave a strange be-
ing, between a maiden and a serpent, whose
form from the waist upwards was like that of
a woman, while all below was like a snake. He
looked at her wonderingly; but nevertheless
inquired, whether she had chanced to see his
strayed mares anywhere. She answered him,
"Yes, and they were now in her keeping; but
never would she consent to give them back, un-
less he took her for his mistress." So Hercules,
to get his mares back, agreed; but afterwards
she put him ofT and delayed restoring the
mares, since she wished to keep him with her
as long as possible. He, on the other hand, was
only anxious to secure them and to get away.
At last, when she gave them up, she said to
him, "When thy mares strayed hither, it was
I who saved them [or thee: now thou hast paid
their salvage; for lo! I bear in my womb three
sons of thine. Tell me therefore when thy sons
grow up, what must I do with them? Wouldst
thou wish that I should settle them here in this
land, whereof I am mistress, or shall I send
them to thee?" Thus questioned, they say,
Hercules answered, "When the lads have
grown to manhood, do thus, and assuredly
thou wilt not err. Watch them, and when thou
seest one of them bend this bow as I now bend
it, and gird himself with this girdle thus,
choose him to remain in the land. Those who
fail in the trial, send away. Thus wilt thou at
once please thyself and obey me."

10. Hereupon he strung one of his bows —
up to that time he had carried two — and
showed her how to fasten the belt. Then he
gave both bow and belt into her hands. Now
the belt had a golden goblet attached to its
clasp. So after he had given them to her, he
went his way; and the woman, when her chil-
dren grew to manhood, first gave them sever-
ally their names. One she called Agathyrsus,
one Gelonus, and the other, who was the
youngest, Scythes. Then she remembered the

126

HERODOTUS

instructions she had received from Hercules,
and, in obedience to his orders, she put her
sons to the test. Two of them, Agathyrsus and
Gelonus, proving unequal to the task enjoined,
their mother sent them out of the land; Scyth-
es, the youngest, succeeded, and so he was al-
lowed to remain. From Scythes, the son of Her-
cules, were descended the after kings of Scyth-
ia; and from the circumstance of the goblet
which hung from the belt, the Scythians to
this day wear goblets at their girdles. This was
the only thing which the mother of Scythes did
for him. Such is the tale told by the Greeks
who dwell around the Pontus.

11. There is also another different story,
now to be related, in which I am more inclined
to put faith than in any other. It is that the
wandering Scythians once dwelt in Asia, and
there warred with the Massagetae, but with ill
success; they therefore quitted their homes,
crossed the Araxes, and entered the land of
Cimmena. For the land which is now inhabit-
ed by the Scyths was formerly the country of
the Cimmerians. On their coming, the natives,
who heard how numerous the invading army
was, held a council. At this meeting opinion
was divided, and both parties stiffly main-
tained their own view; but the counsel of the
Royal tribe was the braver. For the others
urged that the best thing to be done was to
leave the country, and avoid a contest with so
vast a host; but the Royal tribe advised remain-
ing and fighting for the soil to the last. As
neither party chose to give way, the one de-
termined to retire without a blow and yield
their lands to the invaders; but the other, re-
membering the good things which they had
enjoyed in their homes, and picturing to them-
selves the evils which they had to expect if
they gave them up, resolved not to flee, but
rather to die and at least be buried in their
fatherland. Having thus decided, they drew
apart in two bodies, the one as numerous as the
other, and fought together. All of the Royal
tribe were slain, and the people buried them
near the river Tyras, where their grave is still
to be seen. Then the rest of the Cimmerians de-
parted, and the Scythians, on their coming,
took possession of a deserted land.

12. Scythia still retains traces of the Cim-
merians; there are Cimmerian castles, and a
Cimmerian ferry, also a tract called Cimmeria,
and a Cimmerian Bosphorus. It appears like-
wise that the Cimmerians, when they fled into
Asia to escape the Scyths, made a settlement
in the peninsula where the Greek city of Si-

[ BOOK iv

nope was afterwards built. The Scyths, it is
plain, pursued them, and missing their road,
poured into Media. For the Cimmerians kept
the line which led along the sea-shore, but the
Scyths in their pursuit held the Caucasus upon
their right, thus proceeding inland, and falling
upon Media. This account is one which is com-
mon both to Greeks and barbarians.

13. Aristeas also, son of Caystrobius, a na-
tive of Proconnesus, says in the course of his
poem that wrapt in Bacchic fury he went as far
as the Issedones. Above them dwelt the Ari-
maspi, men with one eye; still further, the
gold-guarding griffins; and beyond these, the
Hyperboreans, who extended to the sea. Ex-
cept the Hyperboreans, all these nations, be-
ginning with the Arimaspi, were continually
encroaching upon their neighbours. Hence it
came to pass that the Arimaspi drove the Issedo-
nians from their country, while the Issedonians
dispossessed the Scyths; and the Scyths, pressing
upon the Cimmerians, who dwelt on the shores
of the Southern Sea, forced them to leave their
land. Thus even Aristeas does not agree in his
account of this region with the Scythians,

14. The birthplace of Aristeas, the poet who
sung of these things, I have already mentioned.
I will now relate a tale which I heard concern-
ing him both at Proconnesus and at Cyzicus.
Aristeas, they said, who belonged to one of the
noblest families in the island, had entered one
day into a fuller's shop, when he suddenly
dropt down dead. Hereupon the fuller shut up
his shop, and went to tell Aristeas' kindred
what had happened. The report of the death
had just spread through the town, when a cer-
tain Cyzicenian, lately arrived from Artaca,
contradicted the rumour, affirming that he had
met Aristeas on his road to Cyzicus, and had
spoken with him. This man, therefore, strenu-
ously denied the rumour; the relations, how-
ever, proceeded to the fuller's shop with all
things necessary for the funeral, intending to
carry the body away. But on the shop being
opened, no Aristeas was found, either dead or
alive. Seven years afterwards he reappeared,
they told me, in Proconnesus, and wrote the
poem called by the Greeks The Arimaspeia,
after which he disappeared a second time.
This is the tale current in the two cities above-
mentioned.

15. What follows I know to have happened
to the Metapontines of Italy, three hundred
and forty years1 after the second disappear-

1 This date must certainly be wrong. The date
usually assigned to Aristeas is about 580 B.C.

11-22]

THE HISTORY

127

ance of Aristeas, as I collect by comparing the
accounts given me at Proconnesus and Meta-
pontum. Aristeas then, as the Metapontines
affirm, appeared to them in their own country,
and ordered them to set up an altar in honour
of Apollo, and to place near it a statue to be
called that of Aristeas the Proconnesian. "Apol-
lo," he told them, "had come to their coun-
try once, though he had visited no other Itali-
ots; and he had been with Apollo at the time,
not however in his present form, but in the
shape of a crow." Having said so much, he
vanished. Then the Metapontines, as they re-
late, sent to Delphi, and inquired of the god
in what light they were to regard the appear-
ance of this ghost of a man. The Pythoness, in
reply, bade them attend to what the spectre
said, "for so it would go best with them." Thus
advised, they did as they had been directed:
and there is now a statue bearing the name of
Aristeas, close by the image of Apollo in the
market-place of Metapontum, with bay-trees
standing around it. But enough has been said
concerning Aristeas.

1 6. With regard to the regions which lie
above the country whereof this portion of my
history treats, there is no one who possesses any
exact knowledge. Not a single person can I
find who professes to be acquainted with them
by actual observation. Even Aristeas, the trav-
eller of whom I lately spoke, does not claim —
and he is writing poetry — to have reached any
farther than the Issedonians. What he relates
concerning the regions beyond is, he confesses,
mere hearsay, being the account which the Is-
sedonians gave him of those countries. How-
ever, I shall proceed to mention all that I have
learnt of these parts by the most exact inquiries
which I have been able to make concerning
them.

17. Above the mart of the Borysthenites,
which is situated in the very centre of the
whole sea-coast of Scythia, the first people who
inhabit the land are the Callipedae, a Graeco-
Scythic race. Next to them, as you go inland,
dwell the people called the Alazonians. These
two nations in other respects resemble the
Scythians in their usages, but sow and eat corn,
also onions, garlic, lentils, and millet. Beyond
the Alazonians reside Scythian cultivators,
who grow corn, not for their own use, but for
sale. Still higher up are the Neuri. Northwards
of the Neuri the continent, as far as it is known
to us, is uninhabited. These are the nations
along the course of the river Hypanis, west of
the Borysthenes.

1 8. Across the Borysthenes, the first country
after you leave the coast is Hylaea (the Wood-
land). Above this dwell the Scythian Husband-
men, whom the Greeks living near the Hy-
panis call Borysthenites, while they call them-
selves Olbiopolites. These Husbandmen extend
eastward a distance of three days' journey to a
river bearing the name of Panticapes, while
northward the country is theirs for eleven days*
sail up the course of the Borysthenes. Further
inland there is a vast tract which is uninhabit-
ed. Above this desolate region dwell the Can-
nibals, who are a people apart, much unlike the
Scythians. Above them the country becomes an
utter desert; not a single tribe, so far as we
know, inhabits it.

19. Crossing the Panticapes, and proceeding
eastward of the Husbandmen, we come upon
the wandering Scythians, who neither plough
nor sow. Their country, and the whole of this
region, except Hylaea, is quite bare of trees.
They extend towards the east a distance of
fourteen1 days' journey, occupying a tract
which reaches to the river Gerrhus.

20. On the opposite side of the Gerrhus is
the Royal district, as it is called: here dwells the
largest and bravest of the Scythian tribes,
which looks upon all the other tribes in the
light of slaves. Its country reaches on the south
to Taurica, on the east to the trench dug by the
sons of the blind slaves, the mart upon the
Palus Maeotis, called Cremni (the Cliffs), and
in part to the river Tanais. North of the country
of the Royal Scythians are the Melanchlaeni
(Black-Robes), a people of quite a different
race from the Scythians. Beyond them lie
marshes and a region without inhabitants, so
far as our knowledge reaches.

21. When one crosses the Tanais, one is no
longer in Scythia; the first region on crossing
is that of the Sauromatae, who, beginning at
the upper end of the Palus Maeotis, stretch
northward a distance of fifteen days' journey,
inhabiting a country which is entirely bare of
trees, whether wild or cultivated. Above them,
possessing the second region, dwell the Budini,
whose territory is thickly wooded with trees of
every kind.

22. Beyond the Budini, as one goes north-
ward, first there is a desert, seven days' journey
across; after which, if one inclines somewhat
to the east, the Thyssagetae are reached, a nu-

1 Rennell proposes to read "four days' journey"
— and indeed without some such alteration the ge-
ography of this part of Scythia is utterly inexplica-
ble.

128

HERODOTUS

mcrous nation quite distinct from any other,
and living by the chase. Adjoining them, and
within the limits of the same region, are the
people who bear the name of lyrcae; they also
support themselves by hunting, which they
practise in the following manner. The hunter
climbs a tree, the whole country abounding in
wood, and there sets himself in ambush; he
has a dog at hand, and a horse, trained to lie
down upon its belly, and thus make itself low;
the hunter keeps watch, and when he sees his
game, lets fly an arrow; then mounting his
horse, he gives the beast chase, his dog follow-
ing hard all the while. Beyond these people, a
little to the east, dwells a distinct tribe of
Scyths, who revolted once from the Royal
Scythians, and migrated into these parts.

23. As far as their country, the tract of land
whereof I have been speaking is all a smooth
plain, and the soil deep; beyond you enter on
a region which is rugged and stony. Passing
over a great extent of this rough country, you
come to a people dwelling at the foot of lofty
mountains, who are said to be all — both men
and women — bald from their birth, to have
flat noses, and very long chins. These people
speak a language of their own, but the dress
which they wear is the same as the Scythian.
They live on the fruit of a certain tree, the
name of which is Ponticum; in size it is about
equal to our fig-tree, and it bears a fruit like a
bean, with a stone inside. When the fruit is
ripe, they strain it through cloths; the juice
which runs off is black and thick, and is called
by the natives "aschy." They lap this up with
their tongues, and also mix it with milk for a
drink; while they make the lees, which are sol-
id, into cakes, and eat them instead of meat;
for they have but few sheep in their country,
in which there is no good pasturage. Each of
them dwells under a tree, and they cover the
tree in winter with a cloth of thick white felt,
but take off the covering in the summer-time.
No one harms these people, for they are looked
upon as sacred — they do not even possess any
warlike weapons. When their neighbours fall
out, they make up the quarrel; and when one
flies to them for refuge, he is safe from all hurt.
They are called the Argippacans.

24. Up to this point the territory of which
we are speaking is very completely explored,
and all the nations between the coast and the
bald-headed men are well known to us. For
some of the Scythians are accustomed to pene-
trate as far, of whom inquiry may easily be
made, and Greeks also go there from the mart

[BooK IV

on the Borysthenes, and from the other marts
along the Euxine. The Scythians who make
this journey communicate with the inhabitants
by means of seven interpreters and seven lan-
guages.

25. Thus far, therefore, the land is known;
but beyond the bald-headed men lies a region
of which no one can give any exact account.
Lofty and precipitous mountains, which are
never crossed, bar further progress. The bald
men say, but it does not seem to me credible,
that the people who live in these mountains
have feet like goats; and that after passing them
you find another race of men, who sleep dur-
ing one half of the year. This latter statement
appears to me quite unworthy of credit. The
region east of the bald-headed men is well
known to be inhabited by the Issedonians, but
the tract that lies to the north of these two na-
tions is entirely unknown, except by the ac-
counts which they give of it.

26. The Issedonians are said to have the fol-
lowing customs. When a man's father dies, all
the near relatives bring sheep to the house;
which are sacrificed, and their flesh cut in
pieces, while at the same time the dead body
undergoes the like treatment. The two sorts of
flesh are afterwards mixed together, and the
whole is served up at a banquet. The head of
the dead man is treated differently: it is
stripped bare, cleansed, and set in gold. It then
becomes an ornament on which they pride
themselves, and is brought out year by year at
the great festival which sons keep in honour
of their fathers' death, just as the Greeks keep
their Genesia. In other respects the Issedonians
are reputed to be observers of justice: and it is
to be remarked that their women have equal
authority with the men. Thus our knowledge
extends as far as this nation.

27. The regions beyond are known only
from the accounts of the Issedonians, by whom
the stories are told of the one-eyed race of men
and the gold-guarding griffins. These stories
are received by the Scythians from the Issedo-
nians, and by them passed on to us Greeks:
whence it arises that we give the one-eyed race
the Scythian name of Arimaspi, "arima" being
the Scythic word for "one," and "spu" for "the
eye."

28. The whole district whereof we have here
discoursed has winters of exceeding rigour.
During eight months the frost is so intense
that water poured upon the ground does not
form mud, but if a fire be lighted on it mud is
produced. The sea freezes, and the Cimmer-

23-33]

THE HISTORY

129

ian Bosphorus is frozen over. At that season
the Scythians who dwell inside the trench
make warlike expeditions upon the ice, and
even drive their waggons across to the country
of the Sindians. Such is the intensity of the
cold during eight months out of the twelve;
and even in the remaining four the climate is
still cool. The character of the winter likewise
is unlike that of the same season in any other
country; for at that time, when the rains ought
to fall in Scythia, there is scarcely any rain
worth mentioning, while in summer it never
gives over raining; and thunder, which else-
where is frequent then, in Scythia is unknown
in that part of the year, coming only in sum-
mer, when it is very heavy. Thunder in the
winter-time is there accounted a prodigy; as
also are earthquakes, whether they happen in
winter or summer. Horses bear the winter
well, cold as it is, but mules and asses are quite
unable to bear it; whereas in other countries
mules and asses are found to endure the cold,
while horses, if they stand still, are frost-bitten.

29. To me it seems that the cold may like-
wise be the cause which prevents the oxen in
Scythia from having horns. There is a line of
Homer's in the Odyssey which gives a support
to my opinion: —

Libya too, where horns bud quic\ on the fore-
heads of lambkins.1

He means to say what is quite true, that in
warm countries the horns come early. So too
in countries where the cold is severe animals
either have no horns, or grow them with diffi-
culty— the cold being the cause in this in-
stance.

30. Here I must express my wonder — addi-
tions being what my work always from the
very first affected — that in Elis, where the cold
is not remarkable, and there is nothing else to
account for it, mules are never produced. The
Eleans say it is in consequence of a curse; and
their habit is, when the breeding-time comes,
to take their mares into one of the adjoining
countries, and there keep them till they are in
foal, when they bring them back again into Elis.

31. With respect to the feathers which are
said by the Scythians to fill the air, and to pre-
vent persons from penetrating into the remoter
parts of the continent, or even having any view
of those regions, my opinion is that in the
countries above Scythia it always snows — less,
of course, in the summer than in the winter-
time. Now snow when it falls looks like feath-

1 Odyssey, Bk. iv. 85.

ers, as every one is aware who has seen it come
down close to him. These northern regions,
therefore, are uninhabitable by reason of the
severity of the winter; and the Scythians, with
their neighbours, call the snow-flakes feathers
because, I think, of the likeness which they
bear to them. I have now related what is said
of the most distant parts of this continent
whereof any account is given.

32. Of the Hyperboreans nothing is said
either by the Scythians or by any of the other
dwellers in these regions, unless it be the Is-
sedonians. But in my opinion, even the Issedo-
nians are silent concerning them; otherwise
the Scythians would have repeated their state-
ments, as they do those concerning the one-
eyed men. Hesiod, however, mentions them,
and Homer also in the Epigoni, if that be real-
ly a work of his.

33. But the persons who have by far the
most to say on this subject are the Delians.
They declare that certain offerings, packed in
wheaten straw, were brought from the country
of the Hyperboreans into Scythia, and that the
Scythians received them and passed them on
to their neighbours upon the west, who con-
tinued to pass them on until at last they reached
the Adriatic. From hence they were sent south-
ward, and when they came to Greece, were re-
ceived first of all by the Dodonaeans. Thence
they descended to the Maliac Gulf, from which
they were carried across into Euboea, where the
people handed them on from city to city, till
they came at length to Carystus. The Carys-
tians took them over to Tenos, without stop-
ping at Andros; and the Tenians brought them
finally to Delos. Such, according to their own
account, was the road by which the offerings
reached the Delians. Two damsels, they say,
named Hyperoche' and Laodice, brought the
first offerings from the Hyperboreans; and
with them the Hyperboreans sent five men to
keep them from all harm by the way; these are
the persons whom the Delians call "Perpher-
ees," and to whom great honours are paid at
Delos. Afterwards the Hyperboreans, when
they found that their messengers did not re-
turn, thinking it would be a grievous thing al-
ways to be liable to lose the envoys they should
send, adopted the following plan: — they
wrapped their offerings in the wheaten straw,
and bearing them to their borders, charged
their neighbours to send them forward from
one nation to another, which was done accord-
ingly, and in this way the offerings reached
Delos. I myself know of a practice like this,

130

HERODOTUS

which obtains with the women of Thrace and
Paeonia. They in their sacrifices to the queenly
Diana bring wheaten straw always with their
offerings. Of my own knowledge I can testify
that this is so.

34. The damsels sent by the Hyperboreans
died in Delos; and in their honour all the Deli-
an girls and youths are wont to cut off their
hair. The girls, before their marriage-day, cut
off a curl, and twining it round a distaff, lay
it upon the grave of the strangers. This grave
is on the left as one enters the precinct of Di-
ana, and has an olive-tree growing on it. The
youths wind some of their hair round a kind of
grass, and, like the girls, place it upon the
tomb. Such are the honours paid to these dam-
sels by the Delians.

35. They add that, once before, there came
to Delos by the same road as Hyperoch£ and
Laodice, two other virgins from the Hyper-
boreans, whose names were Arg£ and Opis.
Hyperoche and Laodice came to bring to Ili-
thyia the offering which they had laid upon
themselves, in acknowledgment of their
quick labours; but Arge* and Opis came at the
same time as the gods of Delos,1 and are hon-
oured by the Delians in a different way. For
the Delian women make collections in these
maidens' names, and invoke them in the hymn
which Olen, a Lycian, composed for them; and
the rest of the islanders, and even the lonians,
have been taught by the Delians to do the like.
This Olen, who came from Lycia, made the
other old hymns also which are sung in Delos.
The Delians add that the ashes from the
thigh-bones burnt upon the altar are scattered
over the tomb of Opis and Arge. Their tomb
lies behind the temple of Diana, facing the
east, near the banqueting-hall of the Ceians.
Thus much then, and no more, concerning the
Hyperboreans.

36. As for the tale of Abaris, who is said to
have been a Hyperborean, and to have gone
with his arrow all round the world without
once eating, I shall pass it by in silence. Thus
much, however, is clear: if there are Hyperbor-
eans, there must also be Hypernotians. For my
part, I cannot but laugh when I see numbers
of persons drawing maps of the world without
having any reason to guide them; making, as
they do, the ocean-stream to run all round the
earth, and the earth itself to be an exact circle,
as if described by a pair of compasses, with
Europe and Asia just of the same size. The
truth in this matter I will now proceed to ex-

1 Apollo and Diana.

[BOOK rv

plain in a very few words, making it clear what
the real size of each region is, and what shape
should be given them.

37. The Persians inhabit a country upon the
southern or Erythraean sea; above them, to the
north, are the Medes; beyond the Medes, the
Saspirians; beyond them, the Colchians, reach-
ing to the northern sea, into which the Phasis
empties itself. These four nations fill the whole
space from one sea to the other.

38. West of these nations there project into
the sea two tracts which I will now describe;
one, beginning at the river Phasis on the north,
stretches along the Euxine and the Hellespont
to Sigeum in the Troas; while on the south it
reaches from the Myriandrian gulf, which ad-
joins Phoenicia, to the Triopic promontory.
This is one of the tracts, and is inhabited by
thirty different nations.

39. The other starts from the country of the
Persians, and stretches into the Erythraean sea,
containing first Persia, then Assyria, and after
Assyria, Arabia. It ends, that is to say, it is con-
sidered to end, though it does not really come
to a termination, at the Arabian gulf — the gulf
whereinto Darius conducted the canal which
he made from the Nile. Between Persia and
Phoenicia lies a broad and ample tract of coun-
try, after which the region I am describing
skirts our sea, stretching from Phoenicia along
the coast of Palestine-Syria till it comes to
Egypt, where it terminates. This entire tract
contains but three nations. The whole of Asia
west of the country of the Persians is com-
prised in these two regions.

40. Beyond the tract occupied by the Per-
sians, Medes, Saspirians, and Colchians, to-
wards the east and the region of the sunrise,
Asia is bounded on the south by the Erythrae-
an sea, and on the north by the Caspian and
the river Araxes, which flows towards the ris-
ing sun. Till you reach India the country is
peopled; but further east it is void of inhabi-
tants, and no one can say what sort of region
it is. Such then is the shape, and such the size
of Asia.

41. Libya belongs to one of the above-men-
tioned tracts, for it adjoins on Egypt. In Egypt
the tract is at first a narrow neck, the distance
from our sea to the Erythraean not exceeding a
hundred thousand fathoms, or, in other words,
a thousand furlongs; but from the point
where the neck ends, the tract which bears the
name of Libya is of very great breadth.

42. For my part I am astonished that men
should ever have divided Libya, Asia, and Eu-

34-45]

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131

rope as they have, for they are exceedingly un-
equal. Europe extends the entire length of the
other two, and for breadth will not even (as I
think) bear to be compared to them. As for
Libya, we know it to be washed on all sides by
the sea, except where it is attached to Asia.
This discovery was first made by Necos, the
Egyptian king, who on desisting from the
canal which he had begun between the Nile
and the Arabian gulf, sent to sea a number of
ships manned by Phoenicians, with orders to
make for the Pillars of Hercules, and return to
Egypt through them, and by the Mediterran-
ean. The Phoenicians took their departure
from Egypt by way of the Erythraean sea, and
so sailed into the southern ocean. When au-
tumn came, they went ashore, wherever they
might happen to be, and having sown a tract
of land with corn, waited until the grain was
fit to cut. Having reaped it, they again set sail;
and thus it came to pass that two whole years
went by, and it was not till the third year that
they doubled the Pillars of Hercules, and made
good their voyage home. On their return, they
declared — I for my part do not believe them,
but perhaps others may — that in sailing round
Libya they had the sun upon their right hand. In
this way was the extent of Libya first discovered.
43. Next to these Phoenicians the Carthagin-
ians, according to their own accounts, made
the voyage. For Sataspes, son of Teaspes the
Achaemenian, did not circumnavigate Libya,
though he was sent to do so; but, fearing the
length and desolateness of the journey, he
turned back and left unaccomplished the task
which had been set him by his mother. This
man had used violence towards a maiden, the
daughter of Zopyrus, son of Megabyzus, and
King Xerxes was about to impale him for the
offence, when his mother, who was a sister of
Darius, begged him off, undertaking to punish
his crime more heavily than the king himself
had designed. She would force him, she said, to
sail round Libya and return to Egypt by the
Arabian gulf. Xerxes gave his consent; and
Sataspes went down to Egypt, and there got a
ship and crew, with which he set sail for the
Pillars of Hercules. Having passed the Straits,
he doubled the Libyan headland, known as
Cape Soloeis, and proceeded southward. Fol-
lowing this course for many months over a vast
stretch of sea, and finding that more water
than he had crossed still lay ever before him,
he put about, and came back to Egypt. Thence
proceeding to the court, he made report to
Xerxes, that at the farthest point to which he

had reached, the coast was occupied by a
dwarfish race, who wore a dress made from the
palm tree. These people, whenever he landed,
left their towns and fled away to the moun-
tains; his men, however, did them no wrong,
only entering into their cities and taking some
of their cattle. The reason why he had not
sailed quite round Libya was, he said, because
the ship stopped, and would no go any further.
Xerxes, however, did not accept this account
for true; and so Sataspes, as he had failed to ac-
complish the task set him, was impaled by the
king's orders in accordance with the former
sentence. One of his eunuchs, on hearing of
his death, ran away with a great portion of his
wealth, and reached Samos, where a certain
Samian seized the whole. I know the man's
name well, but I shall willingly forget it here.

44. Of the greater part of Asia Darius was
the discoverer. Wishing to know where the
Indus (which is the only river save one that
produces crocodiles) emptied itself into the sea,
he sent a number of men, on whose truthful-
ness he could rely, and among them Scylax of
Caryanda, to sail down the river. They started
from the city of Caspatyrus, in the region
called Pactyi'ca, and sailed down the stream in
an easterly direction to the sea. Here they
turned westward, and, after a voyage of thirty
months, reached the place from which the
Egyptian king, of whom I spoke above, sent
the Phoenicians to sail round Libya. After this
voyage was completed, Darius conquered the
Indians, and made use of the sea in those parts.
Thus all Asia, except the eastern portion, has
been found to be similarly circumstanced with
Libya.

45. But the boundaries of Europe are quite
unknown, and there is not a man who can say
whether any sea girds it round cither on the
north or on the east, while in length it un-
doubtedly extends as far as both the other two.
For my part I cannot conceive why three
names, and women's names especially, should
ever have been given to a tract which is in re-
ality one, nor why the Egyptian Nile and the
Colchian Phasis (or according to others the
Maeotic Tanais and Cimmerian ferry) should
have been fixed upon for the boundary lines;
nor can I even say who gave the three tracts
their names, or whence they took the epithets.
According to the Greeks in general, Libya was
so called after a certain Libya, a native woman,
and Asia after the wife of Prometheus. The
Lydians, however, put in a claim to the latter
name, which, they declare, was not derived

132 HERODOTUS

from Asia the wife of Prometheus, but from
Asies, the son of Cotys, and grandson of
Manes, who also gave name to the tribe Asias
at Sardis. As for Europe, no one can say
whether it is surrounded by the sea or not,
neither is it known whence the name of Eu-
rope was derived, nor who gave it name, un-
less we say that Europe was so called after the
Tyrian Europe, and before her time was name-
less, like the other divisions. But it is certain
that Europe* was an Asiatic, and never even set
foot on the land which the Greeks now call
Europe, only sailing from Phoenicia to Crete,
and from Crete to Lycia. However let us quit
these matters. We shall ourselves continue to
use the names which custom sanctions.

46. The Euxine sea, where Darius now went
to war, has nations dwelling around it, with
the one exception of the Scythians, more un-
polished than those of any other region that we
know of. For, setting aside Anacharsis and the
Scythian people, there is not within this region
a single nation which can be put forward as
having any claims to wisdom, or which has
produced a single person of any high repute.
The Scythians indeed have in one respect, and
that the very most important of all those that
fall under man's control, shown themselves
wiser than any nation upon the face of the
earth. Their customs otherwise are not such as
I admire. The one thing of which I speak is
the contrivance whereby they make it impos-
sible for the enemy who invades them to es-
cape destruction, while they themselves are en-
tirely out of his reach, unless it please them to
engage with him. Having neither cities nor
forts, and carrying their dwellings with them
wherever they go; accustomed, moreover, one
and all of them, to shoot from horseback; and
living not by husbandry but on their cattle,
their waggons the only houses that they pos-
sess, how can they fail of being unconquerable,
and unassailable even?

47. The nature of their country, and the riv-
ers by which it is intersected, greatly favour
this mode of resisting attacks. For the land is
level, well watered, and abounding in pasture;
while the rivers which traverse it are almost
equal in number to the canals of Egypt. Of
these I shall only mention the most famous and
such as are navigable to some distance from the
sea. They are, the Ister, which has five mouths;
the Tyras, the Hypanis, the Borysthenes, the
Panticapes, the Hypacyris, the Gerrhus, and
the Tanais. The courses of these streams I shall
now proceed to describe.

[BooK iv

48. The Ister is of all the rivers with which
we are acquainted the mightiest. It never var-
ies in height, but continues at the same level
summer and winter. Counting from the west
it is the first of the Scythian rivers, and the
reason of its being the greatest is that it re-
ceives the water of several tributaries. Now the
tributaries which swell its flood are the follow-
ing: first, on the side of Scythia, these five —
the stream called by the Scythians Porata, and
by the Greeks Pyretus, the Tiarantus, the
Ararus, the Naparis, and the Ordessus. The
first mentioned is a great stream, and is the
easternmost of the tributaries. The Tiarantus
is of less volume, and more to the west. The
Ararus, Naparis, and Ordessus fall into the
Ister between these two. All the above men-
tioned are genuine Scythian rivers, and go to
swell the current of the Ister.

49. From the country of the Agathyrsi comes
down another river, the Maris, which empties
itself into the same; and from the heights of
Haemus descend with a northern course three
mighty streams, the Atlas, the Auras, and the
Tibisis, and pour their waters into it. Thrace
gives it three tributaries, the Athrys, the Noes,
and the Artanes, which all pass through the
country of the Crobyzian Thracians. Another
tributary is furnished by Paeonia, namely, the
Scius; this river, rising near Mount Rhodope,
forces its way through the chain of Haemus,1
and so reaches the Ister. From Illyria comes
another stream, the Angrus, which has a
course from south to north, and after watering
the Triballian plain, falls into the Brongus,
which falls into the Ister. So the Ister is aug-
mented by these two streams, both consider-
able. Besides all these, the Ister receives also
the waters of the Carpis and the Alpis, two
rivers running in a northerly direction from
the country above the Umbrians. For the Ister
flows through the whole extent of Europe, ris-
ing in the country of the Celts (the most west-
erly of all the nations of Europe, excepting the
Cynetians), and thence running across the
continent till it reaches Scythia, whereof it
washes the flanks.

50. All these streams, then, and many others,
add their waters to swell the flood of the Ister,
which thus increased becomes the mightiest of
rivers; for undoubtedly if we compare the
stream of the Nile with the single stream of the
Ister, we must give the preference to the Nile,
of which no tributary river, nor even rivulet,

1 This is untrue. No stream forces its way
through this chain.

46-57]

THE HISTORY

133

augments the volume. The Ister remains at
the same level both summer and winter —
owing to the following reasons, as I believe.
During the winter it runs at its natural height,
or a very little higher, because in those coun-
tries there is scarcely any rain in winter, but
constant snow. When summer comes, this
snow, which is of great depth, begins to melt,
and flows into the Ister, which is swelled at
that season, not only by this cause but also by
the rains, which are heavy and frequent at that
part of the year. Thus the various streams
which go to form the Ister are higher in sum-
mer than in winter, and just so much higher
as the sun's power and attraction are greater;
so that these two causes counteract each other,
and the effect is to produce a balance, whereby
the Ister remains always at the same level.

51. This, then, is one of the great Scythian
rivers; the next to it is the Tyras, which rises
from a great lake separating Scythia from the
land of the Neuri, and runs with a southerly
course to the sea. Greeks dwell at the mouth
of the river, who are called Tyritae.

52. The third river is the Hypanis. This
stream rises within the limits of Scythia, and
has its source in another vast lake, around
which wild white horses graze. The lake is
called, properly enough, the Mother of the
Hypanis. The Hypanis, rising here, during the
distance of five clays' navigation is a shallow
stream, and the water sweet and pure; thence,
however, to the sea, which is a distance of four
days, it is exceedingly bitter. This change is
caused by its receiving into it at that point a
brook the waters of which are so bitter that, al-
though it is but a tiny rivulet, it nevertheless
taints the entire Hypanis, which is a large
stream among those of the second order. The
source of this bitter spring is on the borders of
the Scythian Husbandmen, where they adjoin
upon the Alazonians; and the place where it
rises is called in the Scythic tongue Exampxus,
which means in our language, "The Sacred
Ways." The spring itself bears the same name.
The Tyras and the Hypanis approach each
other in the country of the Alazonians, but
afterwards separate, and leave a wide space be-
tween their streams.

53. The fourth of the Scythian rivers is the
Borysthenes. Next to the Ister, it is the greatest
of them all; and, in my judgment, it is the most
productive river, not merely in Scythia, but in
the whole world, excepting only the Nile, with
which no stream can possibly compare. It has
upon its banks the loveliest and most excellent

pasturages for cattle; it contains abundance of
the most delicious fish; its water is most pleas-
ant to the taste; its stream is limpid, while all
the other rivers near it are muddy; the richest
harvests spring up along its course, and where
the ground is not sown, the heaviest crops of
grass; while salt forms in great plenty about its
mouth without human aid, and large fish are
taken in it of the sort called Antacaei, without
any prickly bones, and good for pickling. Nor
are these the whole of its marvels. As far in-
land as the place named Gerrhus, which is dis-
tant forty days' voyage from the sea, its course
is known, and its direction is from north to
south; but above this no one has traced it, so as
to say through what countries it flows. It enters
the territory of the Scythian Husbandmen after
running for some time across a desert region,
and continues for ten days' navigation to pass
through the land which they inhabit. It is the
only river besides the Nile the sources of which
are unknown to me, as they are also (I believe)
to all the other Greeks. Not long before it
reaches the sea, the Borysthenes is joined by the
Hypanis, which pours its waters into the same
lake. The land that lies between them, a nar-
row point like the beak of a ship, is called Cape
Hippolaiis. Here is a temple dedicated to
Ceres, and opposite the temple upon the Hy-
panis is the dwelling-place of the Borysthenites.
But enough has been said of these streams.

54. Next in succession comes the fifth river,
called the Panticapes, which has, like the Borys-
thenes, a course from north to south, and rises
from a lake. The space between this river and
the Borysthenes is occupied by the Scythians
who are engaged in husbandry. After watering
their country, the Panticapes flows through
Hyla-a, and empties itself into the Borysthenes.

55. The sixth stream is the Hypacyris, a
river rising from a lake, and running directly
through the middle of the Nomadic Scythians.
It falls into the sea near the city of Carcinitis,
leaving Hylaea and the course of Achilles to the
right.

56. The seventh river is the Gerrhus, which
is a branch thrown out by the Borysthenes at
the point where the course of that stream first
begins to be known, to wit, the region called
by the same name as the stream itself, viz.
Gerrhus. This river on its passage towards
the sea divides the country of the Nomadic
from that of the Royal Scyths. It runs into the
Hypacyris.

57. The eighth river is the Tanais, a stream
which has its source, far up the country, in a

134 HERODOTUS

lake of vast size, and which empties itself into
another still larger lake, the Palus Maeotis,
whereby the country of the Royal Scythians is
divided from that of the Sauromatae. The
Tanais receives the waters of a tributary
stream, called the Hyrgis.

58. Such then are the rivers of chief note in
Scythia. The grass which the land produces is
more apt to generate gall in the beasts that feed
on it than any other grass which is known to
us, as plainly appears on the opening of their
carcases.

59. Thus abundantly are the Scythians pro-
vided with the most important necessaries.
Their manners and customs come now to be
described. They worship only the following
gods, namely, Vesta, whom they reverence be-
yond all the rest, Jupiter, and Tellus, whom
they consider to be the wife of Jupiter; and
after these Apollo, Celestial Venus, Hercules,
and Mars. These gods are worshipped by the
whole nation: the Royal Scythians offer sacri-
fice likewise to Neptune. In the Scythic tongue
Vesta is called Tahiti, Jupiter (very properly,
in my judgment) Papceus, Tellus Apia, Apollo
(Etosyrus, Celestial Venus Artlmpasa, and
Neptune Thamimasadas. They use no images,
altars, or temples, except in the worship of
Mars; but in his worship they do use them.

60. The manner of their sacrifices is every-
where and in every case the same; the victim
stands with its two fore-feet bound together by
a cord, and the person who is about to offer,
taking his station behind the victim, gives the
rope a pull, and thereby throws the animal
down; as it falls he invokes the god to whom
he is offering; after which he puts a noose
round the animal's neck, and, inserting a small
stick, twists it round, and so strangles him. No
fire is lighted, there is no consecration, and no
pouring out of drink-offerings; but directly
that the beast is strangled the sacnficer flays
him, and then sets to work to boil the flesh.

6 1. As Scythia, however, is utterly barren of
firewood, a plan has had to be contrived for
boiling the flesh, which is the following. After
flaying the beasts, they take out all the bones,
and (if they possess such gear) put the flesh
into boilers made in the country, which are
very like the cauldrons of the Lesbians, ex-
cept that they are of a much larger size; then
placing the bones of the animals beneath the
cauldron, they set them alight, and so boil the
meat. If they do not happen to possess a cauld-
ron, they make the animal's paunch hold the
flesh, and pouring in at the same time a little

[BooK iv

water, lay the bones under and light them.
The bones burn beautifully; and the paunch
easily contains all the flesh when it is stript
from the bones, so that by this plan your ox is
made to boil himself, and other victims also
to do the like. When the meat is all cooked, the
sacrificer offers a portion of the flesh and of
the entrails, by casting it on the ground before
him. They sacrifice all sorts of cattle, but most
commonly horses.

62. Such are the victims offered to the other
gods, and such is the mode in which they are
sacrificed; but the rites paid to Mars are dif-
ferent. In every district, at the seat of govern-
ment, there stands a temple of this god, where-
of the following is a description. It is a pile of
brushwood, made of a vast quantity of fagots,
in length and breadth three furlongs; in height
somewhat less, having a square platform upon
the top, three sides of which are precipitous,
while the fourth slopes so that men may walk
up it. Each year a hundred and fifty waggon-
loads of brushwood are added to the pile,
which sinks continually by reason of the rains.
An antique iron sword is planted on the top of
every such mound, and serves as the image of
Mars: yearly sacrifices of cattle and of horses
are made to it, and more victims are offered
thus than to all the rest of their gods. When
prisoners are taken in war, out of every hun-
dred men they sacrifice one, not however with
the same rites as the cattle, but with different.
Libations of wine are first poured upon their
heads, after which they are slaughtered over
a vessel; the vessel is then carried up to the top
of the pile, and the blood poured upon the
scymitar. While this takes place at the top of
the mound, below, by the side of the temple,
the right hands and arms of the slaughtered
prisoners are cut off, and tossed on high into
the air. Then the other victims are slain, and
those who have offered the sacrifice depart,
leaving the hands and arms where they may
chance to have fallen, and the bodies also,
separate.

63. Such are the observances of the Scythians
with respect to sacrifice. They never use swine
for the purpose, nor indeed is it their wont to
breed them in any part of their country.

64. In what concerns war, their customs are
the following. The Scythian soldier drinks the
blood of the first man he overthrows in battle.
Whatever number he slays, he cuts off all their
heads, and carries them to the king; since he
is thus entitled to a share of the booty, whereto
he forfeits all claim if he does not produce a

58-69]

head. In order to strip the skull of its covering,
he makes a cut round the head above the ears,
and, laying hold of the scalp, shakes the skull
out; then with the rib of an ox he scrapes the
scalp clean of flesh, and softening it by rubbing
between the hands, uses it thenceforth as a
napkin. The Scyth is proud of these scalps, and
hangs them from his bridle-rein; the greater
the number of such napkins that a man can
show, the more highly is he esteemed among
them. Many make themselves cloaks, like the
capotes of our peasants, by sewing a quantity
of these scalps together. Others flay the right
arms of their dead enemies, and make of the
skin, which is stripped oft with the nails hang-
ing to it, a covering for their quivers. Now the
skin of a man is thick and glossy, and would
in whiteness surpass almost all other hides.
Some even flay the entire body of their enemy,
and stretching it upon a frame carry it about
with them wherever they ride. Such are the
Scythian customs with respect to scalps and
skins.

65. The skulls of their enemies, not indeed
of all, but of those whom they most detest, they
treat as follows. Having sawn off the portion
below the eyebrows, and cleaned out the inside,
they cover the outside with leather. When a
man is poor, this is all that he does; but if he is
rich, he also lines the inside with gold: in
either case the skull is used as a drinkmg-cup.
They do the same with the skulls of their own
kith and kin if they have been at feud with
them, and have vanquished them in the pres-
ence of the king. When strangers whom they
deem of any account come to visit them, these
skulls are handed round, and the host tells how
that these were his relations who made war
upon him, and how that he got the better of
them; all this being looked upon as proof of
bravery.

66. Once a year the governor of each district,
at a set place in his own province, mingles a
bowl of wine, of which all Scythians have a
right to drink by whom foes have been slain;
while they who have slain no enemy are not
allowed to taste of the bowl, but sit aloof in
disgrace. No greater shame than this can hap-
pen to them. Such as have slain a very large
number of foes, have two cups instead of one,
and drink from both.

67. Scythia has an abundance of soothsayers,
who foretell the future by means of a number
of willow wands. A large bundle of these
wands is brought and laid on the ground. The
soothsayer unties the bundle, and places each

THE HISTORY

135

wand by itself, at the same time uttering his
prophecy: then, while he is still speaking, he
gathers the rods together again, and makes
them up once more into a bundle. This mode
of divination is of home growth in Scythia.
The Enarees, or woman-like men, have another
method, which they say Venus taught them.
It is done with the inner bark of the linden-
tree. They take a piece of this bark, and, split-
ting it into three strips, keep twining the strips
about their fingers, and untwining them, while
they prophesy.

68. Whenever the Scythian king falls sick,
he sends for the three soothsayers of most re-
nown at the time, who come and make trial of
their art in the mode above described. Gen-
erally they say that the king is ill because such
or such a person, mentioning his name, has
sworn falsely by the royal hearth. This is the
usual oath among the Scythians, when they
wish to swear with very great solemnity. Then
the man accused of having foresworn himself
is arrested and brought before the king. The
soothsayers tell him that by their art it is clear
he has sworn a false oath by the royal hearth,
and so caused the illness of the king — he de-
nies the charge, protests that he has sworn no
false oath, and loudly complains of the wrong
done to him. Upon this the king sends for six
new soothsayers, who try the matter by sooth-
saying. If they too find the man guilty of the
offence, straightway he is beheaded by those
who first accused him, and his goods are part-
ed among them: if, on the contrary, they acquit
him, other soothsayers, and again others, are
sent for, to try the case. Should the greater
number decide in favour of the man's inno-
cence, then they who first accused him forfeit
their lives.

69. The mode of their execution is the fol-
lowing: a waggon is loaded with brushwood,
and oxen are harnessed to it; the soothsayers,
with their feet tied together, their hands bound
behind their backs, and their mouths gagged,
are thrust into the midst of the brushwood;
finally the wood is set alight, and the oxen,
being startled, are made to rush off with the
waggon. It often happens that the oxen and
the soothsayers are both consumed together,
but sometimes the pole of the waggon is burnt
through, and the oxen escape with a scorching.
Diviners — lying diviners, they call them — are
burnt in the way described, for other causes be-
sides the one here spoken of. When the king
puts one of them to death, he takes care not to
let any of his sons survive: all the male off-

136

HERODOTUS

[BOOK iv

spring arc slain with the father, only the fe-
males being allowed to live.

70. Oaths among the Scyths are accompa-
nied with the following ceremonies: a large
carthern bowl is filled with wine, and the par-
ties to the oath, wounding themselves slightly
with a knife or an awl, drop some of their
blood into the wine; then they plunge into the
mixture a scymitar, some arrows, a battle-axe,
and a javelin, all the while repeating prayers;
lastly the two contracting parties drink each a
draught from the bowl, as do also the chief
men among their followers.

71. The tombs of their kings are in the land
of the Gerrhi, who dwell at the point where the
Borysthenes is first navigable. Here, when the
king dies, they dig a grave, which is square in
shape, and of great size. When it is ready, they
take the king's corpse, and, having opened the
belly, and cleaned out the inside, fill the cavity
with a preparation of chopped cypress, frank-
incense, parsley-seed, and anise-seed, after
which they sew up the opening, enclose the
body in wax, and, placing it on a waggon,
carry it about through all the different tribes.
On this procession each tribe, when it receives
the corpse, imitates the example which is first
set by the Royal Scythians; every man chops
off a piece of his ear, crops his hair close, and
makes a cut all round his arm, lacerates his
forehead and his nose, and thrusts an arrow
through his left hand. Then they who have
the care of the corpse carry it with them to an-
other of the tribes which are under the Scyth-
ian rule, followed by those whom they first
visited. On completing the circuit of all the
tribes under their sway, they find themselves
in the country of the Gerrhi, who are the most
remote of all, and so they come to the tombs of
the kings. There the body of the dead king is
laid in the grave prepared for it, stretched upon
a mattress; spears are fixed in the ground on
either side of the corpse, and beams stretched
across above it to form a roof, which is covered
with a thatching of osier twigs. In the open
space around the body of the king they bury
one of his concubines, first killing her by
strangling, and also his cup-bearer, his cook,
his groom, his lacquey, his messenger, some of
his horses, firstlings of all his other possessions,
and some golden cups; for they use neither
silver nor brass. After this they set to work, and
raise a vast mound above the grave, all of them
vying with each other and seeking to make it
as tall as possible.

72. When a year is gone by, further cere-

monies take place. Fifty of the best of the late
king's attendants are taken, all native Scythians
— for, as bought slaves are unknown in the
country, the Scythian kings choose any of their
subjects that they like, to wait on them — fifty
of these are taken and strangled, with fifty of
the most beautiful horses. When they are dead,
their bowels are taken out, and the cavity
cleaned, filled full of chaff, and straightway
sewn up again. This done, a number of posts
are driven into the ground, in sets of two pairs
each, and on every pair half the felly of a wheel
is placed archwise; then strong stakes are run
lengthways through the bodies of the horses
from tail to neck, and they are mounted up
upon the fellies, so that the felly in front sup-
ports the shoulders of the horse, while that be-
hind sustains the belly and quarters, the legs
dangling in mid-air; each horse is furnished
with a bit and bridle, which latter is stretched
out in front of the horse, and fastened to a peg.
The fifty strangled youths are then mounted
severally on the fifty horses. To effect this, a
second stake is passed through their bodies
along the course of the spine to the neck; the
lower end of which projects from the body,
and is fixed into a socket, made in the stake
that runs lengthwise down the horse. The fifty
riders are thus ranged in a circle round the
tomb, and so left.

73. Such, then, is the mode in which the
kings are buried: as for the people, when any
one dies, his nearest of kin lay him upon a
waggon and take him round to all his friends
in succession: each receives them in turn and
entertains them with a banquet, whereat the
dead man is served with a portion of all that is
set before the others; this is done for forty
days, at the end of which time the burial takes
place. After the burial, those engaged in it have
to purify themselves, which they do in the fol-
lowing way. First they well soap and wash
their heads; then, in order to cleanse their
bodies, they act as follows: they make a booth
by fixing in the ground three sticks inclined
towards one another, and stretching around
them woollen felts, which they arrange so as to
fit as close as possible: inside the booth a dish
is placed upon the ground, into which they
put a number of red-hot stones, and then add
some hemp-seed.

74. Hemp grows in Scythia: it is very like
flax; only that it is a much coarser and taller
plant: some grows wild about the country,
some is produced by cultivation: the Thracians
make garments of it which closely resemble

70-78]

THE HISTORY

137

linen; so much so, indeed, that if a person has
never seen hemp he is sure to think they are
linen, and if he has, unless he is very experi-
enced in such matters, he will not know of
which material they are.

75. The Scythians, as I said, take some of
this hemp-seed, and, creeping under the felt
coverings, throw it upon the red-hot stones;
immediately it smokes, and gives out such a
vapour as no Grecian vapour-bath can exceed;
the Scyths, delighted, shout for joy, and this
vapour serves them instead of a water-bath;
for they never by any chance wash their bodies
with water. Their women make a mixture of
cypress, cedar, and frankincense wood, which
they pound into a paste upon a rough piece of
stone, adding a little water to it. With this
substance, which is of a thick consistency, they
plaster their faces all over, and indeed their
whole bodies. A sweet odour is thereby im-
parted to them, and when they take off the
plaster on the day following, their skin is clean
and glossy.

76. The Scythians have an extreme hatred
of all foreign customs, particularly of those in
use among the Greeks, as the instances of Ana-
charsis, and, more lately, of Scylas, have fully
shown. The former, after he had travelled over
a great portion of the world, and displayed
wherever he went many proofs of wisdom, as
he sailed through the Hellespont on his return
to Scythia touched at Cyzicus. There he found
the inhabitants celebrating with much pomp
and magnificence a festival to the Mother of
the Gods,1 and was himself induced to make a
vow to the goddess, whereby he engaged, if
he got back safe and sound to his home, that
he would give her a festival and a night-proces-
sion in all respects like those which he had seen
in Cyzicus. When, therefore, he arrived in
Scythia, he betook himself to the district called
the Woodland, which lies opposite the course
of Achilles, and is covered with trees of all
manner of different kinds, and there went
through all the sacred rites with the tabour in
his hand, and the images tied to him. While
thus employed, he was noticed by one of the
Scythians, who went and told king Saulius
what he had seen. Then king Saulius came in
person, and when he perceived what Anachar-
sis was about, he shot at him with an arrow
and killed him. To this day, if you ask the
Scyths about Anacharsis, they pretend igno-
rance of him, because of his Grecian travels
and adoption of the customs of foreigners. I

1 Cybele or Rhca.

learnt, however, from Timnes, the steward of
Ariapithes, that Anacharsis was paternal uncle
to the Scythian king Idanthyrsus, being the
son of Gnurus, who was the son of Lycus and
the grandson of Spargapithes. If Anacharsis
were really of this house, it must have been by
his own brother that he was slain, for Idan-
thyrsus was a son of the Saulius who put An-
acharsis to death.

77. I have heard, however, another tale, very
different from this, which is told by the Pelo-
ponnesians: they say, that Anacharsis was sent
by the king of the Scyths to make acquaint-
ance with Greece — that he went, and on his re-
turn home reported that the Greeks were all
occupied in the pursuit of every kind of knowl-
edge, except the Lacedaemonians; who, how-
ever, alone knew how to converse sensibly. A
silly tale this, which the Greeks have invented
for their amusement! There is no doubt that
Anacharsis suffered death in the mode already
related, on account of his attachment to for-
eign customs, and the intercourse which he
held with the Greeks.

78. Scylas, likewise, the son of Ariapithes,
many years later, met with almost the very
same fate. Ariapithes, the Scythian king, had
several sons, among them this Scylas, who was
the child, not of a native Scy th, but of a woman
of Istria. Bred up by her, Scylas gained an ac-
quaintance with the Greek language and let-
ters. Some time afterwards, Ariapithes was
treacherously slain by Spargapithes, king of the
Aga thyrsi; whereupon Scylas succeeded to the
throne, and married one of his father's wives,
a woman named Opoea. This Opoea was a
Scythian by birth, and had brought Ariapithes
a son called Oricus. Now when Scylas found
himself king of Scythia, as he disliked the
Scythic mode of life, and was attached, by his
bringing up, to the manners of the Greeks, he
made it his usual practice, whenever he came
with his army to the town of the Borysthen-
ites, who, according to their own account, are
colonists of the Milesians — he made it his
practice, I say, to leave the army before the city,
and, having entered within the walls by him-
self, and carefully closed the gates, to exchange
his Scythian dress for Grecian garments, and
in this attire to walk about the forum, without
guards or retinue. The Borysthenites kept
watch at the gates, that no Scythian might see
the king thus apparelled. Scylas, meanwhile,
lived exactly as the Greeks, and even offered
sacrifices to the gods according to the Grecian
rites. In this way he would pass a month, or

138

HERODOTUS

[ BOOK iv

more, with the Borysthenites, after which he
would clothe himself again in his Scythian
dress, and so take his departure. This he did
repeatedly, and even built himself a house in
Borysthenes, and married a wife there who
was a native of the place.

79. But when the time came that was or-
dained to bring him woe, the occasion of his
ruin was the following. He wanted to be in-
itiated in the Bacchic mysteries, and was on the
point of obtaining admission to the rites, when
a most strange prodigy occurred to him. The
house which he possessed, as I mentioned a
short time back, in the city of the Borysthen-
ites, a building of great extent and erected at
a vast cost, round which there stood a number
of sphinxes and griffins carved in white marble,
was struck by lightning from on high, and
burnt to the ground. Scylas, nevertheless, went
on and received the initiation. Now the Scyth-
ians are wont to reproach the Greeks with their
Bacchanal rage, and to say that it is not rea-
sonable to imagine there is a god who impels
men to madness. No sooner, therefore, was
Scylas initiated in the Bacchic mysteries than
one of the Borysthenites went and carried the
news to the Scythians — "You Scyths laugh at
us," he said, "because we rave when the god
seizes us. But now our god has seized upon
your king, who raves like us, and is maddened
by the influence. If you think I do not tell you
true, come with me, and I will show him to
you." The chiefs of the Scythians went with
the man accordingly, and the Borysthenite,
conducting them into the city, placed them se-
cretly on one of the towers. Presently Scylas
passed by with the band of revellers, raving
like the rest, and was seen by the watchers. Re-
garding the matter as a very great misfortune
they instantly departed, and came and told the
army what they had witnessed.

80. When, therefore, Scylas, after leaving
Borysthenes, was about returning home, the
Scythians broke out into revolt. They put at
their head Octamasadas, grandson (on the
mother's side) of Teres. Then Scylas, when he
learned the danger with which he was threat-
ened, and the reason of the disturbance, made
his escape to Thrace. Octamasadas, discover-
ing whither he had fled, marched after him,
and had reached the Ister, when he was met
by the forces of the Thracians. The two armies
were about to engage, but before they joined
battle, Sitalces sent a message to Octamasadas
to this effect — "Why should there be trial of
arms betwixt thee and me? Thou art my own

sister's son, and thou hast in thy keeping my
brother. Surrender him into my hands, and I
will give thy Scylas back to thee. So neither
thou nor I will risk our armies." Sitalces sent
this message to Octamasadas, by a herald, and
Octamasadas, with whom a brother of Sitalces
had formerly taken refuge, accepted the terms.
He surrendered his own uncle to Sitalces, and
obtained in exchange his brother Scylas. Sital-
ces took his brother with him and withdrew;
but Octamasadas beheaded Scylas upon the
spot. Thus rigidly do the Scythians maintain
their own customs, and thus severely do they
punish such as adopt foreign usages.

81. What the population of Scythia is I was
not able to learn with certainty; the accounts
which I received varied from one another. I
heard from some that they were very numer-
ous indeed; others made their numbers but
scanty for such a nation as the Scyths. Thus
much, however, I witnessed with my own
eyes. There is a tract called Exampaeus between
the Borysthenes and the Hypanis. I made some
mention of it in a former place, where I spoke
of the bitter stream which rising there flows
into the Hypanis, and renders the water of
that river undrinkable. Here then stands a
brazen bowl, six times as big as that at the en-
trance of the Euxme, which Pausanias, the son
of Cleombrotus, set up. Such as have never
seen that vessel may understand me better if I
say that the Scythian bowl holds with ease six
hundred amphorae,1 and is of the thickness of
six fingers' breadth. The natives gave me the
following account of the manner in which it
was made. One of their kings, by name Arian-
tas, wishing to know the number of his sub-
jects, ordered them all to bring him, on pain
of death, the point off one ot their arrows.
They obeyed; and he collected thereby a vast
heap of arrow-heads, which he resolved to
form into a memorial that might go down to
posterity. Accordingly he made of them this
bowl, and dedicated it at Exampaeus. This was
all that I could learn concerning the number of
the Scythians.

82. The country has no marvels except its
rivers, which are larger and more numerous
than those of any other land. These, and the
vastness of the great plain, are worthy of note,
and one thing besides, which I am about to
mention. They show a footmark of Hercules,

xThe Greek amphora (dju</>opeus) contained
nearly nine of our gallons; whence it appears that
this bowl would have held about 5400 gallons, or
above 85 hogsheads.

79-88]

THE HISTORY

139

impressed on a rock, in shape like the print of
a man's foot, but two cubits in length. It is in
the neighbourhood of the Tyras. Having de-
scribed this, I return to the subject on which I
originally proposed to discourse.

83. The preparations of Darius against the
Scythians had begun, messengers had been des-
patched on all sides with the king's commands,
some being required to furnish troops, others
to supply ships, others again to bridge the
Thracian Bosphorus, when Artabanus, son of
Hystaspes and brother of Darius, entreated the
king to desist from his expedition, urging on
him the great difficulty of attacking Scythia.
Good, however, as the advice of Artabanus
was, it failed to persuade Darius. He therefore
ceased his reasonings; and Darius, when his
preparations were complete, led his army forth
from Susa.

84. It was then that a certain Persian, by
name (Eobazus, the father of three sons, all of
whom were to accompany the army, came and
prayed the king that he would allow one of
his sons to remain with him. Darius made an-
swer, as if he regarded him in the light of a
friend who had urged a moderate request,
"that he would allow them all to remain." CEo-
bazus was overjoyed, expecting that all his chil-
dren would be excused from serving; the king,
however, bade his attendants take the three
sons of CEobazus and forthwith put them to
death. Thus they were all left behind, but not
till they had been deprived of life.

85. When Darius, on his march from Susa,
reached the territory of Chalcedon on the
shores of the Bosphorus, where the bridge had
been made, he took ship and sailed thence to
the Cyanean islands, which, according to the
Greeks, once floated. He took his seat also in
the temple and surveyed the Pontus, which is
indeed well worthy of consideration. There is
not in the world any other sea so wonderful:
it extends in length eleven thousand one hun-
dred furlongs, and its breadth, at the widest
part, is three thousand three hundred. The
mouth is but four furlongs wide; and this
strait, called the Bosphorus, and across which
the bridge of Darius had been thrown, is a hun-
dred and twenty furlongs in length, reaching
from the Euxine to the Propontis. The Pro-
pontis is five hundred furlongs across, and
fourteen hundred long. Its waters flow into the
Hellespont, the length of which is four hun-
dred furlongs, and the width no more than
seven. The Hellespont opens into the wide sea
called the Egean.

86. The mode in which these distances have
been measured is the following. In a long
day a vessel generally accomplishes about sev-
enty thousand fathoms, in the night sixty thou-
sand. Now from the mouth of the Pontus to
the river Phasis, which is the extreme length
of this sea, is a voyage of nine days and eight
nights, which makes the distance one million
one hundred and ten thousand fathoms, or
eleven thousand one hundred furlongs. Again,
from Sindica, to Themiscyra on the river Ther-
modon, where the Pontus is wider than at any
other place, is a sail of three days and two
nights; which makes three hundred and thirty
thousand fathoms, or three thousand three
hundred furlongs. Such is the plan on which I
have measured the Pontus, the Bosphorus, and
the Hellespont, and such is the account which
I have to give of them. The Pontus has also a
lake belonging to it, not very much inferior to
itself in size. The waters of this lake run into
the Pontus: it is called the Macotis, and also the
Mother of the Pontus.

87. Darius, after he had finished his survey,
sailed back to the bridge, which had been con-
structed for him by Mandrocles a Samian. He
likewise surveyed the Bosphorus, and erected
upon its shores two pillars of white marble,
whereupon he inscribed the names of all the
nations which formed his army — on the one
pillar in Greek, on the other in Assyrian char-
acters. Now his army was drawn from all the
nations under his sway; and the whole amount,
without reckoning the naval forces, was seven
hundred thousand men, including cavalry.
The fleet consisted of six hundred ships. Some
time afterwards the Byzantines removed these
pillars to their own city, and used them for an
altar which they erected to Orthosian Diana.
One block remained behind: it lay near the
temple of Bacchus at Byzantium, and was cov-
ered with Assyrian writing. The spot where
Darius bridged the Bosphorus was, I think,
but I speak only from conjecture, half-way be-
tween the city of Byzantium and the temple at
the mouth of the strait.

88. Darius was so pleased with the bridge
thrown across the strait by the Samain Man-
drocles, that he not only bestowed upon him
all the customary presents, but gave him ten of
every kind. Mandrocles, by the way of offer-
ing first-fruits from these presents, caused a pic-
ture to be painted which showed the whole of
the bridge, with King Darius sitting in a seat-
of honour, and his army engaged in the pas-
sage. This painting he dedicated in the temple,

140

HERODOTUS

[BOOK iv

of Juno at Samos, attaching to it the inscription

following: —

The fish-fraught Bosphorus bridged, to funo's fane

Did Mandrocles this proud memorial bring;
When for himself a crown he'd styll to gain,

For Samos praise, contenting the Great King.
Such was the memorial of his work which was
left by the architect of the bridge.

89. Darius, after rewarding Mandrocles,
passed into Europe, while he ordered the loni-
ans to enter the Pontus, and sail to the mouth
of the Ister. There he bade them throw a
bridge across the stream and await his coming.
The lonians, ^Eolians, and Hellespontians
were the nations which furnished the chief
strength of his navy. So the fleet, threading the
Cyanean Isles, proceeded straight to the Ister,
and, mounting the river to the point where its
channels separate, a distance of two days' voy-
age from the sea, yoked the neck of the stream.
Meantime Darius, who had crossed the Bos-
phorus by the bridge over it, marched through
Thrace; and happening upon the sources of the
Tearus, pitched his camp and made a stay of
three days.

90. Now the Tearus is said by those who
dwell near it, to be the most healthful of all
streams, and to cure, among other diseases, the
scab either in man or beast. Its sources, which
are eight and thirty in number, all flowing
from the same rock, are in part cold, in part
hot. They lie at an equal distance from the
town of Heraeum near Perinthus, and Apol-
lonia on the Euxine, a two days' journey from
each. This river, the Tearus, is a tributary of
the Contadesdus, which runs into the Agri-
anes, and that into the Hebrus. The Hebrus
empties itself into the sea near the city of

^

91. Here then, on the banks of the Tearus,
Darius stopped and pitched his camp. The riv-
er charmed him so, that he caused a pillar to
be erected in this place also, with an inscrip-
tion to the following effect: "The fountains of
the Tearus afford the best and most beautiful
water of all rivers: they were visited, on his
march into Scythia, by the best and most beau-
tiful of men, Darius, son of Hystaspes, king of
the Persians, and of the whole continent."
Such was the inscription which he set up at
this place.

92. Marching thence, he came to a second
river, called the Artiscus, which flows through
the country of the Odrysians. Here he fixed
upon a certain spot, where every one of his
soldiers should throw a stone as he passed by.

When his orders were obeyed, Darius contin-
ued his march, leaving behind him great hills
formed of the stones cast by his troops.

93. Before arriving at the Ister, the first peo-
ple whom he subdued were the Getac, who be-
lieve in their immortality. The Thracians of
Salmydessus, and those who dwelt above the
cities of Apollonia and Mesembria — the Scyr-
miadae and Nipsaeans, as they are called — gave
themselves up to Darius without a struggle;
but the Getac obstinately defending themselves,
were forthwith enslaved, notwithstanding that
they are the noblest as well as the most just of
all the Thracian. tribes.

94. The belief of the Getae in respect of im-
mortality is the following. They think that
they do not really die, but that when they de-
part this life they go to Zalmoxis, who is called
also Gebeleizis by some among them. To this
god every five years they send a messenger,
who is chosen by lot out of the whole nation,
and charged to bear him their several requests.
Their mode of sending him is this. A number
of them stand in order, each holding in his
hand three darts; others take the man who is
to be sent to Zalmoxis, and swinging him by
his hands and feet, toss him into the air so that
he falls upon the points of the weapons. If he is
pierced and dies, they think that the god is pro-
pitious to them; but if not, they lay the fault on
the messenger, who (they say) is a wicked
man: and so they choose another to send away.
The messages are given while the man is still
alive. This same people, when it lightens and
thunders, aim their arrows at the sky, uttering
threats against the god; and they do not believe
that there is any god but their own.

95. I am told by the Greeks who dwell on
the shores of the Hellespont and the Pontus,
that this Zalmoxis was in reality a man, that he
lived at Samos, and while there was the slave
of Pythagoras son of Mnesarchus. After ob-
taining his freedom he grew rich, and leaving
Samos, returned to his own country. The
Thracians at that time lived in a wretched way,
and were a poor ignorant race; Zalmoxis,
therefore, who by his commerce with the
Greeks, and especially with one who was by
no means their most contemptible philosopher,
Pythagoras to wit, was acquainted with the
Ionic mode of life and with manners more re-
fined than those current among his country-
men, had a chamber built, in which from time
to time he received and feasted all the princi-
pal Thracians, using the occasion to teach them
that neither he, nor they, his boon companions,

THE HISTORY

141

nor any of their posterity would ever perish,
but that they would all go to a place where
they would live for aye in the enjoyment of
every conceivable good. While he was acting in
this way, and holding this kind of discourse,
he was constructing an apartment under-
ground, into which, when it was completed, he
withdrew, vanishing suddenly from the eyes of
the Thracians, who greatly regretted his loss,
and mourned over him as one dead. He mean-
while abode in his secret chamber three full
years, after which he came forth from his con-
cealment, and showed himself once more to his
countrymen, who were thus brought to believe
in the truth of what he had taught them. Such
is the account of the Greeks.

96. I for my part neither put entire faith in
this story of Zalmoxis and his underground
chamber, nor do I altogether discredit it: but I
believe Zalmoxis to have lived long before the
time of Pythagoras. Whether there was ever
really a man of the name, or whether Zalmoxis
is nothing but a native god of the Getae, I now
bid him farewell. As for the Gctae themselves,
the people who observe the practices described
above, they were now reduced by the Persians,
and accompanied the army of Darius.

97. When Darius, with his land forces,
reached the Ister, he made his troops cross the
stream, and after all were gone over gave or-
ders to the lonians to break the bridge, and fol-
low him with the whole naval force in his
land march. They were about to obey his com-
mand, when the general of the Mytilenaeans,
Goes son of Erxander, having first asked
whether it was agreeable to the king to listen
to one who wished to speak his mind, ad-
dressed him in the words following: — "Thou
art about, Sire, to attack a country no part of
which is cultivated, and wherein there is not a
single inhabited city. Keep this bridge, then, as
it is, and leave those who built it to watch over
it. So if we come up with the Scythians and
succeed against them as we could wish, we
may return by this route; or if we fail of find-
ing them, our retreat will still be secure. For I
have no fear lest the Scythians defeat us in
battle, but my dread is lest we be unable to dis-
cover them, and suffer loss while we wander
about their territory. And now, mayhap, it
will be said, I advise thee thus in the hope of
being myself allowed to remain behind; but in
truth I have no other design than to recom-
mend the course which seems to me the best;
nor will I consent to be among those left be-
hind, but my resolve is, in any case, to follow

thcc." The advice of Goes pleased Darius high-
ly, who thus replied to him: — "Dear Lesbian,
when I am safe home again in my palace, be
sure thou come to me, and with good deeds
will I recompense thy good words of to-day."

98. Having so said, the king took a leathern
thong, and tying sixty knots in it, called to-
gether the Ionian tyrants, and spoke thus to
them : — "Men of Ionia, my former commands
to you concerning the bridge are now with-
drawn. See, here is a thong: take it, and ob-
serve my bidding with respect to it. From the
time that I leave you to march forward into
Scythia, untie every day one of the knots. If I
do not return before the last day to which the
knots will hold out, then leave your station,
and sail to your several homes. Meanwhile, un-
derstand that my resolve is changed, and that
you are to guard the bridge with all care, and
watch over its safety and preservation. By so
doing ye will oblige me greatly." When Darius
had thus spoken, he set out on his march with
all speed.

99. Before you come to Scythia, on the sea
coast, lies Thrace. The land here makes a
sweep, and then Scythia begins, the Ister fall-
ing into the sea at this point with its mouth
facing the east. Starting from the Ister I shall
now describe the measurements of the sea-
shore of Scythia. Immediately that the Ister is
crossed, Old Scythia begins, and continues as
far as the city called Carcinitis, fronting to-
wards the south wind and the mid-day. Here
upon the same sea, there lies a mountainous
tract projecting into the Pontus, which is in-
habited by the Tauri, as far as what is called
the Rugged Chersonese, which runs out into
the sea upon the east. For the boundaries of
Scythia extend on two sides to two different
seas, one upon the south, and the other to-
wards the east, as is also the case with Attica.
And the Tauri occupy a position in Scythia
like that which a people would hold in Attica,
who, being foreigners and not Athenians,
should inhabit the high land of Sunium, from
Thoricus to the township of Anaphlystus, if
this tract projected into the sea somewhat fur-
ther than it does. Such, to compare great things
with small, is the Tauric territory. For the sake
of those who may not have made the voyage
round these parts of Attica, I will illustrate in
another way. It is as if in lapygia a line were
drawn from Port Brundusium to Tarcntum,
and a people different from the lapygians in-
habited the promontory. These two instances
may suggest a number of others where the

142

HERODOTUS

shape of the land closely resembles that of
Taurica.

100. Beyond this tract, we find the Scyth-
ians again in possession of the country above
the Tauri and the parts bordering on the east-
ern sea, as also of the whole district lying west
of the Cimmerian Bosphorus and the Palus
Maeotis, as far as the river Tanais, which emp-
ties itself into that lake at its upper end. As for
the inland boundaries of Scythia, if we start
from the Ister, we find it enclosed by the fol-
lowing tribes, first the Agathyrsi, next the
Neuri, then the Androphagi, and last of all, the
Melanchlaeni.

101. Scythia then, which is square in shape,
and has two of its sides reaching down to the
sea, extends inland to the same distance that it
stretches along the coast, and is equal every
way. For it is a ten days' journey from the Ister
to the Borysthenes, and ten more from the
Borysthenes to the Palus Maeotis, while the
distance from the coast inland to the country
of the Melanchkeni, who dwell above Scythia,
is a journey of twenty days. I reckon the day's
journey at two hundred furlongs. Thus the two
sides which run straight inland are four thou-
sand furlongs each, and the transverse sides at
right angles to these are also of the same
length, which gives the full size of Scythia.

102. The Scythians, reflecting on their situa-
tion, perceived that they were not strong
enough by themselves to contend with the
army of Darius in open fight. They, therefore,
sent envoys to the neighbouring nations, whose
kings had already met, and were in consulta-
tion upon the advance of so vast a host. Now
they who had come together were the kings of
the Tauri, the Agathyrsi, the Neuri, the An-
drophagi, the Melanchlaeni, the Geloni, the
Budini, and the Sauromatae.

103. The Tauri have the following customs.
They offer in sacrifice to the Virgin all ship-
wrecked persons, and all Greeks compelled to
put into their ports by stress of weather. The
mode of sacrifice is this. After the preparatory
ceremonies, they strike the victim on the head
with a club. Then, according to some accounts,
they hurl the trunk from the precipice where-
on the temple stands, and nail the head to a
cross. Others grant that the head is treated in
this way, but deny that the body is thrown
down the cliff — on the contrary, they say, it is
buried. The goddess to whom these sacrifices
are offered the Tauri themselves declare to be
Iphigenia the daughter of Agamemnon. When
they take prisoners in war they treat them in

[BooK iv

the following way. The man who has taken a
captive cuts off his head, and carrying it to his
home, fixes it upon a tall pole, which he ele-
vates above his house, most commonly over the
chimney. The reason that the heads are set up
so high, is (it is said) in order that the whole
house may be under their protection. These
people live entirely by war and plundering.

104. The Agathyrsi are a race of men very
luxurious, and very fond of wearing gold on
their persons. They have wives in common,
that so they may be all brothers, and, as mem-
bers of one family, may neither envy nor hate
one another. In other respects their customs ap-
proach nearly to those of the Thracians.

105. The Neurian customs are like the
Scythian. One generation before the attack of
Darius they were driven from their land by a
huge multitude of serpents which invaded
them. Of these some were produced in their
own country, while others, and those by far the
greater number, came in from the deserts on
the north. Suffering grievously beneath this
scourge, they quitted their homes, and took
refuge with the Budini. It seems that these peo-
ple are conjurers: for both the Scythians and
the Greeks who dwell in Scythia say that every
Neurian once a year becomes a wolf for a few
days, at the end of which time he is restored to
his proper shape. Not that I believe this, but
they constantly affirm it to be true, and are
even ready to back their assertion with an oath.

1 06. The manners of the Androphagi1 are
more savage than those of any other race. They
neither observe justice, nor are governed by
any laws. They are nomads, and their dress is
Scythian; but the language which they speak
is peculiar to themselves. Unlike any other na-
tion in these parts, they are cannibals.

107. The Melanchlaeni2 wear, all of them,
black cloaks, and from this derive the name
which they bear. Their customs are Scythic.

1 08. The Budini are a large and powerful
nation: they have all deep blue eyes, and bright
red hair. There is a city in their territory, called
Gelonus, which is surrounded with a lofty
wall, thirty furlongs each way, built entirely of
wood. All the houses in the place and all the
temples are of the same material. Here are
temples built in honour of the Grecian gods,
and adorned after the Greek fashion with im-
ages, altars, and shrines, all in wood. There is
even a festival, held every third year in hon-
our of Bacchus, at which the natives fall into

1 Or "Men-eaters."

2 Or "Black-cloaks."

100-114]

THE HISTORY

143

the Bacchic fury. For the fact is that the Gcl-
oni were anciently Greeks, who, being driven
out of the factories along the coast, fled to the
Budini and took up their abode with them.
They still speak a language half Greek, half
Scythian.

109. The Budini, however, do not speak the
same language as the Geloni, nor is their mode
of life the same. They are the aboriginal peo-
ple of the country, and are nomads; unlike any
of the neighbouring races, they eat lice. The
Geloni, on the contrary, are tillers of the soil,
eat bread, have gardens, and both in shape and
complexion are quite different from the Bu-
dini. The Greeks notwithstanding call these
latter Geloni; but it is a mistake to give them
the name. Their country is thickly planted
with trees of all manner of kinds. In the very
woodiest part is a broad deep lake, surrounded
by marshy ground with reeds growing on it.
Here otters are caught, and beavers, with an-
other sort of animal which has a square face.
With the skins of this last the natives border
their capotes: and they also get from them a
remedy, which is of virtue in diseases of the
womb.

no. It is reported of the Sauromatx, that
when the Greeks fought with the Amazons,
whom the Scythians call Oior-pata or "man-
slayers," as it may be rendered, Oior being
Scythic for "man," and pata for "to slay" — it is
reported, I say, that the Greeks after gaining
the battle of the Thermodon, put to sea, taking
with them on board three of their vessels all the
Amazons whom they had made prisoners; and
that these women upon the voyage rose up
against the crews, and massacred them to a
man. As however they were quite strange to
ships, and did not know how to use either rud-
der, sails, or oars, they were carried, after the
death of the men, where the winds and the
waves listed. At last they reached the shores of
the Palus Maeotis and came to a place called
Cremni or "the Cliffs," which is in the country
of the free Scythians. Here they went ashore,
and proceeded by land towards the inhabited
regions; the first herd of horses which they fell
in with they seized, and mounting upon their
backs, fell to plundering the Scythian terri-
tory.

in. The Scyths could not tell what to make
of the attack upon them — the dress, the lan-
guage, the nation itself, were alike unknown
— whence the enemy had come even, was a
marvel. Imagining, however, that they were all
men of about the same age, they went out

against them, and fought a battle. Some of the
bodies of the slain fell into their hands, where-
by they discovered the truth. Hereupon they
deliberated, and made a resolve to kill no more
of them, but to send against them a detach-
ment of their youngest men, as near as they
could guess equal to the women in number,
with orders to encamp in their neighbourhood,
and do as they saw them do — when the Ama-
zons advanced against them, they were to re-
tire, and avoid a fight — when they halted, the
young men were to approach and pitch their
camp near the camp of the enemy. All this they
did on account of their strong desire to obtain
children from so notable a race.

1 12. So the youths departed, and obeyed the
orders which had been given them. The Ama-
zons soon found out that they had not come to
do them any harm; and so they on their part
ceased to offer the Scythians any molestation.
And now day after day the camps approached
nearer to one another; both parties led the same
life, neither having anything but their arms
and horses, so that they were forced to support
themselves by hunting and pillage.

113. At last an incident brought two of them
together — the man easily gained the good
graces of the woman, who bade him by signs
(for they did not understand each other's lan-
guage) to bring a friend the next day to the
spot where they had met — promising on her
part to bring with her another woman. He did
so, and the woman kept her word. When the
rest of the youths heard what had taken place,
they also sought and gained the favour of the
other Amazons.

114. The two camps were then joined in
one, the Scythians living with the Amazons as
their wives; and the men were unable to learn
the tongue of the women, but the women soon
caught up the tongue of the men. When they
could thus understand one another, the Scyths
addressed the Amazons in these words — "We
have parents, and properties, let us therefore
give up this mode of life, and return to our na-
tion, and live with them. You shall be our
wives there no less than here, and we promise
you to have no others." But the Amazons said
—•"We could not live with your women — our
customs are quite different from theirs. To
draw the bow, to hurl the javelin, to bestride
the horse, these are our arts — of womanly em-
ployments we know nothing. Your women, on
the contrary, do none of these things; but stay
at home in their waggons, engaged in woman-
ish tasks, and never go out to hunt, or to do

144

HERODOTUS

[ BOOK iv

anything. We should never agree together. But
if you truly wish to keep us as your wives, and
would conduct yourselves with strict justice
towards us, go you home to your parents, bid
them give you your inheritance, and then come
back to us, and let us and you live together by
ourselves."

115. The youths approved of the advice, and
followed it. They went and got the portion of
goods which fell to them, returned with it, and
rejoined their wives, who then addressed them
in these words following: — "We are ashamed,
and afraid to live in the country where we now
are. Not only have we stolen you from your
fathers, but we have done great damage to
Scythia by our ravages. As you like us for
wives, grant the request we make of you. Let
us leave this country together, and go and
dwell beyond the Tanais." Again the youths
complied.

116. Crossing the Tanais they journeyed
eastward a distance of three days' march from
that stream, and again northward a distance of
three days' march from the Palus Maeotis. Here
they came to the country where they now live,
and took up their abode in it. The women of
the Sauromatac have continued from that day
to the present to observe their ancient customs,
frequently hunting on horseback with their
husbands, sometimes even unaccompanied; in
war taking the field; and wearing the very
same dress as the men.

117. The Sauromatae speak the language of
Scythia, but have never talked it correctly, be-
cause the Amazons learnt it imperfectly at the
first. Their marriage-law lays it down that no
girl shall wed till she has killed a man in bat-
tle. Sometimes it happens that a woman dies
unmarried at an advanced age, having never
been able in her whole lifetime to fulfil the
condition.

1 1 8. The envoys of the Scythians, on being
introduced into the presence of the kings of
these nations, who were assembled to deliber-
ate, made it known to them that the Persian,
after subduing the whole of the other conti-
nent, had thrown a bridge over the strait of the
Bosphorus, and crossed into the continent of
Europe, where he had reduced the Thracians,
and was now making a bridge over the Ister,
his aim being to bring under his sway all Eu-
rope also. "Stand ye not aloof then from this
contest," they went on to say, "look not on
tamely while we arc perishing — but make
common cause with us, and together let us
meet the enemy. If ye refuse, we must yield to

the pressure, and either quit our country, or
make terms with the invaders. For what else is
left for us to do, if your aid be withheld from
us? The blow, be sure, will not light on you
more gently upon this account. The Persian
comes against you no less than against us: and
will not be content, after we are conquered, to
leave you in peace. We can bring strong proof
of what we here advance. Had the Persian
leader indeed come to avenge the wrongs
which he suffered at our hands when we en-
slaved his people, and to war on us only, he
would have been bound to march straight
upon Scythia, without molesting any nation by
the way. Then it would have been plain to all
that Scythia alone was aimed at. But now,
what has his conduct been ? From the moment
of his entrance into Europe, he has subjugated
without exception every nation that lay in his
path. All the tribes of the Thracians have been
brought under his sway, and among them even
our next neighbours, the Gttx"

119. The assembled princes of the nations,
after hearing all that the Scythians had to say,
deliberated. At the end opinion was divided
— the kings of the Geloni, Budmi, and Sauro-
mata» were of accord, and pledged themselves
to give assistance to the Scythians; but the Aga-
thyrsian and Neurian princes, together with
the sovereigns of the Androphagi, the Melan-
chlaeni, and the Tauri, replied to their request
as follows: — "If you had not been the first to
wrong the Persians, and begin the war, we
should have thought the request you make
just; we should then have complied with your
wishes, and joined our arms with yours. Now,
however, the case stands thus — you, indepen-
dently of us, invaded the land of the Persians,
and so long as God gave you the power, lorded
it over them: raised up now by the same God,
they are come to do to you the like. We, on
our part, did no wrong to these men in the for-
mer war, and will not be the first to commit
wrong now. If they invade our land, and be-
gin aggressions upon us, we will not suffer
them; but, till we see this come to pass, we will
remain at home. For we believe that the Per-
sians are not come to attack us, but to punish
those who are guilty of first injuring them."

120. When this reply reached the Scythians,
they resolved, as the neighbouring nations re-
fused their alliance, that they would not openly
venture on any pitched battle with the enemy,
but would retire before them, driving off their
herds, choking up all the wells and springs as
they retreated, and leaving the whole country

115-125]

THE HISTORY

145

bare of forage. They divided themselves into
three bands, one of which, namely, that com-
manded by Scopasis, it was agreed should be
joined by the Sauromatae, and if the Persians
advanced in the direction of the Tanais, should
retreat along the shores of the Palus Maeotis
and make for that river; while if the Persians
retired, they should at once pursue and harass
them. The two other divisions, the principal
one under the command of Idanthyrsus, and
the third, of which Taxacis was king, were to
unite in one, and, joined by the detachments of
the Geloni and Budini, were, like the others, to
keep at the distance of a day's march from the
Persians, falling back as they advanced, and
doing the same as the others. And first, they
were to take the direction of the nations which
had refused to join the alliance, and were to
draw the war upon them: that so, if they would
not of their own free will engage in the con-
test, they might by these means be forced into
it. Afterwards, it was agreed that they should
retire into their own land, and, should it on de-
liberation appear to them expedient, join battle
with the enemy.

121. When these measures had been deter-
mined on, the Scythians went out to meet the
army of Darius, sending on in front as scouts
the fleetest of their horsemen. Their waggons,
wherein their women and their children lived,
and all their cattle, except such a number as
was wanted for food, which they kept with
them, were made to precede them in their re-
treat, and departed, with orders to keep march-
ing, without change of course, to the north.

122. The scouts of the Scythians found the
Persian host advanced three days' march from
the Istcr, and immediately took the lead of
them at the distance of a day's march, encamp-
ing from time to time, and destroying all that
grew on the ground. The Persians no sooner
caught sight of the Scythian horse than they
pursued upon their track, while the enemy re-
tired before them. The pursuit of the Persians
was directed towards the single division of the
Scythian army, and thus their line of march
was eastward toward the Tanais. The Scyths
crossed the river, and the Persians after them,
still in pursuit. In this way they passed through
the country of the Sauromatae, and entered
that of the Budini.

123. As long as the march of the Persian
army lay through the countries of the Scythians
and Sauromata?, there was nothing which they
could damage, the land being waste and bar-
ren; but on entering the territories of the Bu-

dini, they came upon the wooden fortress above
mentioned, which was deserted by its inhabi-
tants and left quite empty of everything. This
place they burnt to the ground; and having so
done, again pressed forward on the track of the
retreating Scythians, till, having passed
through the entire country of the Budini, they
reached the desert, which has no inhabitants,
and extends a distance of seven days' journey
above the Budmian territory. Beyond this des-
ert dwell the Thyssagetse, out of whose land
four great streams flow. These rivers all tra-
verse the country of the Maeotians, and fall into
the Palus Maeotis. Their names are the Lycus,
the Oarus, the Tanais, and the Syrgis.

124. When Darius reached the desert, he
paused from his pursuit, and halted his army
upon the Oarus. Here he built eight large forts,
at an equal distance from one another, sixty
furlongs apart or thereabouts, the ruins of
which were still remaining in my day. During
the time that he was so occupied, the Scythians
whom he had been following made a circuit
by the higher regions, and re-entered Scythia.
On their complete disappearance, Darius, see-
ing nothing more of them, left his forts half
finished, and returned towards the west. He
imagined that the Scythians whom he had
seen were the entire nation, and that they had
fled in that direction.

125. He now quickened his march, and
entering Scythia, fell in with the two com-
bined divisions of the Scythian army, and in-
stantly gave them chase. They kept to their
plan of retreating before him at the distance of
a day's march; and, he still following them
hotly, they led him, as had been previously
settled, into the territories of the nations that
had refused to become their allies, and first of
all into the country of the Melanchlaeni. Great
disturbance was caused among this people by
the invasion of the Scyths first, and then of the
Persians. So, having harassed them after this
sort, the Scythians led the way into the land of
the Androphagi, with the same result as be-
fore; and thence passed onwards into Neuris,
where their coming likewise spread dismay
among the inhabitants. Still retreating they ap-
proached the Aga thyrsi; but this people, which
had witnessed the flight and terror of their
neighbours, did not wait for the Scyths to in-
vade them, but sent a herald to forbid them to
cross their borders, and to forewarn them,
that, if they made the attempt, it would be re-
sisted by force of arms. The Agathyrsi then
proceeded to the frontier, to defend their coun-

146

HERODOTUS

try against the invaders. As for the other na-
tions, the Melanchlaeni, the Androphagi, and
the Neuri, instead of defending themselves,
when the Scyths and Persians overran their
lands, they forgot their threats and fled away
in confusion to the deserts lying towards the
north. The Scythians, when the Agathyrsi for-
bade them to enter their country, refrained;
and led the Persians back from the Neurian
district into their own land.

126. This had gone on so long, and seemed
so interminable, that Darius at last sent a horse-
man to Idanthyrsus, the Scythian king, with
the following message: — "Thou strange man,
why dost thou keep on flying before me, when
there are two things thou mightest do so eas-
ily? If thou deemest thyself able to resist my
arms, cease thy wanderings and come, let us
engage in battle. Or if thou art conscious that
my strength is greater than thine — even so
thou shouldest cease to run away — thou hast
but to bring thy lord earth and water, and to
come at once to a conference."

127. To this message Idanthyrsus, the Scyth-
ian king, replied: — "This is my way, Persian.
I never fear men or fly from them. I have not
done so in times past, nor do I now fly from
thce, There is nothing new or strange in what
I do; I only follow my common mode of life in
peaceful years. Now I will tell thee why I do
not at once join battle with thee. We Scythians
have neither towns nor cultivated lands, which
might induce us, through fear of their being
taken or ravaged, to be in any hurry to fight
with you. If, however, you must needs come to
blows with us speedily, look you now, there
are our fathers' tombs — seek them out, and
attempt to meddle with them — then ye shall
see whether or no we will fight with you. Till
ye do this, be sure we shall not join battle, un-
less it pleases us. This is my answer to the chal-
lenge to fight. As for lords, I acknowledge only
Jove my ancestor, and Vesta, the Scythian
queen. Earth and water, the tribute thou
iskedst, I do not send, but thou shalt soon re-
vive more suitable gifts. Last of all, in return
For thy calling thyself my lord, I say to thee,
Go weep.' " (This is what men mean by the
Scythian mode of speech.) So the herald de-
parted, bearing this message to Darius.

128. When the Scythian kings heard the
lame of slavery they were filled with rage, and
despatched the division under Scopasis to
vhich the Sauromatae were joined, with orders
hat they should seek a conference with the
onians, who had been left at the Ister to guard

[BooK iv

the bridge. Meanwhile the Scythians who re-
mained behind resolved no longer to lead the
Persians hither and thither about their coun-
try, but to fall upon them whenever they
should be at their meals. So they waited till
such times, and then did as they had deter-
mined. In these combats the Scythian horse
always put to flight the horse of the enemy;
these last, however, when routed, fell back
upon their foot, who never 'failed to afford
them support; while the Scythians, on their
side, as soon as they had driven the horse in,
retired again, for fear of the foot. By night too
the Scythians made many similar attacks.

129. There was one very strange thing
which greatly advantaged the Persians, and
was of equal disservice to the Scyths, in these
assaults on the Persian camp. This was the
braying of the asses and the appearance of the
mules. For, as I observed before, the land of the
Scythians produces neither ass nor mule, and
contains no single specimen of either animal,
by reason of the cold. So, when the asses
brayed, they frightened the Scythian cavalry;
and often, in the middle of a charge, the
horses, hearing the noise made by the asses,
would take fright and wheel round, pricking
up their ears, and showing astonishment. This
was owing to their having never heard the
noise, or seen the form, of the animal before:
and it was not without some little influence on
the progress of the war.

130. The Scythians, when they perceived
signs that the Persians were becoming alarmed,
took steps to induce them not to quit Scythia,
in the hope, if they stayed, of inflicting on
them the greater injury, when their supplies
should altogether fail. To effect this, they
would leave some of their cattle exposed with
the herdsmen, while they themselves moved
away to a distance: the Persians would make a
foray, and take the beasts, whereupon they
would be highly elated.

131. This they did several times, until at
last Darius was at his wits' end; hereon the
Scythian princes, understanding how matters
stood, despatched a herald to the Persian camp
with presents for the king: these were, a bird,
a mouse, a frog, and five arrows. The Persians
asked the bearer to tell them what these gifts
might mean, but he made answer that he had
no orders except to deliver them, and re-
turn again with all speed. If the Persians were
wise, he added, they would find out the mean-
ing for themselves. So when they heard this,
they held a council to consider the matter.

126-136]

THE HISTORY

147

132. Darius gave it as his opinion that the
Scyths intended a surrender of themselves and
their country, both land and water, into his
hands. This he conceived to be the meaning of
the gifts, because the mouse is an inhabitant of
the earth, and eats the same food as man, while
the frog passes his life in the water; the bird
bears a great resemblance to the horse, and the
arrows might signify the surrender of all their
power. To the explanation of Darius, Gobryas,
one of the seven conspirators against the Ma-
gus, opposed another which was as follows: —
"Unless, Persians, ye can turn into birds and
fly up into the sky, or become mice and bur-
row under the ground, or make yourselves
frogs, and take refuge in the fens, ye will never
make escape from this land, but die pierced by
our arrows." Such were the meanings which
the Persians assigned to the gifts.

133. The single division of the Scyths, which
in the early part of the war had been appoint-
ed to keep guard about the Palus Maeotis, and
had now been sent to get speech of the lonians
stationed at the Ister, addressed them, on
reaching the bridge, in these words — "Men of
Ionia, we bring you freedom, if ye will only do
as we recommend. Darius, we understand, en-
joined you to keep your guard here at this
bridge just sixty days; then, if he did not ap-
pear, you were to return home. Now, there-
fore, act so as to be free from blame, alike in
his sight, and in ours. Tarry here the appointed
time, and at the end go your ways." Having
said this, and received a promise from the
lonians to do as they desired, the Scythians
hastened back with all possible speed.

134. After the sending of the gifts to Dari-
us, the part of the Scythian army which had
not marched to the Ister, drew out in battle
array horse and foot against the Persians, and
seemed about to come to an engagement. But
as they stood in battle array, it chanced that a
hare started up between them and the Per-
sians, and set to running; when immediately
all the Scyths who saw it, rushed of! in pur-
suit, with great confusion and loud cries and
shouts. Darius, hearing the noise, inquired the
cause of it, and was told that the Scythians
were all engaged in hunting a hare. On this
he turned to those with whom he was wont to
converse, and said: — "These men do indeed
despise us utterly: and now I see that Gobryas
was right about the Scythian gifts. As, there-
fore, his opinion is now mine likewise, it is
time we form some wise plan, whereby we
may secure ourselves a safe return to our

homes." "Ah! sire," Gobryas rejoined, "I was
well nigh sure, ere I came here, that this was
an impracticable race — since our coming I am
yet more convinced of it, especially now that I
see them making game of us. My advice is,
therefore, that, when night falls, we light our
fires as we are wont to do at other times, and
leaving behind us on some pretext that portion
of our army which is weak and unequal to
hardship, taking care also to leave our asses
tethered, retreat from Scythia, before our foes
march forward to the Ister and destroy the
bridge, or the lonians come to any resolution
which may lead to our ruin."

135. So Gobryas advised; and when night
came, Darius followed his counsel, and leaving
his sick soldiers, and those whose loss would be
of least account, with the asses also tethered
about the camp, marched away. The asses were
left that their noise might be heard: the men,
really because they were sick and useless, but
under the pretence that he was about to fall
upon the Scythians with the flower of his
troops, and that they meanwhile were to guard
his camp for him. Having thus declared his
plans to the men whom he was deserting, and
having caused the fires to be lighted, Darius set
forth, and marched hastily towards the Ister.
The asses, aware of the departure of the host,
brayed louder than ever; and the Scythians,
hearing the sound, entertained no doubt of the
Persians being still in the same place.

136. When day dawned, the men who had
been left behind, perceiving that they were be-
trayed by Darius, stretched out their hands
towards the Scythians, and spoke as befitted
their situation. The enemy no sooner heard,
than they quickly joined all their troops in one,
and both portions of the Scythian army —
alike that which consisted of a single division,
and that made up of two — accompanied by all
their allies, the Sauromatae, the Budini, and the
Geloni, set off in pursuit, and made straight
for the Ister. As, however, the Persian army
was chiefly foot, and had no knowledge of the
routes, which are not cut out in Scythia; while
the Scyths were all horsemen and well ac-
quainted with the shortest way; it so happened
that the two armies missed one another, and
the Scythians, getting far ahead of their adver-
saries, came first to the bridge. Finding that the
Persians were not yet arrived, they addressed
the lonians, who were aboard their ships, in
these words: — "Men of Ionia, the number of
your days is out, and ye do wrong to remain.
Fear doubtless has kept you here hitherto:

148

HERODOTUS

[BooK iv

now, however, you may safely break the bridge,
and hasten back to your homes, rejoicing that
you are free, and thanking for it the gods and
the Scythians. Your former lord and master
we undertake so to handle, that he will never
again make war upon any one."

137. The lonians now held a council. Miltia-
des the Athenian, who was king of the Cherso-
nesites upon the Hellespont, and their com-
mander at the Ister, recommended the other
generals to do as the Scythians wished, and re-
store freedom to Ionia. But Histiaeus the Mile-
sian opposed this advice. "It is through Dari-
us," he said, "that we enjoy our thrones in our
several states. If his power be overturned, I
cannot continue lord of Miletus, nor ye of your
cities. For there is not one of them which will
not prefer democracy to kingly rule." Then the
other captains, who, till Histiaeus spoke, were
about to vote with Miltiades, changed their
minds, and declared in favour of the last
speaker.

138. The following were the voters on this
occasion — all of them men who stood high in
the esteem of the Persian king: the tyrants of
the Hellespont — Daphnis of Abydos, Hippoc-
lus of Lampsacus, Herophantus of Parium,
Metrodorus of Proconnesus, Aristagoras of
Cyzicus, and Ariston of Byzantium; the Ionian
princes — Strattis of Chios, ^Laces of Samos,
Laodamas of Phocaea, and Histiaeus of Miletus,
the man who had opposed Miltiades. Only one
yEolian of note was present, to wit, Aristagoras
of Cyme.

139. Having resolved to follow the advice of
Histiaeus, the Greek leaders further deter-
mined to speak and act as follows. In order to
appear to the Scythians to be doing something,
when in fact they were doing nothing of con-
sequence, and likewise to prevent them from
forcing a passage across the Ister by the bridge,
they resolved to break up the part of the bridge
which abutted on Scythia, to the distance of a
bowshot from the river bank; and to assure
the Scythians, while the demolition was pro-
ceeding, that there was nothing which they
would not do to pleasure them. Such were the
additions made to the resolution of Histiaeus;
and then Histiarus himself stood forth and
made answer to the Scyths in the name of all
the Greeks: — "Good is the advice which yc
have brought us, Scythians, and well have ye
done to come here with such speed. Your ef-
forts have now put us into the right path; and
our efforts shall not be wanting to advance
your cause. Your own eyes see that we are en-

gaged in breaking the bridge; and, believe us,
we will work zealously to procure our own
freedom. Meantime, while we labour here at
our task, be it your business to seek them out,
and, when found, for our sakes, as well as your
own, to visit them with the vengeance which
they so well deserve."

140. Again the Scyths put faith in the prom-
ises of the Ionian chiefs, and retraced their
steps, hoping to fall in with the Persians. They
missed, however, the enemy's whole line of
march; their own former acts being to blame
for it. Had they not ravaged all the pasturages
of that region, and filled in all the wells, they
would have easily found the Persians when-
ever they chose. But, as it turned out, the
measures which seemed to them so wisely
planned were exactly what caused their failure.
They took a route where water was to be found
and fodder could be got for their horses, and
on this track sought their adversaries, expect-
ing that they too would retreat through regions
where these things were to be obtained. The
Persians, however, kept strictly to the line of
their former march, never for a moment de-
parting from it; and even so gained the bridge
with difficulty. It was night when they arrived,
and their terror, when they found the bridge
broken up, was great; for they thought that
perhaps the lonians had deserted them.

141. Now there was in the army of Darius a
certain man, an Egyptian, who had a louder
voice than any other man in the world. This
person was bid by Darius to stand at the water's
edge, and call Histiaeus the Milesian. The fel-
low did as he was bid; and Histiaeus, hearing
him at the very first summons, brought the
fleet to assist in conveying the army across, and
once more made good the bridge.

142. By these means the Persians escaped
from Scythia, while the Scyths sought for them
in vain, again missing their track. And hence
the Scythians are accustomed to say of the
lonians, by way of reproach, that, if they be
looked upon as freemen, they are the basest
and most dastardly of all mankind — but if they
be considered as under servitude, they are the
faithfullest of slaves, and the most fondly at-
tached to their lords.

143. Darius, having passed through Thrace,
reached Sestos in the Chersonese, whence he
crossed by the help of his fleet into Asia, leav-
ing a Persian, named Megabazus, commander
on the European side. This was the man on
whom Darius once conferred special honour
by a compliment which he paid him before all

137-148]

THE HISTORY

149

the Persians. He was about to eat some pome-
granates, and had opened the first, when his
brother Artabanus asked him "what he would
like to have in as great plenty as the seeds of
the pomegranate?'* Darius answered — "Had I
as many men like Megabazus as there are seeds
here, it would please me better than to be lord
of Greece." Such was the compliment where-
with Darius honoured the general to whom at
this time he gave the command of the troops
left in Europe, amounting in all to some eighty
thousand men.

144. This same Megabazus got himself an
undying remembrance among the Hellespon-
tians, by a certain speech which he made. It
came to his knowledge, while he was staying
at Byzantium, that the Chalcedonians made
their settlement seventeen years earlier than
the Byzantines. "Then," said he, "the Chalce-
donians must at that time have been labour-
ing under blindness — otherwise, when so far
more excellent a site was open to them, they
would never have chosen one so greatly in-
ferior." Megabazus now, having been ap-
pointed to take the command upon the Hel-
lespont, employed himself in the reduction of
all those states which had not of their own ac-
cord joined the Medes.

145. About this very time another great ex-
pedition was undertaken against Libya, on a
pretext which I will relate when I have prem-
ised certain particulars. The descendants of the
Argonauts in the third generation, driven out
of Lemnos by the Pelasgi who carried off the
Athenian women from Brauron, took ship and
went to Lacedaemon, where, seating themselves
on Mount Taygetum, they proceeded to kindle
their fires. The Lacedaemonians, seeing this,
sent a herald to inquire of them "who they
were, and from what region they had come";
whereupon they made answer, "that they were
Minyae, sons of the heroes by whom the ship
Argo was manned; for these persons had
stayed awhile in Lemnos, and had there be-
come their progenitors." On hearing this ac-
count of their descent, the Lacedaemonians
sent to them a second time, and asked "what
was their object in coming to Lacedaemon, and
there kindling their fires?" They answered,
"that, driven from their own land by the Pe-
lasgi, they had come, as was most reasonable,
to their fathers; and their wish was to dwell
with them in their country, partake their priv-
ileges, and obtain allotments of land* It seemed
good to the Lacedaemonians to receive the Min-
yae among them on their own terms; to assign

them lands, and enrol them in their tribes.
What chiefly moved them to this was the con-
sideration that the sons of Tyndarus had sailed
on board the Argo. The Minyae, on their part,
forthwith married Spartan wives, and gave the
wives, whom they had married in Lemnos, to
Spartan husbands.

146. However, before much time had
elapsed, the Minyae began to wax wanton, de-
manded to share the throne, and committed
other impieties: whereupon the Lacedaemoni-
ans passed on them sentence of death, and,
seizing them, cast them into prison. Now the
Lacedaemonians never put criminals to death
in the daytime, but always at night. When the
Minyae, accordingly, were about to suffer, their
wives, who were not only citizens, but daugh-
ters of the chief men among the Spartans, en-
treated to be allowed to enter the prison, and
have some talk with their lords; and the Spar-
tans, not expecting any fraud from such a
quarter, granted their request. The women en-
tered the prison, gave their own clothes to their
husbands, and received theirs in exchange: af-
ter which the Minyae, dressed in their wives'
garments, and thus passing for women, went
forth. Having effected their escape in this man-
ner, they seated themselves once more upon
Taygetum.

147. It happened that at this very time Ther-
as, son of Autesion (whose father Tisamenus
was the son of Thersandcr, and grandson of
Polymces), was about to lead out a colony from
Lacedaemon. This Theras, by birth a Cadmei-
an, was uncle on the mother's side to the two
sons of Aristodemus, Procles and Eurysthenes,
and, during their infancy, administered in
their right the royal power. When his neph-
ews, however, on attaining to man's estate,
took the government, Theras, who could not
bear to be under the authority of others after
he had wielded authority so long himself, re-
solved to leave Sparta and cross the sea to join
his kindred. There were in the island now
called Thera, but at that time Calliste*, certain
descendants of Membliarus, the son of Poeciles,
a Phoenician. (For Cadmus, the son of Agenor,
when he was sailing in search of Europe*, made
a landing on this island; and, either because the
country pleased him, or because he had a pur-
pose in so doing, left there a number of Phoe-
nicians, and with them his own kinsman Mem-
bliarus. Callist£ had been inhabited by this
race for eight generations of men, before the
arrival of Theras from Lacedaemon.)

148. Theras now, having with him a certain

150

HERODOTUS

[BOOK iv

number of men from each of the tribes, was
setting forth on his expedition hitherward. Far
from intending to drive out the former inhabi-
tants, he regarded them as his near kin, and
meant to settle among them. It happened that
just at this time the Minyae, having escaped
from their prison, had taken up their station
upon Mount Taygetum; and the Lacedaemoni-
ans, wishing to destroy them, were considering
what was best to be done, when Theras begged
their lives, undertaking to remove them from
the territory. His prayer being granted, he took
ship, and sailed, with three triaconters, to
join the descendants of Membliarus. He was
not, however, accompanied by all the Minyae,
but only by some few of them. The greater
number fled to the land of the Paroreats and
Caucons, whom they drove out, themselves oc-
cupying the region in six bodies, by which
were afterwards built the towns of Lepreum,
Macistus, Phryxae, Pyrgus, Epium, and Nudi-
um; whereof the greater part were in my day
demolished by the Eleans.

149. The island was called Thera after the
name of its founder. This same Theras had a
son, who refused to cross the sea with him;
Theras therefore left him behind, "a sheep,"
as he said, "among wolves." From this speech
his son came to be called CEolycus, a name
which afterwards grew to be the only one by
which he was known. This CEolycus was the
father of ^Egeus, from whom sprang the yE-
gidae, a great tribe in Sparta. The men of this
tribe lost at one time all their children, where-
upon they were bidden by an oracle to build a
temple to the furies of Laius and GEdipus; they
complied, and the mortality ceased. The same
thing happened in Thera to the descendants of
these men.

150. Thus far the history is delivered with-
out variation both by the Theraeans and the
Lacedaemonians; but from this point we have
only the Theraean narrative. Grinus (they
say), the son of /Esanius, a descendant of Ther-
as, and king of the island of Thera, went to
Delphi to offer a hecatomb on behalf of his na-
tive city. He was accompanied by a large num-
ber of the citizens, and among the rest by Bat-
tus, the son of Polymnestus, who belonged to
the Minyan family of the Euphemidae. On
Grinus consulting the oracle about sundry mat-
ters, the Pythoness gave him for answer, "that
he should found a city in Libya." Grinus re-
plied to this: "I, O king! am too far advanced
in years, and too inactive, for such a work. Bid
one of these youngsters undertake it." As he

spoke, he pointed towards Battus; and thus the
matter rested for that time. When the embassy
returned to Thera, small account was taken of
the oracle by the Theraeans, as they were quite
ignorant where Libya was, and were not so
venturesome as to send out a colony in the
dark.

151. Seven years passed from the utterance
of the oracle, and not a drop of rain fell in
Thera: all the trees in the island, except one,
were killed with the drought. The Theraeans
upon this sent to Delphi, and were reminded
reproachfully that they had never colonised
Libya. So, as there was no help for it, they sent
messengers to Crete, to inquire whether any of
the Cretans, or of the strangers sojourning
among them, had ever travelled as far as Libya:
and these messengers of theirs, in their wander-
ings about the island, among other places vis-
ited Itanus, where they fell in with a man,
whose name was Corobius, a dealer in purple.
In answer to their inquiries, he told them that
contrary winds had once carried him to Libya,
where he had gone ashore on a certain island
which was named Platea. So they hired this
man's services, and took him back with them
to Thera. A few persons then sailed from
Thera to reconnoitre. Guided by Corobius to
the island of Platea, they left him there with
provisions for a certain number of months, and
returned home with all speed to give their
countrymen an account of the island.

152. During their absence, which was pro-
longed beyond the time that had been agreed
upon, Corobius' provisions failed him. He was
relieved, however, after a while by a Samian
vessel, under the command of a man named
Colaeus, which, on its way to Egypt, was forced
to put in at Platea. The crew, informed by
Corobius of all the circumstances, left him suf-
ficient food for a year. They themselves quit-
ted the island; and, anxious to reach Egypt,
made sail in that direction, but were carried
out of their course by a gale of wind from the
east. The storm not abating, they were driven
past the Pillars of Hercules, and at last, by some
special guiding providence, reached Tartessus.
This trading town was in those days a virgin
port, unfrequented by the merchants. The
Samians, in consequence, made by the return
voyage a profit greater than any Greeks before
their day, excepting Sostratus, son of Laodam-
as, an Eginetan, with whom no one else can
compare. From the tenth part of their gains,
amounting to six talents, the Samians made a
brazen vessel, in shape like an Argive wine-

149-156]

bowl, adorned with the heads of griffins stand-
ing out in high relief. This bowl, supported by
three kneeling colossal figures in bronze, of
the height of seven cubits, was placed as an
offering in the temple of Juno at Samos. The
aid given to Corobius was the original cause of
that close friendship which afterwards united
the Cyrenaeans and Theraeans with the Sami-
ans.

153. The Theraeans who had left Corobius
at Platea, when they reached Thera, told their
countrymen that they had colonised an island
on the coast of Libya. They of Thera, upon this,
resolved that men should be sent to join the
colony from each of their seven districts, and
that the brothers in every family should draw
lots to determine who were to go. Battus was
chosen to be king and leader of the colony. So
these men departed for Platea on board of two
penteconters.

154. Such is the account which the Therae-
ans give. In the sequel of the history their ac-
counts tally with those of the people of Cy-
rene; but in what they relate of Battus these
two nations differ most widely. The following
is the Cyrenaic story. There was once a king
named Etearchus, who ruled over Axus, a
city in Crete, and had a daughter named
Phronima. This girl's mother having died,
Etearchus married a second wife; who no soon-
er took up her abode in his house than she
proved a true step-mother to poor Phronima,
always vexing her, and contriving against her
every sort of mischief. At last she taxed her
with light conduct; and Etearchus, persuaded
by his wife that the charge was true, bethought
himself of a most barbarous mode of punish-
ment. There was a certain Theracan, named
Themison, a merchant, living at Axus. This
man Etearchus invited to be his friend and
guest, and then induced him to swear that he
would do him any service he might require.
No sooner had he given the promise, than the
king fetched Phronima, and, delivering her
into his hands, told him to carry her away and
throw her into the sea. Hereupon Themison,
full of indignation at the fraud whereby his
oath had been procured, dissolved forthwith
the friendship, and, taking the girl with him,
sailed away from Crete. Having reached the
open main, to acquit himself of the obligation
under which he was laid by his oath to Etear-
chus, he fastened ropes about the damsel, and,
letting her down into the sea, drew her up
again, and so made sail for Thera.

155. At Thera, Polymnestus, one of the

THE HISTORY

151

chief citizens of the place, took Phronima to be
his concubine. The fruit of this union was a
son, who stammered and had a lisp in his
speech. According to the Cyrenaeans and Ther-
aeans, the name given to the boy was Battus: in
my opinion, however, he was called at the first
something else, and only got the name of Bat-
tus after his arrival in Libya, assuming it either
in consequence of the words addressed to him
by the Delphian oracle, or on account of the
office which he held. For, in the Libyan
tongue, the word "Battus" means "a king."
And this, I think, was the reason why the Py-
thoness addressed him as she did: she knew he
was to be a king in Libya, and so she used the
Libyan word in speaking to him. For after he
had grown to man's estate, he made a journey
to Delphi, to consult the oracle about his voice;
when, upon his putting his question, the Py-
thoness thus replied to him: —

Battus, thou earnest to as^ of thy voice; but Phce-

bus Apollo
Bids thee establish a city in Libya, abounding in

fleeces;

which was as if she had said in her own tongue,
"King, thou earnest to ask of thy voice." Then
he replied, "Mighty lord, I did indeed come
hither to consult thee about rny voice, but thou
speakest to me of quite other matters, bidding
me colonise Libya — an impossible thing! what
power have I? what followers?" Thus he
spake, but he did not persuade the Pythoness
to give him any other response; so, when he
found that she persisted in her former answer,
he left her speaking, and set out on his return
to Thera.

156. After a while, everything began to go
wrong both with Battus and with the rest of
the Thera?ans, whereupon these last, ignorant
of the cause of their sufferings, sent to Delphi
to inquire for what reason they were afflicted.
The Pythoness in reply told them "that if they
and Battus would make a settlement at Cy-
ren£ in Libya, things would go better with
them." Upon this the Theraeans sent out Battus
with two penteconters, and with these he pro-
ceeded to Libya, but within a little time, not
knowing what else to do, the men returned
and arrived off Thera. The Theraeans, when
they saw the vessels approaching, received
them with showers of missiles, would not al-
low them to come near the shore, and ordered
the men to sail back from whence they came.
Thus compelled to return, they settled on an
island near the Libyan coast, which (as I have
already said) was called Platea. In size it is re-

152

HERODOTUS

[BOOK rv

ported to have been about equal to the city of
Gyrene, as it now stands.

157. In this place they continued two years,
but at the end of that time, as their ill luck still
followed them, they left the island to the care
of one of their number, and went in a body to
Delphi, where they made complaint at the
shrine to the effect that, notwithstanding they
had colonised Libya, they prospered as poorly
as before. Hereon the Pythoness made them
the following answer: —

Knowest thou better than I, fair Libya abounding

in fleeces?
Better the stranger than he who has trod it? Ohl

clever Theraansl

Battus and his friends, when they heard this,
sailed back to Platea: it was plain the god
would not hold them acquitted of the colony
till they were absolutely in Libya. So, taking
with them the man whom they had left upon
the island, they made a settlement on the main-
land directly opposite Platea, fixing themselves
at a place called Aziris, which is closed in on
both sides by the most beautiful hills, and on
one side is washed by a river.

158. Here they remained six years, at the
end of which time the Libyans induced them
to move, promising that they would lead them
to a better situation. So the Greeks left Aziris
and were conducted by the Libyans towards
the west, their journey being so arranged, by
the calculation of thejr guides, that they passed
in the night the most beautiful district of that
whole country, which is the region called Irasa.
The Libyans brought them to a spring, which
goes by the name of Apollo's fountain, and told
them — "Here, Grecians, is the proper place for
you to settle; for here the sky leaks."

159. During the lifetime of Battus, the
founder of the colony, who reigned forty years,
and during that of his son Arcesilaiis, who
reigned sixteen, the Cyrenaeans continued at
the same level, neither more nor fewer in num-
ber than they were at the first. But in the reign
of the third king, Battus, surnamed the Hap-
py, the advice of the Pythoness brought Greeks
from every quarter into Libya, to join the set-
tlement. The Cyrenaeans had offered to all
comers a share in their lands; and the oracle
had spoken as follows: —

He that is backward to share in the pleasant Liby-
an acres,

Sooner or later, I warn him, will feel regret at his
jolly.

Thus a great multitude were collected together
to Gyrene*, and the Libyans of the neighbour-

hood found themselves stripped of large por-
tions of their lands. So they, and their king
Adicran, being robbed and insulted by the Cy-
renaeans, sent messengers to Egypt, and put
themselves under the rule of Apries, the Egyp-
tian monarch; who, upon this, levied a vast
army of Egyptians, and sent them against Gy-
rene*. The inhabitants of that place left their
walls and marched out in force to the district
of Irasa, where, near the spring called Theste,
they engaged the Egyptian host, and defeated
it. The Egyptians, who had never before made
trial of the prowess of the Greeks, and so
thought but meanly of them, were routed with
such slaughter that but a very few of them ever
got back home. For this reason, the subjects of
Apries, who laid the blame of the defeat on
him, revolted from his authority.

1 60. This Battus left a son called Arcesilaiis,
who, when he came to the throne, had dissen-
sions with his brothers, which ended in their
quitting him and departing to another region
of Libya, where, after consulting among them-
selves, they founded the city, which is still
called by the name then given to it, Barca. At
the same time they endeavoured to induce the
Libyans to revolt from Cyrene. Not long after-
wards Arcesilaiis made an expedition against
the Libyans who had received his brothers and
been prevailed upon to revolt; and they, fear-
ing his power, fled to their countrymen who
dwelt towards the east. Arcesilaiis pursued,
and chased them to a place called Leucon,
which is in Libya, where the Libyans resolved
to risk a battle. Accordingly they engaged the
Cyrenaeans, and defeated them so entirely that
as many as seven thousand of their heavy-
armed were slain in the fight. Arcesilaiis, after
this blow, fell sick, and, whilst he was under
the influence of a draught which he had taken,
was strangled by Learchus, one of his brothers.
This Learchus was afterwards entrapped by
Eryxo, the widow of Arcesilaiis, and put to
death.

161. Battus, Arcesilaus* son, succeeded to
the kingdom, a lame man, who limped in his
walk. Their late calamities now induced the
Cyrenzans to send to Delphi and inquire of
the god what form of government they had
best set up to secure themselves prosperity. The
Pythoness answered by recommending them to
fetch an arbitrator from Mantinea in Arcadia.
Accordingly they sent; and the Mantineans
gave them a man named Demonax, a person of
high repute among the citizens; who, on his
arrival at Cyre'ne', having first made himself ac-

I57-I66]

quaintcd with all the circumstances, proceed-
ed to enrol the people in three tribes. One he
made to consist of the Theraeans and their vas-
sals; another of the Peloponnesians and Cre-
tans; and a third of the various islanders. Be-
sides this, he deprived the king Battus of his
former privileges, only reserving for him cer-
tain sacred lands and offices; while, with re-
spect to the powers which had hitherto been
exercised by the king, he gave them all into
the hands of the people.

162. Thus matters rested during the lifetime
of this Battus, but when his son Arcesilaiis
came to the throne, great disturbance arose
about the privileges. For Arcesilaiis, son of Bat/
tus the lame and Pheretima, refused to submit
to the arrangements of Demonax the Mantin-
ean, and claimed all the powers of his fore-
fathers. In the contention which followed Ar-
cesilaiis was worsted, whereupon he fled to
Samos, while his mother took refuge at Sala-
mis in the island of Cyprus. Salamis was at that
time ruled by Evelthon, the same who offered
at Delphi the censer which is in the treasury of
the Corinthians, a work deserving of admira-
tion. Of him Pheretima made request that he
would give her an army whereby she and her
son might regain Cyrene. But Evelthon, pre-
ferring to give her anything rather than an
armv, made her various presents. Pheretima
accepted them all, saying, as she took them:
"Good is this too, O king! but better were it
to give me the army which I crave at thy
hands." Finding that she repeated these words
each time that he presented her with a gift,
Evelthon at last sent her a golden spindle and
distaff, with the wool ready for spinning.
Again she uttered the same speech as before,
whereupon Evelthon rejoined — 'These are the
gifts I present to women, not armies.*'

163. At Samos, meanwhile, Arcesilaiis was
collecting troops by the promise of granting
them lands. Having in this way drawn togeth-
er a vast host, he sent to Delphi to consult the
oracle about his restoration. The answer of the
Pythoness was this: "Loxias grants thy race to
rule over Cyrene, till four kings Battus, four
Arcesilaiis by name, have passed away. Beyond
this term of eight generations of men, he
warns you not to seek to extend your reign.
Thou, for thy part, be gentle, when thou art
restored. If thou findest the oven full of jars,
bake not the jars; but be sure to speed them
on their way. If, however, thou heatest the
oven, then avoid the island — else thou wilt die
thyself, and with thee the most beautiful bull."

THE HISTORY

153

164. So spake the Pythoness. Arcesilaiis
upon this returned to Cyrene, taking with him
the troops which he had raised in Samos.
There he obtained possession of the supreme
power; whereupon, forgetful of the oracle, he
took proceedings against those who had driven
him into banishment. Some of them fled from
him and quitted the country for good; others
fell into his hands and were sent to suffer
death in Cyprus. These last happening on their
passage to put in through stress of weather at
Cnidus, the Cmdians rescued them, and sent
them off to Thera. Another body found a ref-
uge in the great tower of Aglomachus, a pri-
vate edifice, and were there destroyed by Ar-
cesilaiis, who heaped wood around the place,
and burnt them to death. Aware, after the
deed was done, that this was what the Pytho-
ness meant when she warned him, if he found
the jars in the oven, not to bake them, he with-
drew himself of his own accord from the city
of Gyrene*, believing that to be the island of the
oracle, and fearing to die as had been prophe-
sied. Being married to a relation of his own, a
daughter of Alazir, at that time king of the
Barcxans, he took up his abode with him. At
Barca, however, certain of the citizens, togeth-
er with a number of Cyremean exiles, recognis-
ing him as he walked in the forum, killed him;
they slew also at the same time Alazir, his
father-in-law. So Arcesilaiis, wittingly or un-
wittingly, disobeyed the oracle, and thereby
fulfilled his destiny.

165. Pheretima, the mother of Arcesilaiis,
during the time that her son, after working his
own ruin, dwelt at Barca, continued to enjoy
all his privileges at Gyrene*, managing the gov-
ernment, and taking her seat at the council
board. No sooner, however, did she hear of the
death of her son at Barca, than leaving Cyren£,
she fled in haste to Egypt. Arcesilaiis had
claims for service done to Cambyses, son of
Cyrus; since it was by him that Cyren£ was
put under the Persian yoke, and a rate of
tribute agreed upon. Pheretima therefore went
straight to Egypt, and presenting herself as a
suppliant before Aryandes, entreated him to
avenge her wrongs. Her son, she said, had met
his death on account of his being so well af-
fected towards the Medes.

1 66. Now Aryandes had been made gover-
nor of Egypt by Cambyses. He it was who in
after times was punished with death by Darius
for seeking to rival him. Aware, by report and
also by his own eyesight, that Darius wished
to leave a memorial of himself, such as no king

154

HERODOTUS

[ BOOR iv

had ever left before, Aryandes resolved to fol-
low his example, and did so, till he got his re-
ward. Darius had refined gold to the last per-
fection of purity in order to have coins struck
of it: Aryandes, in his Egyptian government,
did the very same with silver, so that to this
day there is no such pure silver anywhere as
the Aryandic. Darius, when this came to his
ears, brought another charge, a charge of re-
bellion, against Aryandes, and put him to
death.

167. At the time of which we are speaking
Aryandes, moved with compassion for Phere-
tima, granted her all the forces which there
were in Egypt, both land and sea. The com-
mand of the army he gave to Amasis, a Mara-
phian; while Badres, one of the tribe of the
Pasa&gadae, was appointed to lead the fleet. Be-
fore the expedition, however, left Egypt, he
sent a herald to Barca to inquire who it was
that had slain king Arcesilaiis. The Barcaeans
replied "that they, one and all, acknowledged
the deed — Arcesilaiis had done them many and
great injuries." After receiving this reply, Ary-
andes gave the troops orders to march with
Pheretima. Such was the cause which served
as a pretext for this expedition: its real object
was, I believe, the subjugation of Libya. For
Libya is inhabited by many and various races,
and of these but a very few were subjects of the
Persian king, while by far the larger number
held Darius in no manner of respect.

1 68. The Libyans dwell in the order which
I will now describe. Beginning on the side of
Egypt, the first Libyans are the Adyrmachidae.
These people have, in most points, the same
customs as the Egyptians, but use the costume
of the Libyans. Their women wear on each leg
a ring made of bronze; they let their hair grow
long, and when they catch any vermin on their
persons, bite it and throw it away. In this they
differ from all the other Libyans. They are also
the only tribe with whom the custom obtains
of bringing all women about to become brides
before the king, that he may choose such as are
agreeable to him. The Adyrmachidae extend
from the borders of Egypt to the harbour called
Port Plynus.

169. Next to the Adyrmachidae are the Gilli-
gamma?, who inhabit the country westward as
far as the island of Aphrodisias. Off this tract
is the island of Platea, which the Cyrenseans
colonised. Here too, upon the mainland, are
Port Menelaiis, and Aziris, where the Cyrenae-
ans once lived. The Silphium begins to grow
in this region, extending from the island of

Platea on the one side to the mouth of the Syr-
tis on the other. The customs of the Gilligam-
mae are like those of the rest of their country-
men.

170. The Asbystae adjoin the Gilligammae
upon the west. They inhabit the regions above
Cyren£, but do not reach to the coast, which be-
longs to the Cyrenaeans. Four-horse chariots
are in more common use among them than
among any other Libyans. In most of their cus-
toms they ape the manners of the Cyrenaeans.

171. Westward of the Asbystae dwell the
Auschisae, who possess the country above Bar-
ca, reaching, however, to the sea at the place
called Euesperides. In the middle of their ter-
ritory is the little tribe of the Cabalians, which
touches the coast near Tauchira, a city of the
Barcaeans. Their customs are like those of the
Libyans above Gyrene*.

172. The Nasamonians, a numerous people,
are the western neighbours of the Auschisae. In
summer they leave their flocks and herds upon
the sea-shore, and go up the country to a place
called Augila, where they gather the dates
from the palms, which in those parts grow
thickly, and are of great size, all of them being
of the fruit-bearing kind. They also chase the
locusts, and, when caught, dry them in the sun,
after which they grind them to powder, and,
sprinkling this upon their milk, so drink it.
Each man among them has several wives, in
their intercourse with whom they resemble the
Massagetae. The following are their customs in
the swearing of oaths and the practice of aug-
ury. The man, as he swears, lays his hand upon
the tomb of some one considered to have been
pre-eminently just and good, and so doing
swears by his name. For divination they be-
take themselves to the sepulchres of their own
ancestors, and, after praying, lie down to sleep
upon their graves; by the dreams which then
come to them they guide their conduct. When
they pledge their faith to one another, each
gives the other to drink out of his hand; if
there be no liquid to be had, they take up dust
from the ground, and put their tongues to it.

173. On the country of the Nasamonians
borders that of the Psylli, who were swept
away under the following circumstances. The
south-wind had blown for a long time and
dried up all the tanks in which their water was
stored. Now the whole region within the Syr-
tis is utterly devoid of springs. Accordingly the
Psylli took counsel among themselves, and by
common consent made war upon the south-
wind — so at least the Libyans say, I do but re-

167-180]

peat their words — they went forth and reached
the desert; but there the south-wind rose and
buried them under heaps of sand: whereupon,
the Psylli being destroyed, their lands passed
to the Nasamonians.

174. Above the Nasamonians, towards the
south, in the district where the wild beasts
abound, dwell the Garamantians, who avoid
all society or intercourse with their fellow-
men, have no weapon of war, and do not know
how to defend themselves.

175. These border the Nasamonians on the
south: westward along the sea-shore their
neighbours are the Macae, who, by letting the
locks about the crown of their head grow long,
while they clip them close everywhere else,
make their hair resemble a crest. In war these
people use the skins of ostriches for shields.
The river Cinyps rises among them from the
height called "the Hill of the Graces," and
runs from thence through their country to the
sea. The Hill of the Graces is thickly covered
with wood, and is thus very unlike the rest of
Libya, which is bare. It is distant two hundred
furlongs from the sea.

176. Adjoining the Macae are the Gindanes,
whose women wear on their legs anklets of
leather. Each lover that a woman has gives her
one; and she who can show the most is the best
esteemed, as she appears to have been loved by
the greatest number of men.

177. A promontory jutting out into the sea
from the country of the Gindanes is inhabited
by the Lotophagi, who live entirely on the
fruit of the lotus-tree. The lotus fruit is about
the size of the lentisk berry, and in sweetness
resembles the date. The Lotophagi even suc-
ceed in obtaining from it a sort of wine.

178. The sea-coast beyond the Lotophagi is
occupied by the Machlyans, who use the lotus
to some extent, though not so much as the peo-
ple of whom we last spoke. The Machlyans
reach as far as the great river called the Triton,
which empties itself into the great lake Tri-
tonis. Here, in this lake, is an island called
Phla, which it is said the Lacedaemonians were
to have colonised, according to an oracle.

179. The following is the story as it is com-
monly told. When Jason had finished building
the Argo at the foot of Mount Pelion, he took
on board the usual hecatomb, and moreover a
brazen tripod. Thus equipped, he set sail, in-
tending to coast round the Peloponnese, and
so to reach Delphi. The voyage was prosperous
as far as Malea; but at that point a gale of wind
from the north came on suddenly, and carried

THE HISTORY

155

him out of his course to the coast of Libya;
where, before he discovered the land, he got
among the shallows of Lake Tritonis. As he
was turning it in his mind how he should find
his way out, Triton (they say) appeared to
him, and offered to show him the channel, and
secure him a safe retreat, if he would give him
the tripod. Jason complying, was shown by
Triton the passage through the shallows; after
which the god took the tripod, and, carrying
it to his own temple, seated himself upon it,
and, filled with prophetic fury, delivered to
Jason and his companions a long prediction.
"When a descendant," he said, "of one of the
Argo's crew should seize and carry off the
brazen tripod, then by inevitable fate would a
hundred Grecian cities be built around Lake
Tritonis." The Libyans of that region, when
they heard the words of this prophecy, took
away the tripod and hid it.

1 80. The next tribe beyond the Machlyans
is the tribe of the Auseans. Both these nations
inhabit the borders of Lake Tritonis, being sep-
arated from one another by the river Triton.
Both also wear their hair long, but the Mach-
lyans let it grow at the back of the head, while
the Auseans have it long in front. The Ausean
maidens keep year by year a feast in honour of
Minerva, whereat their custom is to draw up
in two bodies, and fight with stones and clubs.
They say that these are rites which have come
down to them from their fathers, and that they
honour with them their native goddess, who is
the same as the Minerva (Athene*) of the Gre-
cians. If any of the maidens die of the wounds
they receive, the Auseans declare that such are
false maidens. Before the fight is suffered to be-
gin, they have another ceremony. One of the
virgins, the loveliest of the number, is selected
from the rest; a Corinthian helmet and a com-
plete suit of Greek armour are publicly put
upon her; and, thus adorned, she is made to
mount into a chariot, and led around the whole
lake in a procession. What arms they used for
the adornment of their damsels before the
Greeks came to live in their country, I cannot
say. I imagine they dressed them in Egyptian
armour, for I maintain that both the shield and
the helmet came into Greece from Egypt. The
Auseans declare that Minerva is the daughter
of Neptune and the Lake Tritonis — they say
she quarrelled with her father, and applied to
Jupiter, who consented to let her be his child;
and so she became his adopted daughter.
These people do not marry or live in families,
but dwell together like the gregarious beasts.

156

HERODOTUS

[BOOK iv

When their children are full-grown, they arc
brought before the assembly of the men, which
is held every third month, and assigned to
those whom they most resemble.

1 8 r. Such are the tribes of wandering Liby-
ans dwelling upon the sea-coast. Above them
inland is the wild-beast tract: and beyond that, a
ridge of sand, reaching from Egyptian Thebes
to the Pillars of Hercules. Throughout this
ridge, at the distance of about ten days' journey
from one another, heaps of salt in large lumps
lie upon hills. At the top of every hill there
gushes forth from the middle of the salt a
stream of water, which is both cold and sweet.
Around dwell men who are the last inhabi-
tants of Libya on the side of the desert, living,
as they do, more inland than the wild-beast dis-
trict. Of these nations the first is that of the
Ammomans, who dwell at a distance of ten
days' journey from Thebes, and have a temple
derived from that of the Theban Jupiter. For
at Thebes likewise, as I mentioned above, the
image of Jupiter has a face like that of a ram.
The Ammonians have another spring besides
that which rises from the salt. The water of
this stream is lukewarm at early dawn; at the
time when the market fills it is much cooler;
by noon it has grown quite cold; at this time,
therefore, they water their gardens. As the af-
ternoon advances the coldness goes off, till,
about sunset, the water is once more luke-
warm; still the heat increases, and at midnight
it boils furiously. After this time it again begins
to cool, and grows less and less hot till morn-
ing comes. This spring is called "the Fountain
of the Sun."

182. Next to the Ammonians, at the dis-
tance of ten days' journey along the ridge of
sand, there is a second salt-hill like the Am-
monian, and a second spring. The country
round is inhabited, and the place bears the
name of Augila. Hither it is that the Nasa-
monians come to gather in the dates.

183. Ten days' journey from Augila there
is again a salt-hill and a spring; palms of the
fruitful kind grow here abundantly, as they do
also at the other salt-hills. This region is in-
habited by a nation called the Garamantians, a
very powerful people, who cover the salt with
mould, and then sow their crops. From thence
is the shortest road to the Lotophagi, a journey
of thirty days. In the Garamantian country
are found the oxen which, as they graze, walk
backwards. This they do because their horns
curve outwards in front of their heads, so that
it is not possible for them when grazing to

move forwards, since in that case their horns
would become fixed in the ground. Only here-
in do they differ from other oxen, and further
in the thickness and hardness of their hides.
The Garamantians have four-horse chariots, in
which they chase the Troglodyte Ethiopians,
who of all the nations whereof any account has
reached our ears are by far the swiftest of foot.
The Troglodytes feed on serpents, lizards, and
other similar reptiles. Their language is unlike
that of any other people; it sounds like the
screeching of bats.

184. At the distance of ten days' journey
from the Garamantians there is again another
salt-hill and spring of water; around which
dwell a people, called the Atarantians, who
alone of all known nations are destitute of
names. The title of Atarantians is borne by the
whole race in common; but the men have no
particular names of their own. The Ataran-
tians, when the sun rises high in the heaven,
curse him, and load him with reproaches, be-
cause (they say) he burns and wastes both
their country and themselves. Once more at the
distance of ten days' journey there is a salt-hill,
a spring, and an inhabited tract. Near the salt
is a mountain called Atlas, very taper and
round; so lofty, moreover, that the top (it is
said) cannot be seen, the clouds never quitting
it either summer or winter. The natives call
this mountain "the Pillar of Heaven"; and they
themselves take their name from it, being
called Atlantes. They are reported not to eat any
living thing, and never .to have any dreams.

185. As far as the Atlantes the names of
the nations inhabiting the sandy ridge are
known to me; but beyond them my knowledge
fails. The ridge itself extends as far as the Pil-
lars of Hercules, and even further than these;
and throughout the whole distance, at the end
of every ten days' journey, there is a salt-mine,
with people dwelling round it who all of them
build their houses with blocks of the salt. No
rain falls in these parts of Libya; if it were oth-
erwise, the walls of these houses could not
stand. The salt quarried is of two colours,
white and purple. Beyond the ridge, south-
wards, in the direction of the interior, the
country is a desert, with no springs, no beasts,
no rain, no wood, and altogether destitute of
moisture.

1 86. Thus from Egypt as far as Lake Tri-
tonis Libya is inhabited by wandering tribes,
whose drink is milk and their food the flesh of
animals. Cow's flesh, however, none of these
tribes ever taste, but abstain from it for the

181-192] THE HISTORY

same reason as the Egyptians, neither do they
any of them breed swine. Even at Gyrene*, the
women think it wrong to eat the flesh of the
cow, honouring in this Isis, the Egyptian god-
dess, whom they worship both with fasts and
festivals. The Barcaean women abstain, not from
cow's flesh only, but also from the flesh of swine.

187. West of Lake Trit6nis the Libyans are
no longer wanderers, nor do they practise the
same customs as the wandering people, or treat
their children in the same way. For the wan-
dering Libyans, many of them at any rate, if
not all — concerning which I cannot speak with
certainty — when their children come to the
age of four years, burn the veins at the top of
their heads with a flock from the fleece of a
sheep: others burn the veins about the temples.
This they do to prevent them from being
plagued in their after lives by a flow of rheum
from the head; and such they declare is the
reason why they are so much more healthy
than other men. Certainly the Libyans are the
healthiest men that I know; but whether this is
what makes them so, or not, I cannot positive-
ly say — the healthiest certainly they are. If
when the children are being burnt convulsions
come on, there is a remedy of which they have
made discovery. It is to sprinkle goat's water
upon the child, who thus treated, is sure to re-
cover. In all this I only repeat what is said by
the Libyans.

1 88. The rites which the wandering Liby-
ans use in sacrificing are the following. They
begin with the ear of the victim, which they
cut off and throw over their house: this done,
they kill the animal by twisting the neck. They
sacrifice to the Sun and Moon, but not to any
other god. This worship is common to all the
Libyans. The inhabitants of the parts about
Lake Tritonis worship in addition Triton,
Neptune, and Minerva, the last especially.

189. The dress wherewith Minerva's stat-
ues are adorned, and her JEgis, were derived
by the Greeks from the women of Libya. For,
except that the garments of the Libyan women
are of leather, and their fringes made of leath-
ern thongs instead of serpents, in all else the
dress of both is exactly alike. The name too it-
self shows that the mode of dressing the Pallas-
statues came from Libya. For the Libyan wom-
en wear over their dress goat-skins stript of
the hair, fringed at their edges, and coloured
with vermilion; and from these goat-skins the
Greeks get their word ^Egis (goat-harness). I
think for my part that the loud cries uttered in
our sacred rites came also from thence; for the

157

Libyan women are greatly given to such cries
and utter them very sweetly. Likewise the
Greeks learnt from the Libyans to yoke four
horses to a chariot.

190. All the wandering tribes bury their
dead according to the fashion of the Greeks, ex-
cept the Nasamonians. They bury them sitting,
and are right careful when the sick man is at
the point of giving up the ghost, to make him
sit and not let him die lying down. The dwell-
ings of these people are made of the stems of
the asphodel, and of rushes wattled together.
They can be carried from place to place. Such
are the customs of the afore-mentioned tribes.

191. Westward of the river Triton and ad-
joining upon the Auseans, are other Libyans
who till the ground, and live in houses: these
people are named the Maxyans. They let the
hair grow long on the right side of their heads,
and shave it close on the left; they besmear
their bodies with red paint; and they say that
they are descended from the men of Troy.
Their country and the remainder of Libya to-
wards the west is far fuller of wild beasts and
of wood than the country of the wandering
people. For the eastern side of Libya, where the
wanderers dwell, is low and sandy, as far as
the river Triton; but westward of that the
land of the husbandmen is very hilly, and
abounds with forests and wild beasts. For this
is the tract in which the huge serpents are
found, and the lions, the elephants, the bears,
the aspicks, and the horned asses. Here too are
the dog-faced creatures, and the creatures
without heads, whom the Libyans declare to
have their eyes in their breasts; and also the
wild men, and wild women, and many other
far less fabulous beasts.

192. Among the wanderers are none of
these, but quite other animals; as antelopes,
gazelles, buffaloes, and asses, not of the horned
sort, but of a kind which does not need to
drink; also oryxes, whose horns are used for
the curved sides of citherns, and whose size is
about that of the ox; foxes, hyaenas, porcupines,
wild rams, dictyes, jackals, panthers, boryes,
land-crocodiles about three cubits in length,
very like lizards, ostriches, and little snakes,
each with a single horn. All these animals are
found here, and likewise those belonging to
other countries, except the stag and the wild-
boar; but neither stag nor wild-boar are found
in any part of Libya. There are, however, three
sorts of mice in these parts; the first are called
two-footed; the next, zegeries, which is a Lib-
yan word meaning "hills"; and the third,

158

HERODOTUS

[BOOK iv

urchins. Weasels also are found in the Silphi-
um region, much like the Tartessian. So many,
therefore, are the animals belonging to the
land of the wandering Libyans, in so far at
least as my researches have been able to reach.

193. Next to the Maxyan Libyans are the
Zavecians, whose wives drive their chariots to
battle.

194. On them border the Gyzantians; in
whose country a vast deal of honey is made by
bees; very much more, however, by the skill of
men. The people all paint themselves red, and
eat monkeys, whereof there is inexhaustible
store in the hills.

195. Off their coast, as the Carthaginians re-
port, lies an island, by name Cyraunis, the
length of which is two hundred furlongs, its
breadth not great, and which is soon reached
from the mainland. Vines and olive trees cov-
er the whole of it, and there is in the island a
lake, from which the young maidens of the
country draw up gold-dust, by dipping into the
mud birds' feathers smeared with pitch. If
this be true, I know not; I but write what is
said. It may be even so, however; since I myself
have seen pitch drawn up out of the water from
a lake in Zacynthus. At the place I speak of
there are a number of lakes; but one is larger
than the rest, being seventy feet every way, and
two fathoms in depth. Here they let down a
pole into the water, with a bunch of myrtle tied
to one end, and when they raise it again, there
is pitch sticking to the myrtle, which in smell
is like to bitumen, but in all else is better than
the pitch of Pieria. This they pour into a trench
dug by the lake's side; and when a good deal
has thus been got together, they draw it off and
put it up in jars. Whatever falls into the lake
passes underground, and comes up in the sea,
which is no less than four furlongs distant. So
then what is said of the island off the Libyan
coast is not without likelihood.

196. The Carthaginians also relate the fol-
lowing:— There is a country in Libya, and a
nation, beyond the Pillars of Hercules, which
they are wont to visit, where they no sooner
arrive but forthwith they unlade their wares,
and, having disposed them after an orderly
fashion along the beach, leave them, and, re-
turning aboard their ships, raise a great smoke.
The natives, when they see the smoke, come
down to the shore, and, laying out to view so
much gold as .they think the worth of the
wares, withdraw to a distance. The Carthagin-
ians upon this come ashore and look. If they
think the gold enough, they take it and go

their way; but if it does not seem to them suffi-
cient, they go aboard ship once more, and wait
patiently. Then the others approach and add
to their gold, till the Carthaginians are content.
Neither party deals unfairly by the other: for
they themselves never touch the gold till it
comes up to the worth of their goods, nor do
the natives ever carry off the goods till the gold
is taken away.

197. These be the Libyan tribes whereof I
am able to give the names; and most of these
cared little then, and indeed care little now, for
the king of the Medes. One thing more also I
can add concerning this region, namely, that,
so far as our knowledge reaches, four nations,
and no more, inhabit it; and two of these na-
tions are indigenous, while two are not. The
two indigenous are the Libyans and Ethiopi-
ans, who dwell respectively in the north and
the south of Libya. The Phoenicians and the
Greek are in-comers.

198. It seems to me that Libya is not to
compare for goodness of soil with either Asia
or Europe, except the Cinyps region, which is
named after the river that waters it. This piece
of land is equal to any country in the world for
cereal crops, and is in nothing like the rest of
Libya. For the soil here is blaek, and springs of
water abound; so that there is nothing to fear
from drought; nor do heavy rains (and it rains
in that part of Libya) do any harm when they
soak the ground. The returns of the harvest
come up to the measure which prevails in Baby-
lonia. The soil is likewise good in the country
of the Euesperites; for there the land brings
forth in the best years a hundred-fold. But the
Cinyps region yields three hundred-fold.

199. The country of the Cyrenaeans, which
is the highest tract within the part of Libya in-
habited by the wandering tribes, has three
seasons that deserve remark. First the crops
along the sea-coast begin to ripen, and are
ready for the harvest and the vintage; after
they have been gathered in, the crops of the
middle tract above the coast region (the hill-
country, as they call it) need harvesting; while
about the time when this middle crop is
housed, the fruits ripen and are fit for cutting
in the highest tract of all. So that the produce
of the first tract has been all eaten and drunk
by the time that the last harvest comes in. And
the harvest-time of the Cyrenaeans continues
thus for eight full months. So much concern-
ing these matters.

200. When the Persians sent from Egypt by
Aryandes to help Pheretima reached Barca,

193-205]

THE HISTORY

159

they laid siege to the town, calling on those
within to give up the men who had been guilty
of the murder of Arcesilaiis. The townspeople,
however, as they had one and all taken part in
the deed, refused to entertain the proposition.
So the Persians beleaguered Barca for nine
months, in the course of which they dug sev-
eral mines from their own lines to the walls,
and likewise made a number of vigorous as-
saults. But their mines were discovered by a
man who was a worker in brass, who went
with a brazen shield all round the fortress, and
laid it on the ground inside the city. In other
places the shield, when he laid it down, was
quite dumb; but where the ground was under-
mined, there the brass of the shield rang. Here,
therefore, the Barcaeans countermined, and
slew the Persian diggers. Such was the way in
which the mines were discovered; as for the
assaults, the Barcaeans beat them back.

201. When much time had been consumed,
and great numbers had fallen on both sides,
nor had the Persians lost fewer than their ad-
versaries, Amasis, the leader of the land-army,
perceiving that, although the Barcaeans would
never be conquered by force, they might be
overcome by fraud, contrived as follows. One
night he dug a wide trench, and laid light
planks of wood across the opening, after which
he brought mould and placed it upon the
planks, taking care to make the place level
with the surrounding ground. At dawn of day
he summoned the Barcaeans to a parley: and
they gladly hearkening, the terms were at
length agreed upon. Oaths were interchanged
upon the ground over the hidden trench, and
the agreement ran thus — "So long as the
ground beneath our feet stands firm, the oath
shall abide unchanged; the people of Barca
agree to pay a fair sum to the king, and the
Persians promise to cause no further trouble
to the people of Barca." After the oath, the
Barcaeans, relying upon its terms, threw open
all their gates, went out themselves beyond the
walls, and allowed as many of the enemy as
chose to enter. Then the Persians broke down
their secret bridge, and rushed at speed into
the town — their reason for breaking the bridge
being that so they might observe what they
had sworn; for they had promised the Barcae-
ans that the oath should continue "so long as
the ground whereon they stood was firm."
When, therefore, the bridge was once broken
down, the oath ceased to hold.

202. Such of the Barcaeans as were most
guilty the Persians gave up to Pheretima, who

nailed them to crosses all round the walls of
the city. She also cut off the breasts of their
wives, and fastened them likewise about the
walls. The remainder of the people she gave
as booty to the Persians, except only the Bat-
tiadae and those who had taken no part in
the murder, to whom she handed over the
possession of the town.

203. The Persians now set out on their re-
turn home, carrying with them the rest of the
Barcaeans, whom they had made their slaves.
On their way they came to Gyrene; and the
Cyrenaeans, out of regard for an oracle, let
them pass through the town. During the pass-
age, Bares, the commander of the fleet, ad-
vised to seize the place; but Amasis, the leader
of the land-force, would not consent; "be-
cause," he said, "they had only been charged
to attack the one Greek city of Barca." When,
however, they had passed through the town,
and were encamped upon the hill of Lycaean
Jove, it repented them that they had not seized
Gyrene, and they endeavoured to enter it a
second time. The Cyrenaeans, however, would
not suffer this; whereupon, though no one
appeared to offer them battle, yet a panic
came upon the Persians, and they ran a dis-
tance of full sixty furlongs before they pitched
their camp. Here as they lay, a messenger
came to them from Aryandes, ordering them
home. Then the Persians besought the men of
Gyrene to give them provisions for the way,
and, these consenting, they set off on their re-
turn to Egypt. But the Libyans now beset them,
and, for the sake of their clothes and harness,
slew all who dropped behind and straggled,
during the whole march homewards.

204. The furthest point of Libya reached by
this Persian host was the city of Euesperides.
The Barcaeans carried into slavery were sent
from Egypt to the king; and Darius assigned
them a village in Bactria for their dwelling-
place. To this village they gave the name of
Barca, and it was to my time an inhabited
place in Bactria.

205. Nor did Pheretima herself end her
days happily. For on her return to Egypt from
Libya, directly after taking vengeance on the
people of Barca, she was overtaken by a most
horrid death. Her body swarmed with worms,
which ate her flesh while she was still alive.
Thus do men, by over-harsh punishments,
draw down upon themselves the anger of the
gods. Such then, and so fierce, was the ven-
geance which Pheretima, daughter of Battus,
took upon the Barcaeans.

The Fifth Book, Entitled
TERPSICHORE

i. The Persians left behind by King Darius in
Europe, who had Megabazus for their general,
reduced, before any other Hellespontine state,
the people of Perinthus, who had no mind to
become subjects of the king. Now the Perinth-
ians had ere this been roughly handled by
another nation, the Paeonians. For the Paeoni-
ans from about the Strymon were once bidden
by an oracle to make war upon the Perinthians,
and if these latter, when the camps faced one
another, challenged them by name to fight,
then to venture on a battle, but if otherwise,
not to make the hazard. The Paeonians fol-
lowed the advice. Now the men of Perinthus
drew out to meet them in the skirts of their
city; and a threefold single combat was fought
on challenge given. Man to man, and horse to
horse, and dog to dog, was the strife waged;
and the Perinthians, winners of two combats
out of the three, in their joy had raised the
paean; when the Paeonians, struck by the
thought that this was what the oracle had
meant, passed the word one to another, say-
ing, "Now of a surety has the oracle been ful-
filled for us; now our work begins." Then the
Paeonians set upon the Perinthians in the midst
of their paean, and defeated them utterly, leav-
ing but few of them alive.

2. Such was the affair of the Paeonians,
which happened a long time previously. At
this time the Perinthians, after a brave struggle
for freedom, were overcome by numbers, and
yielded to Megabazus and his Persians. After
Perinthus had been brought under, Megabazus
led his host through Thrace, subduing to the
dominion of the king all the towns and all the
nations of those parts. For the king's com-
mand to him was that he should conquer
Thrace.

3. The Thracians are the most powerful
people in the world, except, of course, the In-
dians; and if they had one head, or were

agreed among themselves, it is my belief that
their match could not be found anywhere, and
that they would very far surpass all other na-
tions. But such union is impossible for them,
and there are no means of ever bringing it
about. Herein therefore consists their weak-
ness. The Thracians bear many names in the
different regions of their country, but all of
them have like usages in every respect, ex-
cepting only the Getae, the Trausi, and those
who dwell above the people of Creston.

4. Now the manners and customs of the
Getae, who believe in their immortality, I have
already spoken of. The Trausi in all else re-
semble the other Thracians, but have customs
at births and deaths which I will now describe.
When a child is born all its kindred sit round
about it in a circle and weep for the woes it
will have to undergo now that it is come into
the world, making mention of every ill that
falls to the lot of humankind; when, on the
other hand, a man has died, they bury him
with laughter and rejoicings, and say that now
he is free from a host of sufferings, and enjoys
the completest happiness.

5. The Thracians who live above the Cre-
stonaeans observe the following customs. Each
man among them has several wives; and no
sooner does a man die than a sharp contest en-
sues among the wives upon the question
which of them all the husband loved most
tenderly; the friends of each eagerly plead on
her behalf, and she to whom the honour is
adjudged, after receiving the praises both of
men and women, is slain over the grave by the
hand of her next of kin, and then buried with
her husband. The others are sorely grieved, for
nothing is considered such a disgrace.

6. The Thracians who do not belong to
these tribes have the customs which follow.
They sell their children to traders. On their
maidens they keep no watch, but leave them

160

THE HISTORY

161

altogether free, while on the conduct of their
wives they keep a most strict watch. Brides are
purchased of their parents for large sums of
money. Tattooing among them marks noble
birth, and the want of it low birth. To be idle
is accounted the most honourable thing, and
to be a tiller of the ground the most dishonour-
able. To live by war and plunder is of all
things the most glorious. These are the most
remarkable of their customs.

7. The gods which they worship are but
three, Mars, Bacchus, and Dian. Their kings,
however, unlike the rest of the citizens, wor-
ship Mercury more than any other god, always
swearing by his name, and declaring that they
are themselves sprung from him.

8. Their wealthy ones are buried in the fol-
lowing fashion. The body is laid out for three
days; and during this time they kill victims of
all kinds, and feast upon them, after first be-
wailing the departed. Then they either burn
the body or else bury it in the ground. Lastly,
they raise a mound over the grave, and hold
games of all sorts, wherein the single combat is
awarded the highest prize. Such is the mode of
burial among the Thracians.

9. As regards the region lying north of this
country no one can say with any certainty what
men inhabit it. It appears that you no sooner
cross the Ister than you enter on an intermin-
able wilderness. The only people of whom I
can hear as dwelling beyond the Ister are the
race named Sigynnae, who wear, they say, a
dress like the Medes, and have horses which
are covered entirely with a coat of shaggy
hair, five fingers in length. They are a small
breed, flat-nosed, and not strong enough to
bear men on their backs; but when yoked to
chariots, they are among the swiftest known,
which is the reason why the people of that
country use chariots. Their borders reach down
almost to the Eneti upon the Adriatic Sea, and
they call themselves colonists of the Medes; but
how they can be colonists of the Medes I for
my part cannot imagine. Still nothing is im-
possible in the long lapse of ages. Sigynnae is
the name which the Ligurians who dwell
above Massilia give to traders, while among the
Cyprians the word means spears.

10. According to the account which the
Thracians give, the country beyond the Ister is
possessed by bees,1 on account of which it is
impossible to penetrate farther. But in this they
seem to me to say what has no likelihood; for
it is certain that those creatures are very im-

1 In reality, mosquitoes.

patient of cold. I rather believe that it is on
account of the cold that the regions which lie
under the Bear are without inhabitants. Such
then are the accounts given of this country, the
sea-coast whereof Megabazus was now em-
ployed in subjecting to the Persians.

11. King Darius had no sooner crossed the
Hellespont and reached Sardis, than he be-
thought himself of the good deed of Histiaeus
the Milesian, and the good counsel of the Myti-
lenean Goes. He therefore sent for both of
them to Sardis, and bade them each crave a
boon at his hands. Now Histiaeus, as he was
already king of Miletus, did not make request
for any government besides, but asked Darius
to give him Myrcinus of the Edonians, where
he wished to build him a city. Such was the
choice that Histiaeus made. Goes, on the other
hand, as he was a mere burgher, and not a
king, requested the sovereignty of Mytilene.
Both alike obtained their requests, and straight-
way betook themselves to the places which
they had chosen.

12. It chanced in the meantime that King
Darius saw a sight which determined him to
bid Megabazus remove the Paeomans from
their seats in Europe and transport them to
Asia. There were two Paeonians, Pigres and
Mantyes, whose ambition it was to obtain the
sovereignty over their countrymen. As soon
therefore as ever Darius crossed into Asia,
these men came to Sardis, and brought with
them their sister, who was a tall and beautiful
woman. Having so done, they waited till a day
came when the king sat in state in the suburb
of the Lydians; and then dressing their sister
in the richest gear they could, sent her to draw
water for them. She bore a pitcher upon her
head, and with one arm led a horse, while all
the way as she went she span flax. Now as she
passed by where the king was, Darius took
notice of her; for it was neither like the Per-
sians nor the Lydians, nor any of the dwellers
in Asia, to do as she did. Darius accordingly
noted her, and ordered some of his guard to
follow her steps, and watch to see what she
would do with the horse. So the spearmen
went; and the woman, when she came to the
river, first watered the horse, and then filling
the pitcher, came back the same way she had
gone, with the pitcher of water upon her head,
and the horse dragging upon her arm, while
she still kept twirling the spindle.

13. King Darius was full of wonder both at
what they who had watched the woman told
him, and at what he had himself seen. So he

162 HERODOTUS

commanded that she should be brought before
him. And the woman came; and with her ap-
peared her brothers, who had been watching
everything a little way off. Then Darius asked
them of what nation the woman was; and the
young men replied that they were Paeonians,
and she was their sister. Darius rejoined by
asking, "Who the Pseonians were, and in what
part of the world they lived? and, further,
what business had brought the young men to
Sardis?" Then the brothers told him they had
come to put themselves under his power, and
Paeonia was a country upon the river Strymon,
and the Strymon was at no great distance from
the Hellespont. The Paeonians, they said, were
colonists of the Teucnans from Troy. When
they had thus answered his questions, Darius
asked if all the women of their country worked
so hard? Then the brothers eagerly answered,
Yes; for this was the very object with which
the whole thing had been done.

14. So Darius wrote letters to Megabazus,
the commander whom he had left behind in
Thrace, and ordered him to remove the Paeoni-
ans from their own land, and bring them into
his presence, men, women, and children. And
straightway a horseman took the message, and
rode at speed to the Hellespont; and, crossing
it, gave the paper to Megabazus. Then Mega-
bazus, as soon as he had read it, and procured
guides from Thrace, made war upon Paeonia.

15. Now when the Paeonians heard that the
Persians were marching against them, they gath-
ered themselves together, and marched down
to the sea-coast, since they thought the Persians
would endeavour to enter their country on that
side. Here then they stood in readiness to op-
pose the army of Megabazus. But the Persians,
who knew that they had collected, and were
gone to keep guard at the pass near the sea, got
guides, and taking the inland route before the
Paeonians were aware, poured down upon
their cities, from which the men had all
marched out; and finding them empty, easily
got possession of them. Then the men, when
they heard that all their towns were taken,
scattered this way and that to their homes, and
gave themselves up to the Persians. And so
these tribes of the Paeonians, to wit, the Siropz-
onians, the Paeoplians, and all the others as far
as Lake Prasias, were torn from their seats and
led away into Asia.

1 6. They on the other hand who dwelt
about Mount Pangaeum and in the country of
the Doberes, the Agrianians, and the Odoman-
tians, and they likewise who inhabited Lake

[BooK v

Prasias, were not conquered by Megabazus.
He sought indeed to subdue the dwellers upon
the lake, but could not effect his purpose.
Their manner of living is the following. Plat-
forms supported upon tall piles stand in the
middle of the lake, which are approached from
the land by a single narrow bridge. At the first
the piles which bear up the platforms were
fixed in their places by the whole body of the
citizens, but since that time the custom which
has prevailed about fixing them is this: — they
are brought from a hill called Orbelus, and
every man drives in three for each wife that he
marries. Now the men have all many wives
apiece; and this is the way in which they live.
Each has his own hut, wherein he dwells, upon
one of the platforms, and each has also a trap-
door giving access to the lake beneath; and
their wont is to tie their baby children by the
foot with a string, to save them from rolling
into the water. They feed their horses and
their other beasts upon fish, which abound in
the lake to such a degree that a man has only
to open his trap-door and to let down a basket
by a rope into the water, and then to wait a
very short time, when he draws it up quite
full of them. The fish are of two kinds, which
they call the paprax and the tilon.

17. The Paeonians therefore — at least such
of them as had been conquered — were led
away into Asia. As for Megabazus, he no soon-
er brought the Paeonians under, than he sent
into Macedonia an embassy of Persians, choos-
ing for the purpose the seven men of most note
in all the army after himself. These persons
were to go to Amyntas, and require him to
give earth and water to King Darius. Now
there is a very short cut from the Lake Prasias
across to Macedonia. Quite close to the lake is
the mine which yielded afterwards a talent of
silver a day to Alexander; and from this mine
you have only to cross the mountain called
Dys6rum to find yourself in the Macedonian
territory.

1 8. So the Persians sent upon this errand,
when they reached the court, and were
brought into the presence of Amyntas, re-
quired him to give earth and water to King
Darius. And Amyntas not only gave them
what they asked, but also invited them to
come and feast with him; after which he made
ready the board with great magnificence, and
entertained the Persians in right friendly fash-
ion. Now when the meal was over, and they
were all set to the drinking, the Persians said —

"Dear Macedonian, we Persians have a cus-

14-22]

torn when we make a great feast to bring with
us to the board our wives and concubines, and
make them sit beside us. Now then, as thou
hast received us so kindly, and feasted us so
handsomely, and givest moreover earth and
water to King Darius, do also after our custom
in this matter."

Then Amyntas answered — "O, Persians! we
have no such custom as this; but with us men
and women are kept apart. Nevertheless, since
you, who are our lords, wish it, this also shall
be granted to you."

When Amyntas had thus spoken, he bade
some go and fetch the women. And the wom-
en came at his call and took their seats in a
row over against the Persians. Then, when the
Persians saw that the women were fair and
comely, they spoke again to Amyntas and said,
that "what had been done was not wise; for it
had been better for the women not to have
come at all, than to come in this way, and not
sit by their sides, but remain over against
them, the torment of their eyes." So Amyntas
was forced to bid the women sit side by side
with the Persians. The women did as he or-
dered; and then the Persians, who had drunk
more than they ought, began to put their hands
on them, and one even tried to give the woman
next him a kiss.

19. King Amyntas saw, but he kept silence,
although sorely grieved, for he greatly feared
the power of the Persians. Alexander, however,
Amyntas' son, who was likewise there and
witnessed the whole, being a young man and
unacquainted with suffering, could not any
longer restrain himself. He therefore, full of
wrath, spake thus to Amyntas: — "Dear father,
thou art old and shouldst spare thyself. Rise
up from table and go take thy rest; do not stay
out the drinking. I will remain with the guests
and give them all that is fitting."

Amyntas, who guessed that Alexander would
play some wild prank, made answer: — "Dear
son, thy words sound to me as those of one who
is well nigh on fire, and I perceive thou sendest
me away that thou mayest do some wild deed.
I beseech thee make no commotion about
these men, lest thou bring us all to ruin, but
bear to look calmly on what they do. For my-
self, I will e'en withdraw as thou biddest me."

20. Amyntas, when he had thus besought
his son, went out; and Alexander said to the
Persians, "Look on these ladies as your own,
dear strangers, all or any of them — only tell us
your wishes. But now, as the evening wears,
and I see you have all had wine enough, let

THE HISTORY

163

them, if you please, retire, and when they have
bathed they shall come back again." To this
the Persians agreed, and Alexander, having got
the women away, sent them off to the harem,
and made ready in their room an equal num-
ber of beardless youths, whom he dressed in
the garments of the women, and then, arming
them with daggers, brought them in to the
Persians, saying as he introduced them, "Me-
thinks, dear Persians, that your entertainment
has fallen short in nothing. We have set before
you all that we had ourselves in store, and all
that we could anywhere find to give you — and
now, to crown the whole, we make over to
you our sisters and our mothers, that you may
perceive yourselves to be entirely honoured by
us, even as you deserve to be — and also that
you may take back word to the king who sent
you here, that there was one man, a Greek,
the satrap of Macedonia, by whom you were
both feasted and lodged handsomely." So
speaking, Alexander set by the side of each
Persian one of those whom he had called Mac-
edonian women, but who were in truth men.
And these men, when the Persians began to be
rude, despatched them with their daggers.

21. So the ambassadors perished by this
death, both they and also their followers. For
the Persians had brought a great train with
them, carriages, and attendants, and baggage
of every kind — all of which disappeared at the
same time as the men themselves. Not very
long afterwards the Persians made strict search
for their lost embassy; but Alexander, with
much wisdom, hushed up the business, brib-
ing those sent on the errand, partly with
money, and partly with the gift of his own
sister Gygaea, whom he gave in marriage to
Bubares, a Persian, the chief leader of the ex-

• pedition which came in search of the lost men.
Thus the death of these Persians was hushed
up, and no more was said of it.

22. Now that the men of this family are
Greeks, sprung from Perdiccas, as they them-
selves affirm, is a thing which I can declare of
my own knowledge, and which I will here-
after make plainly evident. That they are so
has been already adjudged by those who man-
age the Pan-Hellenic contest at Olympia. For
when Alexander wished to contend in the
games, and had come to Olympia with no
other view, the Greeks who were about to run
against him would have excluded him from
the contest — saying that Greeks only were al-
lowed to contend, and not barbarians. But Al-
exander proved himself to be an Argive, and

164

HERODOTUS

[BOOK v

was distinctly adjudged a Greek; after which
he entered the lists for the foot-race, and was
drawn to run in the first pair. Thus was this
matter settled.

23. Megabazus, having reached the Helles-
pont with the Paeonians, crossed it, and went up
to Sardis. He had become aware while in Eu-
rope that Histiaeus the Milesian was raising a
wall at Myrcinus — the town upon the Strymon
which he had obtained from King Darius as
his guerdon for keeping the bridge. No sooner
therefore did he reach Sardis with the Paeoni-
ans than he said to Danus, "What mad thing
is this that thou hast done, sire, to let a Greek,
a wise man and a shrewd, get hold of a town
in Thrace, a place too where there is abun-
dance of timber fit for shipbuilding, and oars
in plenty, and mines of silver, and about which
are many dwellers both Greek and barbarian,
ready enough to take him for their chief, and
by day and night to do his bidding! I pray thee
make this man cease his work, if thou
wouldest not be entangled in a war with thine
own followers. Stop him, but with a gentle
message, only bidding him to come to thee.
Then when thou once hast him in thy power,
be sure thou take good care that he never get
back to Greece again/'

24. With these words Megabazus easily per-
suaded Darius, who thought he had shown
true foresight in this matter. Darius therefore
sent a messenger to Myrcinus, who said,
"These be the words of the king to thee, O His-
tiaeus' I have looked to find a man well affec-
tioned towards me and towards my greatness;
and I have found none whom I can trust like
thee. Thy deeds, and not thy words only, have
proved thy love for me. Now then, since I have
a mighty enterprise in hand, I pray thee come
to me, that I may show thee what I purpose!"

Histiaeus, when he heard this, put faith in
the words of the messenger; and, as it seemed
to him a grand thing to be the king's counsel-
lor, he straightway went up to Sardis. Then
Darius, when he was come, said to him, "Dear
Histiaeus, hear why I have sent for thee. No
sooner did I return from Scythia, and lose thee
out of my sight, than I longed, as I have never
longed for aught else, to behold thee once
more, and to interchange speech with thee.
Right sure I am there is nothing in all the
world so precious as a friend who is at once
wise and true: both which thou art, as I have
had good proof in what thou hast already done
for me. Now then 'tis well thou art come; for
look, I have an offer to make to thee. Let go

Miletus and thy newly-founded town in
Thrace, and come with me up to Susa; share
all that I have; live with me, and be my coun-
sellor.

25. When Darius had thus spoken he made
Artaphernes, his brother by the father's side,
governor of Sardis, and taking Histiaeus with
him, went up to Susa. He left as general of all
the troops upon the sea-coast Otanes, son of
Sisamnes, whose father King Cambyses slew
and flayed, because that he, being of the num-
ber of the royal judges, had taken money to
give an unrighteous sentence. Therefore Cam-
byses slew and flayed Sisamnes, and cutting his
skin into strips, stretched them across the seat
of the throne whereon he had been wont to sit
when he heard causes. Having so done Cam-
byses appointed the son of Sisamnes to be
judge in his father's room, and bade him never
forget in what way his seat was cushioned.

26. Accordingly this Otanes, who had oc-
cupied so strange a throne, became the succes-
sor of Megabazus in his command, and took
first of all Byzantium and Chalcedon, then
Antandrus in the Troas, and next Lamponi-
um. This done, he borrowed ships of the Les-
bians, and took Lemnos and Imbrus, which
were still inhabited by Pelasgians.

27. Now the Lemnians stood on their de-
fence, and fought gallantly; but they were
brought low in course of time. Such as out-
lived the struggle were placed by the Persians
under the government of Lycaretus, the broth-
er of that Maeandrius who was tyrant of Samos.
(This Lycaretus died afterwards in his govern-
ment.) The cause which Otanes alleged for
conquering and enslaving all these nations
was that some had refused to join the king's
army against Scythia, while others had mo-
lested the host on its return. Such were the ex-
ploits which Otanes performed in his com-
mand.

28. Afterwards, but for no long time, there
was a respite from suffering. Then from Na-
zos and Miletus troubles gathered anew about
Ionia. Now Naxos at this time surpassed all
the other islands in prosperity, and Miletus
had reached the height of her power, and was
the glory of Ionia. But previously for two gen-
erations the Milesians had suffered grievously
from civil disorders, which were composed by
the Parians, whom the Milesians chose before
all the rest of the Greeks to rearrange their
government.

29. Now the way in which the Parians
healed their differences was the following. A

THE HISTORY

165

number of the chief Parians came to Miletus,
and when they saw in how ruined a condition
the Milesians were, they said that they would
like first to go over their country. So they went
through all Milesia, and on their way, when-
ever they saw in the waste and desolate country
any Nland that was well farmed, they took
down\the names of the owners in their tablets;
and having thus gone through the whole re-
gion, a\nd obtained after all but few names,
they cajled the people together on their return
to Mildtus, and made proclamation that they
gave tme government into the hands of those
person^ whose lands they had found well
farmed; for they thought it likely (they said)
that /the same persons who had managed their
owtf affairs well would likewise conduct aright
the7 business of the state. The other Milesians,
who in time past had been at variance, they
placed under the rule of these men. Thus was
the Milesian government set in order by the
Parians.

30. It was, however, from the two cities
above mentioned that troubles began now to
gather again about Ionia; and this is the way
in which they arose. Certain of the rich men
had been banished from Naxos by the com-
monalty, and, upon their banishment, had fled
to Miletus. Aristagoras, son of Molpagoras, the
nephew and likewise the son-in-law of Histiae-
us, son of Lysagoras, who was still kept by
Darius at Susa, happened to be regent of Mile-
tus at the time of their coming. For the kingly
power belonged to Histiaeus; but he was at
Susa when the Naxians came. Now these Nax-
ians had in times past been bond-friends of
Histiaeus; and so on their arrival at Miletus
they addressed themselves to Aristagoras and
begged him to lend them such aid as his abil-
ity allowed, in hopes thereby to recover their
country. Then Aristagoras, considering with
himself that, if the Naxians should be restored
by his help, he would be lord of Naxos, put for-
ward the friendship with Histiaeus to cloak
his views, and spoke as follows: —

"I cannot engage to furnish you with such
a power as were needful to force you, against
their will, upon the Naxians who hold the
city; for I know they can bring into the field
eight thousand bucklers, and have also a vast
number of ships of war. But I will do all that
lies in my power to get you some aid, and I
think I can manage it in this way. Artaphernes
happens to be my friend. Now he is a son of
Hystaspes, and brother to King Darius. All
the sea-coast of Asia is under him, and he has

a numerous army and numerous ships. I think
I can prevail on him to do what we require."

When the Naxians heard this, they empow-
ered Aristagoras to manage the matter for
them as well as he could, and told him to
promise gifts and pay for the soldiers, which
(they said) they would readily furnish, since
they had great hope that the Naxians, so soon
as they saw them returned, would render them
obedience, and likewise the other islanders.
For at that time not one of the Cyclades was
subject to King Darius.

31. So Aristagoras went to Sardis and told
Artaphernes that Naxos was an island of no
great size, but a fair land and fertile, lying
near Ionia, and containing much treasure and
a vast number of slaves. "Make war then upon
this land (he said) and reinstate the exiles; for
if thou wilt do this, first of all, I have very rich
gifts in store for thee (besides the cost of the
armament, which it is fair that we who are the
authors of the war should pay); and, secondly,
thou wilt bring under the power of the king
not only Naxos but the other islands which de-
pend on it, as Paros, Andros, and all the rest
of the Cyclades. And when thou hast gained
these, thou mayest easily go on against Euboea,
which is a large and wealthy island not less in
size than Cyprus, and very easy to bring un-
der. A hundred ships were quite enough to
subdue the whole." The other answered —
"Truly thou art the author of a plan which
may much advantage the house of the king,
and thy counsel is good in all points except the
number of the ships. Instead of a hundred, two
hundred shall be at thy disposal when the
spring comes. But the king himself must first
approve the undertaking."

32. When Aristagoras heard this he was
greatly rejoiced, and went home in good heart
to Miletus. And Artaphernes, after he had sent
a messenger to Susa to lay the plans of Arista-
goras before the king, and received his ap-
proval of the undertaking, made ready a fleet
of two hundred triremes and a vast army of
Persians and their confederates. The command
of these he gave to a Persian named Mega-
bates, who belonged to the house of the Achae-
menids, being nephew both to himself and to
King Darius. It was to a daughter of this man
that Pausanias the Lacedaemonian, the son of
Cleombrotus (if at least there be any truth in
the tale), was affianced many years afterwards,
when he conceived the desire of becoming ty-
rant of Greece. Artaphernes now, having
named Megabates to the command, sent for-

166

HERODOTUS

ward the armament to Aristagoras.

33. Megabates set sail, and, touching at
Miletus, took on hoard Aristagoras with the
Ionian troops and the Naxians; after which he
steered, as he gave out, for the Hellespont; and
when he reached Chios, he brought the fleet to
anchor off Caucasa, being minded to wait there
for a north wind, and then sail straight to
Naxos. The Naxians however were not to per-
ish at this time; and so the following events
were brought about. As Megabates went his
rounds to visit the watches on board the ships,
he found a Myndian vessel upon which there
was none set. Full of anger at such carelessness,
he bade his guards to seek out the captain, one
Scylax by name, and thrusting him through
one of the holes in the ship's side, to fasten him
there in such a way that his head might show
outside the vessel, while his body remained
within. When Scylax was thus fastened, one
went and informed Aristagoras that Mega-
bates had bound his Myndian friend and was
entreating him shamefully. So he came and
asked Megabates to let the man off; but the
Persian refused him; whereupon Aristagoras
went himself and set Scylax free. When Mega-
bates heard this he was still more angry than
before, and spoke hotly to Aristagoras. Then
the latter said to him —

"What has thou to do with these matters?
Wert thou not sent here by Artaphernes to
obey me, and to sail whithersoever I ordered?
Why dost meddle so?"

Thus spake Aristagoras. The other, in high
dudgeon at such language, waited till the
night, and then despatched a boat to Naxos,
to warn the Naxians of the coming danger.

34. Now the Naxians up to this time had
not had any suspicion that the armament was
directed against them; as soon, therefore, as
the message reached them, forthwith they
brought within their walls all that they had in
the open field, and made themselves ready
against a siege by provisioning their town both
with food and drink. Thus was Naxos placed
in a posture of defence; and the Persians, when
they crossed the sea from Chios, found the
Naxians fully prepared for them. However
they sat down before the place, and besieged it
for four whole months. When at length all the
stores which they had brought with them were
exhausted, and Aristagoras had likewise spent
upon the siege no small sum from his private
means, and more was still needed to insure
success, the Persians gave up the attempt, and
first building certain forts, wherein they left

[BooK v

the banished Naxians, withdrew to the main-
land, having utterly failed in their undertak-
ing.

35. And now Aristagoras found himself
quite unable to make good his promises to
Artaphernes; nay, he was even hard pressed
to meet the claims whereto he was liable for
the pay of the troops; and at the same time his
fear was great, lest, owing to the failure of the
expedition and his own quarrel with Mega-
bates, he should be ousted from the govern-
ment of Miletus. These manifold alarms had
already caused him to contemplate raising a
rebellion, when the man with the marked head
came from Susa, bringing him instructions on
the part of Histiaeus to revolt from the king.
For Histiaeus, when he was anxious to give
Aristagoras orders to revolt, could find but one
safe way, as the roads were guarded, of mak-
ing his wishes known; which was by taking
the trustiest of his slaves, shaving all the hair
from off his head, and then pricking letters
upon the skin, and waiting till the hair grew
again. Thus accordingly he did; and as soon as
ever the hair was grown, he despatched the
man to Miletus, giving him no other message
than this — "When thou art come to Miletus,
bid Aristagoras shave thy head, and look there-
on." Now the marks on the head, as I have al-
ready mentioned, were a command to revolt.
All this Histiaeus did because it irked him
greatly to be kept at Susa, and because he had
strong hopes that, if troubles broke out, he
would be sent down to the coast to quell them,
whereas, if Miletus made no movement, he did
not see a chance of his ever again returning
thither.

36. Such, then, were the views which led
Histiaeus to despatch his messenger; and it so
chanced that all these several motives to revolt
were brought to bear upon Aristagoras at one
and the same time.

Accordingly, at this conjuncture Aristagoras
held a council of his trusty friends, and laid
the business before them, telling them both
what he had himself purposed, and what mes-
sage had been sent him by Histiaeus. At this
council all his friends were of the same way of
thinking, and recommended revolt, except
only Hecatauis the historian. He, first of all,
advised them by all means to avoid engaging in
war with the king of the Persians, whose
might he set forth, and whose subject nations
he enumerated. As however he could not in-
duce them to listen to this counsel, he next ad-
vised that they should do all that lay in their

33-42]

THE HISTORY

167

power to make themselves masters of the sea.
"There was one only way," he said, "so far as
he could see, of their succeeding in this. Mile-
tus was, he knew, a weak state — but if the
treasures in the temple at Branchidae, which
Croesus the Lydian gave to it, were seized, he
had strong hopes that the mastery of the sea
might be thereby gained; at least it would give
them money to begin the war, and would save
the treasures from falling into the hands of the
enemy." Now these treasures were of very
great value, as I showed in the first part of my
History. The assembly, however, rejected the
counsel of Hecataeus, while, nevertheless, they
resolved upon a revolt. One of their number,
it was agreed, should sail to Myus, where the
fleet had been lying since its return from Nax-
os, and endeavour to seize the captains who
had gone there with the vessels.

37. latragoras accordingly was despatched
on this errand, and he took with guile Oliatus
the son of Ibanolis the Mylassian, and Histiae-
us the son of Tymnes the Termerean — Goes
likewise, the son of Erxander, to whom Darius
gave Mytilene, and Aristagoras the son of Her-
aclides the Cymaean, and also many others.
Thus Aristagoras revolted openly from Dari-
us; and now he set to work to scheme against
him in every possible way. First of all, in or-
der to induce the Milesians to join heartily in
the revolt, he gave out that he laid down his
own lordship over Miletus, and in lieu thereof
established a commonwealth: after which,
throughout all Ionia he did the like; for from
some of the cities he drove out their tyrants,
and to others, whose goodwill he hoped there-
by to gain, he handed theirs over, thus giving
up all the men whom he had seized at the Nax-
ian fleet, each to the city whereto he belonged.

38. Now the Mytileneans had no sooner got
Goes into their power, than they led him forth
from the city and stoned him; the Cymaeans,
on the other hand, allowed their tyrant to go
free; as likewise did most of the others. And
so this form of government ceased throughout
all the cities. Aristagoras the Milesian, after he
had in this way put down the tyrants, and
bidden the cities choose themselves captains in
their room, sailed away himself on board a
trireme to Lacedaemon; for he had great need
of obtaining the aid of some powerful ally.

39. At Sparta, Anaxandridas the son of Leo
was no longer king: he had died, and his son
Cleomenes had mounted the throne, not how-
ever by right of merit, but of birth. Anaxan-
dridas took to wife his own sister's daughter,

and was tenderly attached to her; but no chil-
dren came from the marriage. Hereupon the
Ephors called him before them, and said — "If
thou hast no care for thine own self, neverthe-
less we cannot allow this, nor suffer the race
of Eurysthenes to die out from among us.
Come then, as thy present wife bears thee no
children, put her away, and wed another. So
wilt thou do what is well-pleasing to the Spar-
tans." Anaxandridas however refused to do as
they required, and said it was no good advice
the Ephors gave, to bid him put away his wife
when she had done no wrong, and take to him-
self another. He therefore declined to obey
them.

40. Then the Ephors and Elders took coun-
sel together, and laid this proposal before the
king: — "Since thou art so fond, as we see thee
to be, of thy present wife, do what we now ad-
vise, and gainsay us not, lest the Spartans make
some unwonted decree concerning thee. We
ask thee not now to put away thy wife to
whom thou art married — give her still the
same love and honour as ever — but take thee
another wife beside, who may bear thee chil-
dren."

When he heard this offer, Anaxandridas
gave way — and henceforth he lived with two
wives in two separate houses, quite against all
Spartan custom.

41. In a short time, the wife whom he had
last married bore him a son, who received the
name of Cleomenes; and so the heir to the
throne was brought into the world by her. Af-
ter this, the first wife also, who in time past
had been barren, by some strange chance con-
ceived, and came to be with child. Then the
friends of the second wife, when they heard a
rumour of the truth, made a great stir, and
said it was a false boast, and she meant, they
were sure, to bring forward as her own a sup-
posititious child. So they raised an outcry
against her; and therefore, when her full time
was come, the Ephors, who were themselves
incredulous, sat round her bed, and kept a
strict watch on the labour. At this time then
she bore Dorieus, and after him, quickly, Le-
onidas, and after him, again quickly, Cleom-
brotus. Some even say that Leonidas and Cle-
ombrotus were twins. On the other hand, the
second wife, the mother of Cleomenes (who
was a daughter of Prinetadas, the son of Dc-
marmenus), never gave birth to a second
child.

42. Now Cleomenes, it is said, was not right
in his mind; indeed he verged upon madness;

168

HERODOTUS

[ BOOK v

while Dorieus surpassed all his co-mates, and
looked confidently to receiving the kingdom
on the score of merit. When, therefore, after
the death of Anaxandridas, the Spartans kept
to the law, and made Cleomenes, his eldest son,
king in his room, Dorieus, who had imagined
that he should be chosen, and who could not
bear the thought of having such a man as Cle-
omenes to rule over him, asked the Spartans to
give him a body of men, and left Sparta with
them in order to found a colony. However, he
neither took counsel of the oracle at Delphi as
to the place whereto he should go, nor observed
any of the customary usages; but left Sparta
in dudgeon, and sailed away to Libya, under
the guidance of certain men who were Therae-
ans. These men brought him to Cinyps, where
he colonised a spot, which has not its equal in
all Libya, on the banks of a river: but from
this place he was driven in the third year by
the Macians, the Libyans, and the Carthagini-
ans.

43. Dorieus returned to the Peloponnese;
whereupon Antichares the Eleonian gave him
a counsel (which he got from the oracle of
Lai'us), to "found the city of Heraclea in Sic-
ily; the whole country of Eryx belonged," he
said, "to the Heraclcids, since Hercules him-
self conquered it." On receiving this advice,
Dorieus went to Delphi to inquire of the ora-
cle whether he would take the place to which
he was about to go. The Pythoness prophesied
that he would; whereupon Dorieus went back
to Libya, took up the men who had sailed with
him at the first, and proceeded upon his way
along the shores of Italy.

44. Just at this time, the Sybarites say, they
and their king Telys were about to make war
upon Crotona, and the Crotoniats, greatly
alarmed, besought Dorieus to lend them aid.
Dorieus was prevailed upon, bore part in the
war against Sybaris, and had a share in taking
the town. Such is the account which the Syba-
rites give of what was done by Dorieus and
his companions. The Crotoniats, on the other
hand, maintain that no foreigner lent them aid
in their war against the Sybarites, save and ex-
cept Callias the Elean, a soothsayer of the race
of the lamidae; and he only forsook Telys the
Sybaritic king, and deserted to their side, when
he found on sacrificing that the victims were
not favourable to an attack on Crotona. Such
is the account which each party gives of these
matters.

45. Both parties likewise adduce testimonies
to the truth of what they say. The Sybarites

show a temple and sacred precinct near the dry
stream of the Crastis, which they declare that
Dorieus, after taking their city, dedicated to
Minerva Crastias. And further, they bring for-
ward the death of Dorieus as the surest proof;
since he fell, they say, because he disobeyed the
oracle. For had he in nothing varied from the
directions given him, but confined himself to
the business on which he was sent, he would
assuredly have conquered the Erycian terri-
tory, and kept possession of it, instead of per-
ishing with all his followers. The Crotoniats,
on the other hand, point to the numerous allot-
ments within their borders which were as-
signed to Callias the Elean by their country-
men, and which to my day remained in the
possession of his family; while Dorieus and his
descendants (they remark) possess nothing.
Yet if Dorieus had really helped them in the
Sybaritic war, he would have received very
much more than Callias. Such are the testi-
monies which are adduced on either side; it
is open to every man to adopt whichever view
he deems the best.

46. Certain Spartans accompanied Dorieus
on his voyage as co-founders, to wit, Thes-
salus, Paraebates, Celeas, and Euryleon. These
men and all the troops under their command
reached Sicily; but there they fell in a battle
wherein they were defeated by the Egestaeans
and Phoenicians, only one, Euryleon, surviv-
ing the disaster. He then, collecting the rem-
nants of the beaten army, made himself master
of Minoa, the Selinusian colony, and helped
the Selinusians to throw off the yoke of their
tyrant Peithagoras. Having upset Peithagoras,
he sought to become tyrant in his room, and he
even reigned at Selinus for a brief space — but
after a while the Selinusians rose up in revolt
against him, and though he fled to the altar of
Jupiter Agorxus, they notwithstanding put
him to death.

47. Another man who accompanied Dorieus,
and died with him, was Philip the son of Buta-
cidas, a man of Crotona; who, after he had
been betrothed to a daughter of Telys the Syb-
arite, was banished from Crotona, whereupon
his marriage came to nought; and he in his dis-
appointment took ship and sailed to Cyrene.
From thence he became a follower of Dorieus,
furnishing to the fleet a trireme of his own, the
crew of which he supported at his own charge.
This Philip was an Olympian victor, and the
handsomest Greek of his day. His beauty
gained him honours at the hands of the Egest-
;eans which they never accorded to any one

THE HISTORY

169

else; for they raised a hero-temple over his
grave, and they still worship him with sacri-
fices.

48. Such then was the end of Dorieus, who
if he had brooked the rule of Cleomenes, and
remained in Sparta, would have been king of
Lacedaemon; since Cleomenes, after reigning
no great length of time, died without male off-
spring, leaving behind him an only daughter,
by name Gorgo.

49. Cleomenes, however, was still -king
when Aristagoras, tyrant of Miletus, reached
Sparta. At their interview, Aristagoras, accord-
ing to the report of the Lacedaemonians, pro-
duced a bronze tablet, whereupon the whole
circuit of the earth was engraved, with all its
seas and rivers. Discourse began between the
two; and Aristagoras addressed the Spartan
king in these words following: — "Think it not
strange, O King Cleomenes, that I have been
at the pains to sail hither; for the posture of
affairs, which I will now recount unto thee,
made it fitting. Shame and grief is it indeed
to none so much as to us, that the sons of the
lonians should have lost their freedom, and
come to be the slaves of others; but yet it
touches you likewise, O Spartans, beyond the
rest of the Greeks, inasmuch as the pre-emi-
nence over all Greece appertains to you. We
beseech you, therefore, by the common gods
of the Grecians, deliver the lonians, who are
your own kinsmen, from slavery. Truly the
task is not difficult; for the barbarians are an
unwarlikc people; and you are the best and
bravest warriors in the whole world. Their
mode of fighting is the following: — they use
bows and arrows and a short spear; they wear
trousers in the field, and cover their heads with
turbans. So easy are they to vanquish! Know
too that the dwellers in these parts have more
good things than all the rest of the world put
together — gold, and silver, and brass, and em-
broidered garments, beasts of burthen, and
bond-servants — all which, if you only wish it,
you may soon have for your own. The nations
border on one another, in the order which I
will now explain. Next to these lonians" (here
he pointed with his finger to the map of the
world which was engraved upon the tablet
that he had brought with him) "these Lydians
dwell; their soil is fertile, and few people are
so rich in silver. Next to them," he continued,
"come these Phrygians, who have more flocks
and herds than any race that I know, and
more plentiful harvests. On them border the
Cappadocians, whom we Greeks know by the

name of Syrians: they are neighbours to the
Cilicians, who extend all the way to this sea,
where Cyprus (the island which you see here)
lies. The Cilicians pay the king a yearly tribute
of five hundred talents. Next to them come the
Armenians, who live here — they too have nu-
merous flocks and herds. After them come the
Matieni, inhabiting this country; then Cissia,
this province, where you see the river Cho-
aspes marked, and likewise the town Susa
upon its banks, where the Great King holds
his court, and where the treasuries are in
which his wealth is stored. Once masters of
this city, you may be bold to vie with Jove him-
self for riches. In the wars which ye wage with
your rivals of Messenia, with them of Argos
likewise and of Arcadia, about paltry bounda-
ries and strips of land not so remarkably good,
ye contend with those who have no gold, nor
silver even, which often give men heart to
fight and die. Must ye wage such wars, and
when ye might so easily be lords of Asia, will
ye decide otherwise?" Thus spoke Aristagoras;
and Cleomenes replied to him, — "Milesian
stranger, three days hence I will give thee an
answer."

50. So they proceeded no further at that
time. When, however, the day appointed for
the answer came, and the two once more met,
Cleomenes asked Aristagoras, "how many
days' journey it was from the sea of the lonians
to the king's residence?" Hereupon Arista-
goras, who had managed the rest so cleverly,
and succeeded in deceiving the king, tripped
in his speech and blundered; for instead of
concealing the truth, as he ought to have done
if he wanted to induce the Spartans to cross
into Asia, he said plainly that it was a journey
of three months. Cleomenes caught at the
words, and, preventing Aristagoras from fin-
ishing what he had begun to say concerning
the road, addressed him thus: — "Milesian
stranger, quit Sparta before sunset. This is no
good proposal that thou makest to the Lacedae-
monians, to conduct them a distance of three
months' journey from the sea." When he had
thus spoken, Cleomenes went to his home.

51. But Aristagoras took an olive-bough in
his hand, and hastened to the king's house,
where he was admitted by reason of his sup-
pliant's guise. Gorgo, the daughter of Cleo-
menes, and his only child, a girl of about eight
or nine years of age, happened to be there,
standing by her father's side. Aristagoras, sec-
ing her, requested Cleomenes to send her out
of the room before he began to speak with

170

HERODOTUS

him; but Cleomenes told him to say on, and
not mind the child. So Aristagoras began with
a promise of ten talents if the king would
grant him his request, and when Cleomenes
shook his head, contined to raise his offer till
it reached fifty talents; whereupon the child
spoke: — "Father," she said, "get up and go, or
the stranger will certainly corrupt thee." Then
Cleomenes, pleased at the warning of his child,
withdrew and went into another room. Arista-
goras quitted Sparta for good, not being able
to discourse any more concerning the road
which led up to the king.

52. Now the true account of the road in
question is the following: — Royal stations ex-
ist along its whole length, and excellent cara-
vanserais; and throughout, it traverses an in-
habited tract, and is free from danger. In Lyd-
ia and Phrygia there are twenty stations within
a distance of 94 1/2 parasangs. On leaving Phry-
gia the Halys has to be crossed; and here are
gates through which you must needs pass ere
you can traverse the stream. A strong force
guards this post. When you have made the
passage, and are come into Cappadocia, 28
stations and 104 parasangs bring you to the
borders of Cilicia, where the road passes
through two sets of gates, at each of which
there is a guard posted. Leaving these behind,
you go on through Cilicia, where you find
three stations in a distance of 15% parasangs.
The boundary between Cilicia and Armenia is
the river Euphrates, which it is necessary to
cross in boats. In Armenia the resting-places
are 15 in number, and the distance is 56^2
parasangs. There is one place where a guard is
posted. Four large streams intersect this dis-
trict, all of which have to be crossed by means
of boats. The first of these is the Tigris; the
second and the third have both of them the
same name, though they are not only different
rivers, but do not even run from the same place.
For the one which I have called the first of
the two has its source in Armenia, while the
other flows afterwards out of the country of
the Matienians. The fourth of the streams is
called the Gyndes, and this is the river which
Cyrus dispersed by digging for it three hun-
dred and sixty channels. Leaving Armenia and
entering the Matienian country, you have four
stations; these passed you find yourself in Cis-
sia, where eleven stations and 42^2 parasangs
bring you to another navigable stream, the
Choaspes, on the banks of which the city of
Susa is built. Thus the entire number of the
stations is raised to one hundred and eleven;

[BooR v

and so many are in fact the resting-places that
one finds between Sardis and Susa.

53. If then the royal road be measured
aright, and the parasang equals, as it does, thir-
ty furlongs, the whole distance from Sardis to
the palace of Memnon (as it is called),
amounting thus to 450 parasangs, would be
13,500 furlongs. Travelling then at the rate of
150 furlongs a day, one will take exactly ninety
days to perform the journey.

54. Thus when Aristagoras the Milesian
told Cleomenes the Lacedaemonian that it was
a three months' journey from the sea up to the
king, he said no more than the truth. The ex-
act distance (if any one desires still greater ac-
curacy) is somewhat more; for the journey
from Ephesus to Sardis must be added to the
foregoing account; and this will make the
whole distance between the Greek Sea and
Susa (or the city of Memnon, as it is called)
14,040 furlongs; since Ephesus is distant from
Sardis 540 furlongs. This would add three
days to the three months' journey.

55. When Aristagoras left Sparta he has-
tened to Athens, which had got quit of its ty-
rants in the way that I will now describe. After
the death of Hipparchus (the son of Pisistratus,
and brother of the tyrant Hippias), who, in
spite of the clear warning he had received con-
cerning his fate in a dream, was slain by Har-
modius and Aristogeiton (men both of the
race of the Gephyraeans), the oppression of the
Athenians continued by the space of four
years; and they gained nothing, but were
worse used than before.

56. Now the dream of Hipparchus was the
following: — The night before the Panathenaic
festival, he thought he saw in his sleep a tall
and beautiful man, who stood over him, and
read him the following riddle: —

Bear thou unbearable woes with the all-bearing

heart of a lion;
'Never, be sure, shall wrong-doer escape the reward

of wrong-doing.

As soon as day dawned he sent and submitted
his dream to the interpreters, after which he
offered the averting sacrifices, and then went
and led the procession in which he perished.

57. The family of the Gephyraeans, to which
the murderers of Hipparchus belonged, ac-
cording to their own account, came originally
from Eretria. My inquiries, however, have
made it clear to me that they are in reality
Phoenicians, descendants of those who came
with Cadmus into the country now called Bce-
otia. Here they received for their portion the

5*63]

THE HISTORY

171

district of Tanagra, in which they afterwards
dwelt. On their expulsion from this country by
the Boeotians (which happened some time af-
ter that of the Cadmeians from the same parts
by the Argives) they took refuge at Athens.
The Athenians received them among their cit-
izens upon set terms, whereby they were ex-
cluded from a number of privileges which are
not worth mentioning.

58. Now the Phoenicians who came with
Cadmus, and to whom the Gephyraei be-
longed, introduced into Greece upon their ar-
rival a great variety of arts, among the rest that
of writing, whereof the Greeks till then had,
as I think, been ignorant. And originally they
shaped their letters exactly like all the other
Phoenicians, but afterwards, in course of time,
they changed by degrees their language, and
together with it the form likewise of their
characters. Now the Greeks who dwelt about
those parts at that time were chiefly the loni-
ans. The Phoenician letters were accordingly
adopted by them, but with some variation in
the shape of a few, and so they arrived at the
present use, still calling the letters Phoenician,
as justice required, after the name of those
who were the first to introduce them into
Greece. Paper rolls also were called from of
old "parchments" by the lonians, because for-
merly when paper was scarce they used, in-
stead, the skins of sheep and goats — on which
material many of the barbarians are even now
wont to write.

59. I myself saw Cadmeian characters en-
graved upon some tripods in the temple of
Apollo Ismenias in Boeotian Thebes, most of
them shaped like the Ionian. One of the tri-
pods has the inscription following: —

Me did Amphitryon place, jrom the jar Teleboans
coming.

This would be about the age of Lams, the son
of Labdacus, the son of Polydorus, the son of
Cadmus.

60. Another of the tripods has this legend
in the hexameter measure: —

/ to jar-shooting Phoebus was offered by Scaus

the boxer,
When he had won at the games — a wondrous

beautiful offering.

This might be Scaeus, the son of Hippocoon;
and the tripod, if dedicated by him, and not by
another of the same name, would belong to
the time of GEdipus, the son of Lams.

61. The third tripod has also an inscription
in hex3,m#ers, which runs thus: —

King Laodamas gave this tripod to jar-seeing

Phccbus,

When he was set on the throne — a wondrous

beautiful offering.

It was in the reign of this Laodamas, the son
of Eteocles, that the Cadmeians were driven
by the Argives out of their country, and found
a shelter with the Encheleans. The Gephyrae-
ans at that time remained in the country, but
afterwards they retired before the Boeotians,
and took refuge at Athens, where they have a
number of temples for their separate use,
which the other Athenians are not allowed to
enter — among the rest, one of Achaean Ceres,
in whose honour they likewise celebrate special
orgies.

62. Having thus related the dream which
Hipparchus saw, and traced the descent of the
Gephyraeans, the family whereto his murder-
ers belonged, I must proceed with the matter
whereof I was intending before to speak; to
wit, the way in which the Athenians got quit
of their tyrants. Upon the death of Hippar-
chus, Hippias, who was king, grew harsh to-
wards the Athenians; and the Alcmaeonidae, an
Athenian family which had been banished by
the Pisistratidae, joined the other exiles, and
endeavoured to procure their own return, and
to free Athens, by force. They seized and forti-
fied Leipsydrium above Paeonia, and tried to
gain their object by arms; but great disasters
befell them, and their purpose remained unac-
complished. They therefore resolved to shrink
from no contrivance that might bring them
success; and accordingly they contracted with
the Amphictyons to build the temple which
now stands at Delphi, but which in those days
did not exist. Having done this, they proceed-
ed, being men of great wealth and members of
an ancient and distinguished family, to build
the temple much more magnificently than the
plan obliged them. Besides other improvements,
instead of the coarse stone whereof by the con-
tract the temple was to have been constructed,
they made the facings of Parian marble.

63. These same men, if we may believe the
Athenians, during their stay at Delphi per-
suaded the Pythoness by a bribe to tell the
Spartans, whenever any of them came to con-
sult the oracle, either on their own private
affairs or on the business of the state, that they
must free Athens. So the Lacedaemonians,
when they found no answer ever returned to
them but this, sent at last Anchimolius, the son
of Aster — a man of note among their citizens
— at the head of an army against Athens, with

172

HERODOTUS

orders to drive out the Pisistratidae, albeit they
were bound to them by the closest ties of friend-
ship. For they esteemed the things of heaven
more highly than the things of men. The troops
went by sea and were conveyed in transports.
Anchimolius brought them to an anchorage at
Phalerum; and there the men disembarked.
But the Pisistratida?, who had previous knowl-
edge of their intentions, had sent to Thessaly,
between which country and Athens there was
an alliance, with a request for aid. The Thes-
salians, in reply to their entreaties, sent them
by a public vote 1000 horsemen, under the
command of their king, Cineas, who was a
Coniaean. When this help came, the Pisistra-
tidae laid their plan accordingly: they cleared
the whole plain about Phalerum so as to make
it fit for the movements of cavalry, and then
charged the enemy's camp with their horse,
which fell with such fury upon the Lacedae-
monians as to kill numbers, among the rest
Anchimolius, the general, and to drive the re-
mainder to their ships. Such was the fate of
the first army sent from Lacedaemon, and the
tomb of Anchimolius may be seen to this day
in Attica; it is at Alopecae (Foxtown), near
the temple of Hercules in Cynosargos.

64. Afterwards, the Lacedemonians des-
patched a larger force against Athens, which
they put under the command of Cleomenes,
son of Anaxandridas, one of their kings. These
troops were not sent by sea, but marched by
the mainland. When they were come into At-
tica, their first encounter was with the Thes-
salian horse, which they shortly put to flight,
killing above forty men; the remainder made
good their escape, and fled straight to Thessaly.
Cleomenes proceeded to the city, and, with
the aid of such of the Athenians as wished for
freedom, besieged the tyrants, who had shut
themselves up in the Pelasgic fortress.

65. And now there had been small chance
of the Pisistratidae falling into the hands of the
Spartans, who did not even design to sit down
before the place, which had moreover been
well provisioned beforehand with stores both
of meat and drink, — nay, it is likely that after
a few days' blockade the Lacedaemonians
would have quitted Attica altogether, and gone
back to Sparta — had not an event occurred
most unlucky for the besieged, and most ad-
vantageous for the besiegers. The children of
the Pisistratidae were made prisoners, as they
were being removed out of the country. By this
calamity all their plans were deranged, and —
as the ransom of their children — they con-

[BooK v

sented to the demands of the Athenians, and
agreed within five days' time to quit Attica.
Accordingly they soon afterwards left the
country, and withdrew to Sigeum on the Sca-
mander, after reigning thirty-six years over
the Athenians. By descent they were Pylians,
of the family of the Neleids, to which Codrus
and Melanthus likewise belonged, men who in
former times from foreign settlers became
kings of Athens. And hence it was that Hip-
pocrates came to think of calling his son Pisis-
tratus: he named him after the Pisistratus who
was a son of Nestor. Such then was the mode
in which the Athenians got quit of their ty-
rants. What they did and suffered worthy of
note from the time when they gained their
freedom until the revolt of Ionia from King
Darius, and the coming of Aristagoras to Ath-
ens with a request that the Athenians would
lend the lonians aid, I shall now proceed to re-
late.

66. The power of Athens had been great be-
fore; but, now that the tyrants were gone, it
became greater than ever. The chief authority
was lodged with two persons, Clisthenes, of
the family of the Alcmaeonids, who is said to
have been the persuader of the Pythoness, and
Isagoras, the son of Tisander, who belonged
to a noble house, but whose pedigree I am not
able to trace further. Howbeit his kinsmen
offer sacrifice to the Carian Jupiter. These
two men strove together for the mastery; and
Clisthenes, finding himself the weaker, called
to his aid the common people. Hereupon, in-
stead of the four tribes among which the
Athenians had been divided hitherto, Clis-
thenes made ten tribes, and parcelled out the
Athenians among them. He likewise changed
the names of the tribes; for whereas they had
till now been called after Geleon, ^Egicores,
Argades, and Hoples, the four sons of Ion,
Clisthenes set these names aside, and called
his tribes after certain other heroes, all of
whom were native, except Ajax. Ajax was as-
sociated because, although a foreigner, he was
a neighbour and an ally of Athens.

67. My belief is that in acting thus he did
but imitate his maternal grandfather, Clis-
thenes, king of Sicyon. This king, when he
was at war with Argos, put an end to the con-
tests of the rhapsodists at Sicyon, because in
the Homeric poems Argos and the Argives
were so constantly the theme of song. He like-
wise conceived the wish to drive Adrastus, the
son of Talaiis, out of his country, seeing that
he was an Argive hero. For Adrastus had a

THE HISTORY

64-72]

shrine at Sicyon, which yet stands in the mar-
ket-place of the town. Clisthenes therefore
went to Delphi, and asked the oracle if he
might expel Adrastus. To this the Pythoness is
reported to have answered — "Adrastus is the
Sicyonians' king, but thou art only a robber."
So when the god would not grant his request,
he went home and began to think how he
might contrive to make Adrastus withdraw of
his own accord. After a while he hit upon a
plan which he thought would succeed. He sent
envoys to Thebes in Boeotia, and informed
the Thebans that he wished to bring Melanip-
pus, the son of Astacus, to Sicyon. The The-
bans consenting, Clisthenes carried Melanip-
pus back with him, assigned him a precinct
within the government-house, and built him a
shrine there in the safest and strongest part.
The reason for his so doing (which I must not
forbear to mention) was because Melanippus
was Adrastus' great enemy, having slain both
his brother Mecistes and his son-in-law Tydeus.
Clisthenes, after assigning the precinct to Mel-
anippus, took away from Adrastus the sacri-
fices and festivals wherewith he had till then
been honoured, and transferred them to his
adversary. Hitherto the Sicyonians had paid
extraordinary honours to Adrastus, because the
country had belonged to Polybus, and Adras-
tus was Polybus' daughter's son; whence it
came to pass that Polybus, dying childless, left
Adrastus his kingdom. Besides other ceremo-
nies, it had been their wont to honour Adras-
tus with tragic choruses, which they assigned
to him rather than Bacchus, on account of his
calamities. Clisthenes now gave the choruses
to Bacchus, transferring to Melanippus the
rest of the sacred rites.

68. Such were his doings in the matter of
Adrastus. With respect to the Dorian tribes,
not choosing the Sicyonians to have the same
tribes as the Argives, he changed all the old
names for new ones; and here he took special
occasion to mock the Sicyonians, for he drew
his new names from the words "pig" and
"ass," adding thereto the usual tribe-endings;
only in the case of his own tribe he did nothing
of the sort, but gave them a name drawn from
his own kingly office. For he called his own
tribe the Archelai, or Rulers, while the others
he named Hyatae, or Pig-folk, Oneatae, or Ass-
folk, and Chcereatae, or Swine-folk. The Sicy-
onians kept these names, not only during the
reign of Clisthenes, but even after his death,
by the space of sixty years: then, however, they
took counsel together, and changed to the well-

173

known names of Hyllaeans, Pamphylians, and
Dymanatae, taking at the same time, as a
fourth name, the title of ^Egialeans, from /£gi-
aleus the son of Adrastus.

69. Thus had Clisthenes the Sicyonian done.
The Athenian Clisthenes, who was grandson
by the mother's side of the other, and had been
named after him, resolved, from contempt (as
I believe) of the lonians, that his tribes should
not be the same as theirs; and so followed the
pattern set him by his namesake of Sicyon.
Having brought entirely over to his own side
the common people of Athens, whom he had
before disdained, he gave all the tribes new
names, and made the number greater than for-
merly; instead of the four phylarchs he estab-
lished ten; he likewise placed ten demes in
each of the tribes; and he was, now that the
common people took his part, very much more
powerful than his adversaries.

70. Isagoras in his turn lost ground; and
therefore, to counter-plot his enemy, he called
in Cleomenes the Lacedaemonian, who had al-
ready, at the time when he was besieging the
Pisistratidae, made a contract of friendship with
him. A charge is even brought against Cleo-
menes that he was on terms of too great fa-
miliarity with Isagoras's wife. At this time the
first thing that he did was to send a herald
and require that Clisthenes, and a large num-
ber of Athenians besides, whom he called "The
Accursed," should leave Athens. This message
he sent at the suggestion of Isagoras: for in
the affair referred to, the blood-guiltiness lay
on the Alcmaeonidae and their partisans, while
he and his friends were quite clear of it.

71. The way in which "The Accursed" at
Athens got their name, was the following.
There was a certain Athenian called Cylon, a
victor at the Olympic Games, who aspired to
the sovereignty, and aided by a number of his
companions, who were of the same age with
himself, made an attempt to seize the citadel.
But the attack failed; and Cylon became a sup-
pliant at the image. Hereupon the Heads of
the Naucraries, who at that time bore rule in
Athens, induced the fugitives to remove by a
promise to spare their lives. Nevertheless they
were all slain; and the blame was laid on the
Alcmaeonidae. All this happened before the
time of Pisistratus.

72. When the message of Cleomenes ar-
rived, requiring Clisthenes and "The Ac-
cursed" to quit the city, Clisthenes departed of
his own accord. Cleomenes, however, notwith-
standing his departure, came to Athens, with

174

HERODOTUS

a small band of followers; and on his arrival
sent into banishment seven hundred Athenian
families, which were pointed out to him by
Isagoras. Succeeding here, he next endeav-
oured to dissolve the council, and to put the
government into the hands of three hundred
of the partisans of that leader. But the council
resisted, and refused to obey his orders; where-
upon Cleomenes, Isagoras, and their followers
took possession of the citadel. Here they were
attacked by the rest of the Athenians, who
took the side of the council, and were besieged
for the space of two days: on the third day they
accepted terms, being allowed — at least such
of them as were Lacedaemonians — to quit the
country. And so the word which came to Cleo-
menes received its fulfilment. For when he
first went up into the citadel, meaning to seize
it, just as he was entering the sanctuary of the
goddess, in order to question her, the priestess
arose from her throne, before he had passed
the doors, and said — "Stranger from Lacedae-
mon, depart hence, and presume not to enter
the holy place — it is not lawful for a Dorian to
set foot there." But he answered, "Oh! woman,
I am not a Dorian, but an Achaean." Slighting
this warning, Cleomenes made his attempt,
and so he was forced to retire, together with
his Lacedaemonians. The rest were cast into
prison by the Athenians, and condemned to
die — among them Timasitheiis the Delphian,
of whose prowess and courage I have great
things which I could tell.

73. So these men died in prison. The Athen-
ians directly afterwards recalled Clisthenes,
and the seven hundred families which Cleo-
menes had driven out; and, further, they sent
envoys to Sardis, to make an alliance with the
Persians, for they knew that war would fol-
low with Cleomenes and the Lacedaemonians.
When the ambassadors reached Sardis and de-
livered their message, Artaphernes, son of Hys-
taspes, who was at that time governor of the
place, inquired of them "who they were, and
in what part of the world they dwelt, that they
wanted to become allies of the Persians?" The
messengers told him; upon which he answered
them shortly — that "if the Athenians chose to
give earth and water to King Darius, he
would conclude an alliance with them; but if
not, they might go home again." After con-
sulting together, the envoys, anxious to form
the alliance, accepted the terms; but on their
return to Athens, they fell into deep disgrace
on account of their compliance.

74. Meanwhile Cleomenes, who considered

[ BOOK v

himself to have been insulted by the Athenians
both in word and deed, was drawing a force
together from all parts of the Peloponnese,
without informing any one of his object;
which was to revenge himself on the Athen-
ians, and to establish Isagoras, who had es-
caped with him from the citadel, as despot of
Athens. Accordingly, with a large army, he in-
vaded the district of Eleusis, while the Boeoti-
ans, who had concerted measures with him,
took (Enoe and Hysiae, two country towns
upon the frontier; and at the same time the
Chalcideans, on another side, plundered divers
places in Attica. The Athenians, notwithstand-
ing that danger threatened them from every
quarter, put off all thought of the Boeotians
and Chalcideans till a future time, and
marched against the Peloponnesians, who
were at Eleusis.

75. As the two hosts were about to engage,
first of all the Corinthians, bethinking them-
selves that they were perpetrating a wrong,
changed their minds, and drew off from the
main army. Then Demaratus, son of Ariston,
who was himself king of Sparta and joint-
leader of the expedition, and who till now had
had no sort of quarrel with Cleomenes, fol-
lowed their example. On account of this rup-
ture between the kings, a law was passed at
Sparta, forbidding both monarchs to go out
together with the army, as had been the cus-
tom hitherto. The law also provided, that, as
one of the kings was to be left behind, one of
the Tyndaridae should also remain at home;
whereas hitherto both had accompanied the
expeditions, as auxiliaries. So when the rest of
the allies saw that the Lacedaemonian kings
were not of one mind, and that the Corinthian
troops had quitted their post, they likewise
drew off and departed.

76. This was the fourth time that the Dori-
ans had invaded Attica: twice they came as
enemies, and twice they came to do good serv-
ice to the Athenian people. Their first invasion
took place at the period when they founded
Megara, and is rightly placed in the reign of
Codrus at Athens; the second and third occa-
sions were when they came from Sparta to
drive out the Pisistratidae; the fourth was the
present attack, when Cleomenes, at the head
of a Peloponnesian army, entered at Eleusis.
Thus the Dorians had now four times invaded
Attica.

77. So when the Spartan army had broken
up from its quarters thus ingloriously, the
Athenians, wishing to revenge themselves,

73-82]

marched first against the Chalcideans. The
Boeotians, however, advancing to the aid of the
latter as far as the Euripus, the Athenians
thought it best to attack them first. A battle
was fought accordingly; and the Athenians
gained a very complete victory, killing a vast
number of the enemy, and taking seven hun-
dred of them alive. After this, on the very same
day, they crossed into Eubcea, and engaged
the Chalcideans with the like success; where-
upon they left four thousand settlers1 upon the
lands of the Hippobotae,2 — which is the name
the Chalcideans give to their rich men. All the
Chalcidean prisoners whom they took were
put in irons, and kept for a long time in close
confinement, as likewise were the Boeotians,
until the ransom asked for them was paid; and
this the Athenians fixed at two minae the man.
The chains wherewith they were fettered the
Athenians suspended in their citadel; where
they were still to be seen in my day, hanging
against the wall scorched by the Median
flames, opposite the chapel which faces the
west. The Athenians made an offering of the
tenth part of the ransom-money: and expend-
ed it on the brazen chariot drawn by four
steeds, which stands on the left hand immedi-
ately that one enters the gateway of the citadel.
The inscription runs as follows: —

When Chalet's and Bceotia dared her might,
Athens subdued their pride in valorous fight;
Gave bonds for insults; and, the ransom paid,
Prom the full tenths these steeds for Pallas made.

78. Thus did the Athenians increase in
strength. And it is plain enough, not from this
instance only, but from many everywhere, that
freedom is an excellent thing; since even the
Athenians, who, while they continued under
the rule of tyrants, were not a whit more vali-
ant than any of their neighbours, no sooner
shook off the yoke than they became decidedly
the first of all. These things show that, while
undergoing oppression, they let themselves be
beaten, since then they worked for a master;
but so soon as they got their freedom, each
man was eager to do the best he could for him-
self. So fared it now with the Athenians.

79. Meanwhile the Thebans, who longed to
be revenged on the Athenians, had sent to the
oracle, and been told by the Pythoness that of
their own strength they would be unable to

literally, "allotment-holders"

2 The Chalcidean Hippobote, or "horse-keep-
ers," were a wealthy aristocracy and correspond to
the knights (imreis) of most Grecian states, and
the "equites," or "celeres," of the Romans.

THE HISTORY 175

accomplish their wish: "they must lay the mat-
ter," she said, "before the many-voiced, and
ask the aid of those nearest them." The mes-
sengers, therefore, on their return, called a
meeting, and laid the answer of the oracle be-
fore the people, who no sooner heard the ad-
vice to "ask the aid of those nearest them"
than they exclaimed — "What! are not they
who dwell the nearest to us the men of Tana-
gra, of Coronaea, and Thespiae? Yet these men
always fight on our side, and have aided us
with a good heart all through the war. Of
what use is it to ask them? But maybe this is
not the true meaning of the oracle."

80. As they were thus discoursing one with
another, a certain man, informed of the debate,
cried out — "Methinks that I understand what
course the oracle would recommend to us.
Asopus, they say, had two daughters, Thebe
and Egina. The god means that, as these two
were sisters, we ought to ask the Eginetans to
lend us aid." As no one was able to hit on any
better explanation, the Thebans forthwith sent
messengers to Egina, and, according to the ad-
vice of the oracle, asked their aid, as the people
"nearest to them." In answer to this petition
the Eginetans said that they would give them
the ^Eacidae for helpers.

81. The Thebans now, relying on the as-
sistance of the ^acidtc, ventured to renew the
war; but they met with so rough a reception,
that they resolved to send to the Eginetans
again, returning the ^acidae, and beseeching
them to send some men instead. The Egine-
tans, who were at that time a most flourishing
people, elated with their greatness, and at the
same time calling to mind their ancient feud
with Athens, agreed to lend the Thebans aid,
and forthwith went to war with the Athenians,
without even giving them notice by a herald.
The attention of these latter being engaged by
the struggle with the Boeotians, the Eginetans
in their ships of war made descents upon At-
tica, plundered Phalerum, and ravaged a vast
number of the townships upon the sea-board,
whereby the Athenians suffered very grievous
damage.

82. The ancient feud between the Eginetans
and Athenians arose out of the following cir-
cumstances. Once upon a time the land of Epi-
daurus would bear no crops; and the Epidauri-
ans sent to consult the oracle of Delphi con-
cerning their affliction. The answer bade them
set up the images of Damia and Auxesia, and
promised them better fortune when that
should be done. "Shall the images be made of

176

HERODOTUS

[BOOK v

bronze or stone?" the Epidaurians asked; but
the Pythoness replied, "Of neither: but let
them be made of the garden olive." Then the
Epidaurians sent to Athens and asked leave to
cut olive wood in Attica, believing the Atheni-
an olives to be the holiest; or, according to
others, because there were no olives at that
time anywhere else in all the world but at
Athens.1 The Athenians answered that they
would give them leave, but on condition of
their bringing offerings year by year to Min-
erva Polias and to Erechtheus. The Epidauri-
ans agreed, and having obtained what they
wanted, made the images of olive wood, and
set them up in their own country. Henceforth
their land bore its crops; and they duly paid
the Athenians what had been agreed upon.

83. Anciently, and even down to the time
when this took place, the Eginetans were in
all things subject to the Epidaurians, and had
to cross over to Epidaurus for the trial of all
suits in which they were engaged one with an-
other. After this, however, the Eginetans built
themselves ships, and, growing proud, re-
volted from the Epidaurians. Having thus
come to be at enmity with them, the Egine-
tans, who were masters of the sea, ravaged
Epidaurus, and even carried off these very im-
ages of Damia and Auxesia, which they set up
in their own country, in the interior, at a place
called CEa, about twenty furlongs from their
city. This done, they fixed a worship for the
images, which consisted in part of sacrifices, in
part of female satiric choruses; while at the
same time they appointed certain men to fur-
nish the choruses, ten for each goddess. These
choruses did not abuse men, but only the wom-
en of the country. Holy orgies of a similar
kind were in use also among the Epidaurians,
and likewise another sort of holy orgies,
whereof it is not lawful to speak.

84. After the robbery of the images the Epi-
daurians ceased to make the stipulated pay-
ments to the Athenians, wherefore the Athen-
ians sent to Epidaurus to remonstrate. But the
Epidaurians proved to them that they were not
guilty of any wrong: — "While the images con-
tinued in their country," they said, "they had
duly paid the offerings according to the agree-
ment; now that the images had been taken
from them, they were no longer under any ob-
ligation to pay: the Athenians should make
their demand of the Eginetans, in whose pos-

1 This is, of course, not true, for the olive had
been cultivated in the east from a very remote an-
tiquity.

session the figures now were." Upon this the
Athenians sent to Egina, and demanded the
images back; but the Eginetans answered that
the Athenians had nothing whatever to do
with them.

85. After this the Athenians relate that they
sent a trireme to Egina with certain citizens on
board, and that these men, who bore commis-
sion from the state, landed in Egina, and
sought to take the images away, considering
them to be their own, inasmuch as they were
made of their wood. And first they endeavoured
to wrench them from their pedestals, and so car-
ry them off; but failing herein, they in the next
place tied ropes to them, and set to work to try
if they could haul them down. In the midst of
their hauling suddenly there was a thunder-
clap, and with the thunderclap an earthquake;
and the crew of the trireme were forthwith
seized with madness, and, like enemies, began
to kill one another; until at last there was but
one left, who returned alone to Phalerum.

86. Such is the account given by the Athen-
ians. The Eginetans deny that there was only
a single vessel: — "Had there been only one,"
they say, "or no more than a few, they would
easily have repulsed the attack, even if they
had had no fleet at all; but the Athenians came
against them with a large number of ships,
wherefore they gave way, and did not hazard
a battle." They do not however explain clearly
whether it was from a conviction of their own
inferiority at sea that they yielded, or whether
it was for the purpose of doing that which in
fact they did. Their account is that the Athen-
ians, disembarking from their ships, when
they found that no resistance was offered,
made for the statues, and failing to wrench
them from their pedestals, tied ropes to them
and began to haul. Then, they say — and some
people will perhaps believe them, though I
for my part do not — the two statues, as they
were being dragged and hauled, fell down
both upon their knees; in which attitude they
still remain. Such, according to them, was the
conduct of the Athenians; they meanwhile,
having learnt beforehand what was intended,
had prevailed on the Argives to hold them-
selves in readiness; and the Athenians accord-
ingly were but just landed on their coasts when
the Argives came to their aid. Secretly and si-
lently they crossed over from Epidaurus, and,
before the Athenians were aware, cut off their
retreat to their ships, and fell upon them; and
the thunder came exactly at that moment, and
the earthquake with it.

83-9J]

87. The Argivcs and the Eginctans both
agree in giving this account; and the Atheni-
ans themselves acknowledge that but one of
their men returned alive to Attica. According
to the Argives, he escaped from the battle in
which the rest of the Athenian troops were
destroyed by them. According to the Atheni-
ans, it was the god who destroyed their troops;
and even this one man did not escape, for he
perished in the following manner. When he
came back to Athens, bringing word of the
calamity, the wives of those who had been sent
out on the expedition took it sorely to heart
that he alone should have survived the slaught-
er of all the rest; — they therefore crowded
round the man, and struck him with the
brooches by which their dresses were fastened
— each, as she struck, asking him where he
had left her husband. And the man died in
this way. The Athenians thought the deed of
the women more horrible even than the fate of
the troops; as however they did not know how
else to punish them, they changed their dress
and compelled them to wear the costume of
the lonians. Till this time the Athenian wom-
en had worn a Dorian dress, shaped nearly
like that which prevails at Corinth. Hence-
forth they were made to wear the linen tunic,
which does not require brooches.

88. In very truth, however, this dress is not
originally Ionian, but Carian; for anciently the
Greek women all wore the costume which is
now called the Dorian. It is said further that
the Argives and Eginetans made it a custom,
on this same account, for their women to wear
brooches half as large again as formerly, and to
offer brooches rather than anything else in the
temple of these goddesses. They also forbade
the bringing of anything Attic into the temple,
were it even a jar of earthenware, and made
a law that none but native drinking vessels
should be used there in time to come. From
this early age to my own day the Argive and
Eginetan women have always continued to
wear their brooches larger than formerly,
through hatred of the Athenians.

89. Such then was the origin of the feud
which existed between the Eginetans and the
Athenians. Hence, when the Thebans made
their application for succour, the Eginetans,
calling to mind the matter of images, gladly
lent their aid to the Boeotians. They ravaged
all the sea-coast of Attica; and the Athenians
were about to attack them in return, when
they were stopped by the oracle of Delphi,
which bade them wait till thirty years had

THE HISTORY

177

passed from the time that the Eginetans did
the wrong, and in the thirty-first year, having
first set apart a precinct for ^Eacus, then to be-
gin the war. "So should they succeed to their
wish," the oracle said; "but if they went to
war at once, though they would still conquer
the island in the end, yet they must go through
much suffering and much exertion before tak-
ing it." On receiving this warning the Athen-
ians set apart a precinct for ^Eacus — the same
which still remains dedicated to him in their
market-place — but they could not hear with
any patience of waiting thirty years, after they
had suffered such grievous wrong at the hands
of the Eginetans.

90. Accordingly they were making ready to
take their revenge when a fresh stir on the
part of the Lacedaemonians hindered their
projects. These last had become aware of the
truth — how that the Alcmaeonidae had prac-
tised on the Pythoness, and the Pythoness had
schemed against themselves, and against the
Pisistratidar, and the discovery was a double
grief to them, for while they had driven their
own sworn friends into exile, they found that
they had not gained thereby a particle of good
will from Athens. They were also moved by
certain prophecies, which declared that many
dire calamities should befall them at the hands
of the Athenians. Of these in times past they
had been ignorant; but now they had become
acquainted with them by means of Cleomenes,
who had brought them with him to Sparta,
having found them in the Athenian citadel,
where they had been left by the Pisistratidae
when they were driven from Athens: they
were in the temple, and Cleomenes having dis-
covered them, carried them off.

91. So when the Lacedaemonians obtained
possession of the prophecies, and saw that the
Athenians were growing in strength, and had
no mind to acknowledge any subjection to
their control, it occurred to them that, if the
people of Attica were free, they would be like-
ly to be as powerful as themselves, but if they
were oppressed by a tyranny, they would be
weak and submissive. Under this feeling they
sent and recalled Hippias, the son of Pisistra-
tus, from Sigeum upon the Hellespont, where
the Pisistratidae had taken shelter. Hippias
came at their bidding, and the Spartans on his
arrival summoned deputies from all their other
allies, and thus addressed the assembly: —

"Friends and brothers in arms, we are free
to confess that we did lately a thing which was
not right. Misled by counterfeit oracles, we

178

HERODOTUS

drove from their country those who were our
sworn and true friends, and who had, more-
over, engaged to keep Athens in dependence
upon us; and we delivered the government
into the hands of an unthankful people — a
people who no sooner got their freedom by
our means, and grew in power, than they
turned us and our king, with every token of
insult, out of their city. Since then they have
gone on continually raising their thoughts
higher, as their neighbours of Boeotia and
Chalcis have already discovered to their cost,
and as others too will presently discover if they
shall offend them. Having thus erred, we will
endeavour now, with your help, to remedy the
evils we have caused, and to obtain vengeance
on the Athenians. For this cause we have sent
for Hippias to come here, and have summoned
you likewise from your several states, that we
may all now with heart and hand unite to re-
store him to Athens, and thereby give him
back that which we took from him formerly."

92. (§ i.) Such was the address of the
Spartans. The greater number of the allies lis-
tened without being persuaded. None however
broke silence but Sosicles the Corinthian, who
exclaimed —

"Surely the heaven will soon be below, and
the earth above, and men will henceforth live
in the sea, and fish take their place upon the dry
land, since you, Lacedaemonians, propose to
put down free governments in the cities of
Greece, and to set up tyrannies in their room.
There is nothing in the whole world so unjust,
nothing so bloody, as a tyranny. If, however,
it seems to you a desirable thing to have the
cities under despotic rule, begin by putting a
tyrant over yourselves, and then establish des-
pots in the other states. While you continue
yourselves, as you have always been, unac-
quainted with tyranny, and take such excellent
care that Sparta may not suffer from it, to act
as you are now doing is to treat your allies un-
worthily. If you knew what tyranny was as
well as ourselves, you would be better advised
than you now are in regard to it. (§2.) The
government at Corinth was once an oligarchy
— a single race, called Bacchiadae, who inter-
married only among themselves, held the man-
agement of affairs. Now it happened that Am-
phion, one of these, had a daughter, named
Labda, who was lame, and whom therefore
none of the Bacchiadae would consent to mar-
ry; so she was taken to wife by Action, son of
Echecrates, a man of the township of Petra,
who was, however, by descent of the race of

[BooK v

the Lapithae, and of the house of Caeneus. Ac-
tion, as he had no child, either by this wife or
by any other, went to Delphi to consult the
oracle concerning the matter. Scarcely had he
entered the temple when the Pythoness saluted
him in these words —

No one honours thee now, Action, worthy of hon-
our—

Labda shall soon be a mother — her offspring a
roct^, that will one day

Fall on the kingly race, and right the city of Cor-
inth.

By some chance this address of the oracle to
Action came to the ears of the Bacchiadae, who
till then had been unable to perceive the mean-
ing of another earlier prophecy which likewise
bore upon Corinth, and pointed to the same
event as Action's prediction. It was the follow-
ing:—

When mid the roc1(s an eagle shall bear a carnivo-
rous lion,

Mighty and fierce, he shall loosen the limbs of
many beneath them —

Brood ye well upon this, all ye Corinthian people,

Ye who dwell by fair Peirene, and beetling Co-
rinth.

(§ 3.) The Bacchiadse had possessed this ora-
cle for some time; but they were quite at a loss
to know what it meant until they heard the
response given to Action; then however they
at once perceived its meaning, since the two
agreed so well together. Nevertheless, though
the bearing of the first prophecy was now
clear to them, they remained quiet, being
minded to put to death the child which Ac-
tion was expecting. As soon, therefore, as his
wife was delivered, they sent ten of their num-
ber to the township where Action lived, with
orders to make away with the baby. So the
men came to Petra, and went into Action's
house, and there asked if they might see the
child; and Labda, who knew nothing of their
purpose, but thought their inquiries arose
from a kindly feeling towards her husband,
brought the child, and laid him in the arms of
one of them. Now they had agreed by the way
that whoever first got hold of the child should
dash it against the ground. It happened,
however, by a providential chance, that the
babe, just as Labda put him into the man's
arms, smiled in his face. The man saw the
smile, and was touched with pity, so that he
could not kill it; he therefore passed it on to
his next neighbour, who gave it to a third; and
so it went through all the ten without any one
choosing to be the murderer. The mother re-

92]

THE HISTORY

179

ceived her child back; and the men went out
of the house, and stood near the door, and
there blamed and reproached one another;
chiefly however accusing the man who had
first had the child in his arms, because he had
not done as had been agreed upon. At last,
after much time had been thus spent, they re-
solved to go into the house again and all take
part in the murder. (§ 4.) But it was fated that
evil should come upon Corinth from the prog-
eny of Action; and so it chanced that Labda,
as she stood near the door, heard all that the
men said to one another, and fearful of their
changing their mind, and returning to destroy
her baby, she carried him off and hid him in
what seemed to her the most unlikely place to
be suspected, viz., a 'cypsel* or corn-bin. She
knew that if they came back to look for the
child, they would search all her house; and so
indeed they did, but not finding the child af-
ter looking everywhere, they thought it best
to go away, and declare to those by whom they
had been sent that they had done their bid-
ding. And thus they reported on their return
home.. (§5.) Action's son grew up, and, in re-
membrance of the danger from which he had
escaped, was named Cypselus, after the corn-
bin. When he reached to man's estate, he went
to Delphi, and on consulting the oracle, re-
ceived a response which was two-sided. It was
the following: —

See there comes to my dwelling a man much fa-

vour'd oj fortune,
Cypselus, son oj Action, and fyng of the glorious

Corinth —
He and his children too, but not his children's

children.

Such was the oracle; and Cypselus put so much
faith in it that he forthwith made his attempt,
and thereby became master of Corinth. Hav-
ing thus got the tyranny, he showed himself a
harsh ruler — many of the Corinthians he drove
into banishment, many he deprived of their
fortunes, and a still greater number of their
lives. (§6.) His reign lasted thirty years, and
was prosperous to its close; insomuch that he
left the government to Periander, his son. This
prince at the beginning of his reign was of a
milder temper than his father; but after he cor-
responded by means of messengers with
Thrasybulus, tyrant of Miletus, he became
even more sanguinary. On one occasion he
sent a herald to ask Thrasybulus what mode
of government it was safest to set up in order
to rule with honour. Thrasybulus led the mes-
senger without the city, and took him into a

field of corn, through which he began to walk,
while he asked him again and again concern-
ing his coming from Corinth, ever as he went
breaking off and throwing away all such ears
of corn as over-topped the rest. In this way he
went through the whole field, and destroyed
all the best and richest part of the crop; then,
without a word, he sent the messenger back.
On the return of the man to Corinth, Perian-
der was eager to know what Thrasybulus had
counselled, but the messenger reported that he
had said nothing; and he wondered that Peri-
ander had sent him to so strange a man, who
seemed to have lost his senses, since he did
nothing but destroy his own property. And
upon this he told how Thrasybulus had be-
haved at the interview. (§7.) Periander, per-
ceiving what the action meant, and knowing
that Thrasybulus advised the destruction of all
the leading citizens, treated his subjects from
this time forward with the very greatest cru-
elty. Where Cypselus had spared any, and had
neither put them to death nor banished them,
Periander completed what his father had left
unfinished. One day he stripped all the women
of Corinth stark naked, for the sake of his
own wife Melissa. He had sent messengers into
Thesprotia to consult the oracle of the dead
upon the Acheron concerning a pledge which
had been given into his charge by a stranger,
and Melissa appeared, but refused to speak or
tell where the pledge was — 'she was chill/ she
said, 'having no clothes; the garments buried
with her were of no manner of use, since they
had not been burnt. And this should be her
token to Periander, that what she said was true
— the oven was cold when he baked his loaves
in it.' When this message was brought him,
Periander knew the token; wherefore he
straightway made proclamation, that all the
wives of the Corinthians should go forth to the
temple of Juno. So the women apparelled
themselves in their bravest, and went forth, as
if to a festival. Then, with the help of his
guards, whom he had placed for the purpose,
he stripped them one and all, making no dif-
ference between the free women and the
slaves; and, taking their clothes to a pit, he
called on the name of Melissa, and burnt the
whole heap. This done, he sent a second time
to the oracle; and Melissa's ghost told him
where he would find the stranger's pledge.
Such, O Lacedaemonians! is tyranny, and such
arc the deeds which spring from it. We Corin-
thians marvelled greatly when we first knew
of your having sent for Hippias; and now it

180

HERODOTUS

[BOOK v

surprises us still more to hear you speak as you
do. We adjure you, by the common gods of
Greece, plant not despots in her cities. If how-
ever you are determined, if you persist, against
all justice, in seeking to restore Hippias —
know, at least, that the Corinthians will not
approve your conduct.'*

93. When Sosicles, the deputy from Cor-
inth, had thus spoken, Hippias replied, and,
invoking the same gods, he said — "Of a surety
the Corinthians will, beyond all others, regret
the Pisistratidae, when the fated days come for
them to be distressed by the Athenians." Hip-
pias spoke thus because he knew the prophe-
cies better than any man living. But the rest of
the allies, who till Sosicles spoke had remained
quiet, when they heard him utter his thoughts
thus boldly, all together broke silence, and
declared themselves of the same mind; and
withal, they conjured the Lacedaemonians "not
to revolutionise a Grecian city." And in this
way the enterprise came to nought.

94. Hippias hereupon withdrew; and Am-
yntas the Macedonian offered him the city of
Anthemus, while the Thessalians were willing
to give him lolcos: but he would accept neither
the one nor the other, preferring to go back to
Sigeum, which city Pisistratus had taken by
force of arms from the Mytilenaeans. Pisistra-
tus, when he became master of the place, es-
tablished there as tyrant his own natural son,
Hegesistratus, whose mother was an Argive
woman. But this prince was not allowed to en-
joy peaceably what his father had made over
to him; for during very many years there had
been war between the Athenians of Sigeum
and the Mytilenxans of the city called Achil-
leum. They of Mytilene insisted on having the
place restored to them: but the Athenians re-
fused, since they argued that the ^Eolians had
no better claim to the Trojan territory than
themselves, or than any of the other Greeks
who helped Menelaus on occasion of the rape
of Helen.

95. War accordingly continued, with many
and various incidents, whereof the following
was one. In a battle which was gained by the
Athenians, the poet Alcaeus took to flight, and
saved himself, but lost his arms, which fell into
the hands of the conquerors. They hung them
up in the temple of Minerva at Sigeum; and
Alcaeus made a poem, describing his misadven-
ture to his friend Melanippus, and sent it to
him at Mytilene. The Mytilenaeans and Athen-
ians were reconciled by Periander, the son of
Cypselus, who was chosen by both parties as

arbiter — he decided that they should each re-
tain that of which they were at the time pos-
sessed; and Sigeum passed in this way under
the dominion of Athens.

96. On the return of Hippias to Asia from
Lacedaemon, he moved heaven and earth to
set Artaphernes against the Athenians, and
did all that lay in his power to bring Athens
into subjection to himself and Darius. So when
the Athenians learnt what he was about, they
sent envoys to Sardis, and exhorted the Per-
sians not to lend an ear to the Athenian exiles.
Artaphernes told them in reply, "that if they
wished to remain safe, they must receive back
Hippias." The Athenians, when this answer
was reported to them, determined not to con-
sent, and therefore made up their minds to be
at open enmity with the Persians.

97. The Athenians had come to this deci-
sion, and were already in bad odour with the
Persians, when Aristagoras the Milesian, dis-
missed from Sparta by Cleomenes the Lacede-
monian, arrived at Athens. He knew that,
after Sparta, Athens was the most powerful of
the Grecian states. Accordingly he appeared
before the people, and, as he had done at Spar-
ta, spoke to them of the good things which
there were in Asia, and of the Persian mode of
fight — how they used neither shield nor spear,
and were very easy to conquer. All this he
urged, and reminded them also that Miletus
was a colony from Athens, and therefore ought
to receive their succour, since they were so
powerful — and in the earnestness of his en-
treaties, he cared little what he promised — till,
at the last, he prevailed and won them over. It
seems indeed to be easier to deceive a multi-
tude than one man — for Aristagoras, though
he failed to impose on Cleomenes the Lacedae-
monian, succeeded with the Athenians, who
were thirty thousand. Won by his persuasions,
they voted that twenty ships should be sent to
the aid of the lonians, under the command of
Melanthius, one of the citizens, a man of mark
in every way. These ships were the beginning
of mischief both to the Greeks and to the bar-
barians.

98. Aristagoras sailed away in advance, and
when he reached Miletus, devised a plan, from
which no manner of advantage could possibly
accrue to the lonians; — indeed, in forming it,
he did not aim at their benefit, but his sole
wish was to annoy King Darius. He sent a
messenger into Phrygia to those Paeonians who
had been led away captive by Megabazus from
the river Strymon, and who now dwelt by

93-103]

THE HISTORY

181

themselves in Phrygia, having a tract of land
and a hamlet of their own. This man, when
he reached the Paeonians, spoke thus to
them: —

"Men of Paeonia, Aristagoras, king of Mile-
tus, has sent me to you, to inform you that you
may now escape, if you choose to follow the
advice he proffers. All Ionia has revolted from
the king; and the way is open to you to return
to your own land. You have only to contrive
to reach the sea-coast; the rest shall be our busi-
ness."

When the Paeonians heard this, they were
exceedingly rejoiced, and, taking with them
their wives and children, they made all speed
to the coast; a few only remaining in Phrygia
through fear. The rest, having reached the sea,
crossed over to Chios, where they had just
landed, when a great troop of Persian horse
came following upon their heels, and seeking
to overtake them. Not succeeding, however,
they sent a message across to Chios, and
begged the Paeonians to come back again.
These last refused, and were conveyed by the
Chians from Chios to Lesbos, and by the Les-
bians thence to Doriscus; from which place
they made their way on foot to Paeonia.

99. The Athenians now arrived with a fleet
of twenty sail, and brought also in their com-
pany five triremes of the Eretrians; which had
joined the expedition, not so much out of
goodwill towards Athens, as to pay a debt
which they already owed to the people of Mile-
tus. For in the old war between the Chalcide-
ans and Eretrians, the Milesians fought on the
Eretrian side throughout, while the Chalcide-
ans had the help of the Samian people. Aris-
tagoras, on their arrival, assembled the rest of
his allies, and proceeded to attack Sardis, not
however leading the army in person, but ap-
pointing to the command his own brother
Charopinus and Hermophantus, one of the
citizens, while he himself remained behind in
Miletus.

100. The lonians sailed with this fleet to
Ephesus, and, leaving their ships at Coressus
in the Ephesian territory, took guides from the
city, and went up the country with a great
host. They marched along the course of the
river Cayster, and, crossing over the ridge of
Tmolus, came down upon Sardis and took it,
no man opposing them; — the whole city fell
into their hands, except only the citadel, which
Artaphernes defended in person, having with
him no contemptible force.

xoi. Though, however, they took the city,

they did not succeed in plundering it; for, as
the houses in Sardis were most of them built
of reeds, and even the few which were of brick
had a reed thatching for their roof, one of
them was no sooner fired by a soldier than the
flames ran speedily from house to house, and
spread over the whole place. As the fire raged,
the Lydians and such Persians as were in the
city, inclosed on every side by the flames,
which had seized all the skirts of the town,
and finding themselves unable to get out, came
in crowds into the market-place, and gathered
themselves upon the banks of the Pactolus.
This stream, which comes down from Mount
Tmolus, and brings the Sardians a quantity of
gold-dust, runs directly through the market
place of Sardis, and joins the Hermus, before
that river reaches the sea. So the Lydians and
Persians, brought together in this way in the
market-place and about the Pactolus, were
forced to stand on their defence; and the loni-
ans, when they saw the enemy in part resist-
ing, in part pouring towards them in dense
crowds, took fright, and drawing off to the
ridge which is called Tmolus, when night
came, went back to their ships.

102. Sardis however was burnt, and, among
other buildings, a temple of the native god-
dess Cybele was destroyed; which was the rea-
son afterwards alleged by the Persians for set-
ting on fire the temples of the Greeks. As soon
as what had happened was known, all the
Persians who were stationed on this side the
Halys drew together, and brought help to the
Lydians. Finding however, when they arrived,
that the lonians had already withdrawn from
Sardis, they set off, and, following close upon
their track, came up with them at Ephesus.
The lonians drew out against them in battle
array; and a fight ensued, wherein the Greeks
had very greatly the worse. Vast numbers were
slain by the Persians: among other men of
note, they killed the captain of the Eretrians,
a certain Eualcidas, a man who had gained
crowns at the Games, and received much praise
from Simonides the Cean. Such as made their
escape from the battle, dispersed among the
several cities.

103. So ended this encounter. Afterwards
the Athenians quite forsook the lonians, and,
though Aristagoras besought them much by
his ambassadors, refused to give him any furth-
er help. Still the lonians, notwithstanding this
desertion, continued unceasingly their prepa-
rations to carry on the war against the Persian
king, which their late conduct towards him

182

HERODOTUS

[BOOK v

had rendered unavoidable. Sailing into the
Hellespont, they brought Byzantium, and all
the other cities in that quarter, under their
sway. Again, quitting the Hellespont, they
went to Caria, and won the greater part of the
Carians to their side; while Caunus, which
had formerly refused to join with them, after
the burning of Sardis, came over likewise.

104. All the Cyprians too, excepting those of
Amathus, of their own proper motion es-
poused the Ionian cause. The occasion of their
revolting from the Medes was the following.
There was a certain Onesilus, younger brother
of Gorgus, king of Salamis, and son of Chcrsis,
who was son of Siromus, and grandson of
Evelthon. This man had often in former times
entreated Gorgus to rebel against the king;
but, when he heard of the revolt of the lonians,
he left him no peace with his importunity.
As, however, Gorgus would not hearken to
him, he watched his occasion, and when his
brother had gone outside the town, he with
his partisans closed the gates upon him. Gor-
gus, thus deprived of his city, fled to the
Medes; and Onesilus, being now king of Sala-
mis, sought to bring about a revolt of the
whole of Cyprus. All were prevailed on except
the Amathusians, who refused to listen to him;
whereupon Onesilus sate down before Ama-
thus, and laid siege to it.

105. While Onesilus was engaged in the
siege of Amathus, King Darius received tid-
ings of the taking and burning of Sardis by the
Athenians and lonians; and at the same time
he learnt that the author of the league, the
man by whom the whole matter had been
planned and contrived, was Aristagoras the
Milesian. It is said that he no sooner under-
stood what had happened, than, laying aside
all thought concerning the lonians, who
would, he was sure, pay dear for their rebel-
lion, he asked, "Who the Athenians were?"
and, being informed, called for his bow, and
placing an arrow on the string, shot upward
into the sky, saying, as he let fly the shaft —
"Grant me, Jupiter, to revenge myself on the
Athenians!" After this speech, he bade one of
his servants every day, when his dinner was
spread, three times repeat these words to
him — "Master, remember the Athenians."

1 06. Then he summoned into his presence
Histiaeus of Miletus, whom he had kept at his
court for so long a time; and on his appearance
addressed him thus — "I am told, O Histiaeus,
that thy lieutenant, to whom thou hast given
Miletus in charge, has raised a rebellion against

me. He has brought men from the other conti-
nent to contend with me, and, prevailing on
the lonians — whose conduct I shall know how
to recompense — to join with this force, he has
robbed me of Sardis! Is this as it should be,
thmkest thou? Or can it have been done with-
out thy knowledge and advice? Beware lest it
be found hereafter that the blame of these acts
is thine."

Histiaeus answered — "What words are these,
O king, to which thou hast given utterance? I
advise aught from which unpleasantness of
any kind, little or great, should come to thee!
What could I gain by so doing? Or what is
there that I lack now? Have I not all that thou
hast, and am I not thought worthy to partake
all thy counsels? If my lieutenant has indeed
done as thou sayest, be sure he has done it all
of his own head. For my part, I do not think
it can really be that the Milesians and my lieu-
tenant have raised a rebellion against thee. But
if they have indeed committed aught to thy
hurt, and the tidings are true which have come
to thee, judge thou how ill-advised thou wert
to remove me from the sea-coast. The lonians,
it seems, have waited till I was no longer in
sight, and then sought to execute that which
they long ago desired; whereas, if I had been
there, not a single city would have stirred.
Suffer me then to hasten at my best speed to
Ionia, that I may place matters there upon
their former footing, and deliver up to thee the
deputy of Miletus, who has caused all the
troubles. Having managed this business to thy
heart's content, I swear by all the gods of thy
royal house, I will not put off the clothes in
which I reach Ionia till I have made Sardinia,
the biggest island in the world, thy tributary."

107. Histiaeus spoke thus, wishing to de-
ceive the king; and Darius, persuaded by his
words, let him go; only bidding him be sure
to do as he had promised, and afterwards
come back to Susa.

1 08. In the meantime — while the tidings of
the burning of Sardis were reaching the king,
and Darius was shooting the arrow and hav-
ing the conference with Histiaeus, and the lat-
ter, by permission of Darius, was hastening
down to the sea — in Cyprus the following
events took place. Tidings came to Onesilus,
the Salaminian, who was still besieging Ama-
thus, that a certain Artybius, a Persian, was
looked for to arrive in Cyprus with a great
Persian armament. So Onesilus, when the
news reached him, sent off heralds to all parts
of Ionia, and besought the lonians to give him

104-114]

aid. After briet deliberation, these last in full
force passed over into the island; and the Per-
sians about the same time crossed in their ships
from Cilicia, and proceeded by land to attack
Salamis; while the Phoenicians, with the fleet,
sailed round the promontory which goes by the
name of "the Keys of Cyprus."

109. In this posture of affairs the princes of
Cyprus called together the captains of the loni-
ans, and thus addressed them: —

"Men of Ionia, we Cyprians leave it to you
to choose whether you will fight with the Per-
sians or with the Phoenicians. If it be your
pleasure to try your strength on land against
the Persians, come on shore at once, and array
yourselves for the battle; we will then embark
aboard your ships and engage the Phoenicians
by sea. If, on the other hand, ye prefer to en-
counter the Phoenicians, let that be your task:
only be sure, whichever part you choose, to ac-
quit yourselves so that Ionia and Cyprus, so far
as depends on you, may preserve their free-
dom."

The lonians made answer — "The common-
wealth of Ionia sent us here to guard the sea,
not to make over our ships to you, and engage
with the Persians on shore. We will therefore
keep the post which has been assigned to us,
and seek therein to be of some service. Do you,
remembering what you suffered when you
were the slaves of the Medes, behave like brave
warriors."

no. Such was the reply of the lonians. Not
long afterwards the Persians advanced into the
plain before Salamis, and the Cyprian kings
ranged their troops in order of battle against
them, placing them so that while the rest of
the Cyprians were drawn up against the auxil-
iaries of the enemy, the choicest troops of the
Salaminians and the Solians were set to oppose
the Persians. At the same time Onesilus, of his
own accord, took post opposite to Artybius,
the Persian general.

in. Now Artybius rode a horse which had
been trained to rear up against a foot-soldier.
Onesilus, informed of this, called to him his
shieldbearer, who was a Carian by nation, a
man well skilled in war, and of daring cour-
age; and thus addressed him: — "I hear," he
said, "that the horse which Artybius rides,
rears up and attacks with his fore legs and teeth
the man against whom his rider urges him.
Consider quickly therefore and tell me which
wilt thou undertake to encounter, the steed or
the rider?" Then the squire answered him,
"Both, my liege, or either, am I ready to un-

THE HISTORY

183

dertake, and there is nothing that I will shrink
from at thy bidding. But I will tell thee what
seems to me to make most for thy interests. As
thou art a prince and a general, I think thou
shouldest engage with one who is himself both
a prince and also a general. For then, if thou
slayest thine adversary, 'twill redound to thine
honour, and if he slays thee (which may
Heaven forefend!), yet to fall by the hand of a
worthy foe makes death lose half its horror.
To us, thy followers, leave his war-horse and
his retinue. And have thou no fear of the
horse's tricks. I warrant that this is the last
time he will stand up against any one."

112. Thus spake the Carian; and shortly
after, the two hosts joined battle both by sea
and land. And here it chanced that by sea the
lonians, who that day fought as they have never
done either before or since, defeated the Phoe-
nicians, the Samians especially distinguishing
themselves. Meanwhile the combat had begun
on land, and the two armies were engaged in
a sharp struggle, when thus it fell out in the
matter of the generals. Artybius, astride upon
his horse, charged down upon Onesilus, who,
as he had agreed with his shieldbearer, aimed
his blow at the rider; the horse reared and
placed his fore feet upon the shield of Onesi-
lus, when the Carian cut at him with a reap-
ing-hook, and severed the two legs from the
body. The horse fell upon the spot, and Arty-
bius, the Persian general, with him.

113. In the thick of the fight, Stesanor, ty-
rant of Curium, who commanded no incon-
siderable body of troops, went over with them
to the enemy. On this desertion of the Curians
— Argive colonists, if report says true — forth-
with the war-chariots of the Salaminians fol-
lowed the example set them, and went over
likewise; whereupon victory declared in fa-
vour of the Persians; and the army of the Cy-
prians being routed, vast numbers were slain,
and among them Onesilus, the son of Chcrsis,
who was the author of the revolt, and Aris-
tocyprus, king of the Solians. This Aristocy-
prus was son of Philocyprus, whom Solon the
Athenian, when he visited Cyprus, praised in
his poems beyond all other sovereigns.

114. The Amathusians, because Onesilus
had laid siege to their town, cut the head off
his corpse, and took it with them to Amathus,
where it was set up over the gates. Here it
hung till it became hollow; whereupon a
swarm of bees took possession of it, and filled
it with a honeycomb. On seeing this the Ama-
thusians consulted the oracle, and were com-

184

HERODOTUS

[BOOK v

mancied "to take down the head and bury it,
and thenceforth to regard Onesilus as a hero,
and offer sacrifice to him year by year; so it
would go the better with them." And to this day
the Amathusians do as they were then bidden.

115. As for the lonians who had gained the
sea-fight, when they found that the affairs of
Onesilus were utterly lost and ruined, and that
siege was laid to all the cities of Cyprus ex-
cepting Salamis, which the inhabitants had
surrendered to Gorgus, the former king —
forthwith they left Cyprus, and sailed away
home. Of the cities which were besieged, Soli
held out the longest: the Persians took it by
undermining the wall in the fifth month from
the beginning of the siege.

1 1 6. Thus, after enjoying a year of freedom,
the Cyprians were enslaved for the second
time. Meanwhile Daurises, who was married
to one of the daughters of Darius, together
with Hymeas, Otanes, and other Persian cap-
tains, who were likewise married to daughters
of the king, after pursuing the lonians who
had fought at Sardis, defeating them, and driv-
ing them to their ships, divided their efforts
against the different cities, and proceeded in
succession to take and sack each one of them.

117. Daurises attacked the towns upon the
Hellespont, and took in as many days the five
cities of Dardanus, Abydos, Percote', Lampsa-
cus, and Paesus. From Paesus he marched
against Parium; but on his way receiving in-
telligence that the Carians had made common
cause with the lonians, and thrown off the
Persian yoke, he turned round, and, leaving
the Hellespont, marched away towards Caria.

1 18. The Carians by some chance got infor-
mation of this movement before Daurises ar-
rived, and drew together their strength to a
place called "the White Columns/* which is
on the river Marsyas, a stream running from
the Idrian country, and emptying itself into
the Maeander. Here when they were met,
many plans were put forth; but the best, in my
judgment, was that of Pixodarus, the son of
Mausolus, a Cindyan, who was married to a
daughter of Syennesis, the Cilician king. His
advice was that the Carians should cross the
Maeander, and fight with the river at their
back; that so, all chance of flight being cut off,
they might be forced to stand their ground,
and have their natural courage raised to a
still higher pitch. His opinion, however, did
not prevail; it was thought best to make the
enemy have the Maeander behind them; that
so, if they were defeated in the battle and put

to flight, they might have no retreat open, but
be driven headlong into the river.

119. The Persians soon afterwards ap-
proached, and, crossing the Maeander, engaged
the Carians upon the banks of the Marsyas;
where for a long time the battle was stoutly
contested, but at last the Carians were defeated,
being overpowered by numbers. On the side
of the Persians there fell 2000, while the Cari-
ans had not fewer than 10,000 slain. Such as
escaped from the field of battle collected to-
gether at Labranda, in the vast precinct of
Jupiter Stratius — a deity worshipped only by
the Carians — and in the sacred grove of plane-
trees. Here they deliberated as to the best
means of saving themselves, doubting whether
they would fare better if they gave themselves
up to the Persians, or if they abandoned Asia
for ever.

120. As they were debating these matters a
body of Milesians and allies came to their as-
sistance; whereupon the Carians, dismissing
their former thoughts, prepared themselves
afresh for war, and on the approach of the Per-
sians gave them battle a second time. They
were defeated, however, with still greater loss
than before; and while all the troops engaged
suffered severely, the blow fell with most force
on the Milesians.

121. The Carians, some while after, re-
paired their ill fortune in another action. Un-
derstanding that the Persians were about to at-
tack their cities, they laid an ambush for them
on the road which leads to Pedasus; the Per-
sians, who were making a night-march, fell
into the trap, and the whole army was de-
stroyed, together with the generals, Daurises,

. Amorges, and Sisimaces: Myrsus too, the son
of Gyges, was killed at the same time. The
leader of the ambush was Heraclides, the son
of Iban&lis, a man of Mylasa. Such was the
way in which these Persians perished.

122. In the meantime Hymeas, who was
likewise one of those by whom the lonians
were pursued after their attack on Sardis,
directing his course towards the Propontis,
took Cius, a city of Mysia. Learning, however,
that Daurises had left the Hellespont, and was
gone into Caria, he in his turn quitted the Pro-
pontis, and marching with the army under his
command to the Hellespont, reduced all the
^Eolians of the Troad, and likewise conquered
the Gergithae, a remnant of the ancient Teu-
crians. He did not, however, quit the Troad,
but, after gaining these successes, was himself
carried off by disease.

115-126]

THE HISTORY

185

123. After his death, which happened as I
have related, Artaphernes, the satrap of Sardis,
and Otanes, the third general, were directed to
undertake the conduct of the war against Ionia
and the neighbouring ^Eolis. By them Clazo-
menae in the former, and Cyme in the latter,
were recovered.

124. As the cities fell one after another,
Anstagoras the Milesian (who was in truth, as
he now plainly showed, a man of but little
courage), notwithstanding that it was he who
had caused the disturbances in Ionia and made
so great a commotion, began, seeing his dan-
ger, to look about for means of escape. Being
convinced that it was in vain to endeavour to
overcome King Darius, he called his brothers-
in-arms together, and laid before them the
following project: — " 'Twould be well," he
said, "to have some place of refuge, in case they
were driven out of Miletus. Should he go out
at the head of a colony to Sardinia, or should
he sail to Myrcinus in Edonia, which Histiarus

had received as a gift from King Darius, and
had begun to fortify?"

125. To this question of Aristagoras, Heca-
taeus, the historian, son of Hegesander, made
answer that in his judgment neither place was
suitable. "Aristagoras should build a fort," he
said, "in the island of Leros, and, if driven
from Miletus, should go there and bide his
time; from Leros attacks might readily be made,
and he might re-establish himself in Miletus."
Such was the advice given by Hecataeus.

126. Aristagoras, however, was bent on re-
tiring to Myrcinus. Accordingly, he put the
government of Miletus into the hands of one
of the chief citizens, named Pythagoras, and,
taking with him all who liked to go, sailed to
Thrace, and there made himself master of the
place in question. From thence he proceeded to
attack the Thracians; but here he was cut off
with his whole army, while besieging a city
whose defenders were anxious to accept terms
of surrender.

The Sixth Book, Entitled
ERATO

^

r, ARISTAGORAS, the author of the Ionian re-
volt, perished in the way which I have de-
scribed. Meanwhile Histiaeus, tyrant of Mile-
tus, who had been allowed by Darius to leave
Susa, came down to Sardis. On his arrival,
being asked by Artaphernes, the Sardian
satrap, what he thought was the reason that
the lonians had rebelled, he made answer that
he could not conceive, and it had astonished
him greatly, pretending to be quite uncon-
scious of the whole business. Artaphernes,
however, who perceived that he was dealing
dishonestly, and who had in fact full knowl-
edge of the whole history of the outbreak, said
to him, "I will tell thee how the case stands,
Histiaeus: this shoe is of thy stitching; Arista-
goras has but put it on/*

2. Such was the remark made by Arta-
phernes concerning the rebellion. Histiaeus,
alarmed at the knowledge which he displayed,
so soon as night fell, fled away to the coast.
Thus he forfeited his word to Darius; for
though he had pledged himself to bring
Sardinia, the biggest island in the whole
world, under the Persian yoke, he in reality
sought to obtain the direction of the war
against the king. Crossing over to Chios, he
was there laid in bonds by the inhabitants,
who accused him of intending some mischief
against them in the interest of Darius. How-
ever, when the 3vhole truth was laid before
them, and they found that Histiaeus was in
reality a foe to the king, they forthwith set him
at large again.

3. After this the lonians inquired of him
for what reason he had so strongly urged Aris-
tagoras to revolt from the king, thereby doing
their nation so ill a service. In reply, he took
good care not to disclose to them the real cause,
but told them that King Darius had intended
to remove the Phoenicians from their own
country, and place them in Ionia, while he

planted the lonians in Phoenicia, and that it
was for this reason he sent Aristagoras the
order. Now it was not true that the king had
entertained any such intention, but Histiaeus
succeeded hereby in arousing the fears of the
lonians.

4. After this, Histiaeus, by means of a cer-
tain Hermippus, a native of Atarneus, sent
letters to many of the Persians in Sardis, who
had before held some discourse with him con-
cerning a revolt. Hermippus, however, instead
of conveying them to the persons to whom they
were addressed, delivered them into the hands
of Artaphernes, who, perceiving what was on
foot, commanded Hermippus to deliver the
letters according to their addresses, and then
bring him back the answers which were sent
to Histiaeus. The traitors being in this way dis-
covered, Artaphernes put a number of Persians
to death, and caused a commotion in Sardis.

5. As for Histiaeus, when his hopes in this
matter were disappointed, he persuaded the
Chians to carry him back to Miletus; but the
Milesians were too well pleased at having got
quit of Aristagoras to be anxious to receive
another tyrant into their country; besides
which they had now tasted liberty. They there-
fore opposed his return; and when he en-
deavoured to force an entrance during the
night, one of the inhabitants even wounded
him in the thigh. Having been thus rejected
from his country, he went back to Chios;
whence, after failing in an attempt to induce
the Chians to give him ships, he crossed over
to Mytilenc, where he succeeded in obtaining
vessels from the Lesbians. They fitted out a
squadron of eight triremes, and sailed with
him to the Hellespont, where they took up
their station, and proceeded to seize all the
vessels which passed out from the Euxine, un-
less the crews declared themselves ready to
obey his orders.

186

THE HISTORY

187

6. While Histiaeus and the Mytilenacans
were thus employed, Miletus was expecting an
attack from a vast armament, which comprised
both a fleet and also a land force. The Persian
captains had drawn their several detachments
together, and formed them into a single army;
and had resolved to pass over all the other
cities, which they regarded as of lesser account,
and to march straight on Miletus. Of the
naval states, Phoenicia showed the greatest
zeal; but the fleet was composed likewise
of the Cyprians (who had so lately been
brought under), the Cilicians, and also the
Egyptians.

7. While the Persians were thus making
preparations against Miletus and Ionia, the
lonians, informed of their intent, sent their
deputies to the Panionium, and held a council
upon the posture of their affairs. Hereat it was
determined that no land force should be col-
lected to oppose the Persians, but that the
Milesians should be left to defend their own
walls as they could; at the same time they
agreed that the whole naval force of the states,
not excepting a single ship, should be
equipped, and should muster at Lade, a small
island lying off Miletus — to give battle on be-
half of the place.

8. Presently the lonians began to assemble
in their ships, and with them came the fiLoli-
ans of Lesbos; and in this way they marshalled
their line:--The wing towards the east was
formed of the Milesians themselves, who fur-
nished eighty ships; next to them came the
Prienians with twelve, and the Myusians with
three ships; after the Myusians were stationed
the Teians, whose ships were seventeen; then
the Chians, who furnished a hundred. The
Erythraeans and Phocaeans followed, the for-
mer with eight, the latter with three ships; be-
yond the Phocaeans were the Lesbians, furnish-
ing seventy; last of all came the Samians,
forming the western wing, and furnishing
sixty vessels. The fleet amounted in all to three
hundred and fifty-three triremes. Such was the
number on the Ionian side.

9. On the side of the barbarians the number
of vessels was six hundred. These assembled
off the coast of Milesia, while the land army
collected upon the shore; but the leaders, learn-
ing the strength of the Ionian fleet, began to
fear lest they might fail to defeat them, in
which case, not having the mastery at sea, they
would be unable to reduce Miletus, and might
in consequence receive rotfgh treatment at the
hands of Darius. So when they thought of all

these things, they resolved on the following
course: — Calling together the Ionian tyrants,
who had fled to the Medes for refuge when
Aristagoras deposed them from their govern-
ments, and who were now in camp, having
joined in the expedition against Miletus, the
Persians addressed them thus: "Men of Ionia,
now is the fit time to show your zeal for the
house of the king. Use your best efforts, every
one of you, to detach your fellow-countrymen
from the general body. Hold forth to them the
promise that, if they submit, no harm shall
happen to them on account of their rebellion;
their temples shall not be burnt, nor any of
their private buildings; neither shall they be
treated with greater harshness than before the
outbreak. But if they refuse to yield, and de-
termine to try the chance of a battle, threaten
them with the fate which shall assuredly over-
take them in that case. Tell them, when they
are vanquished in fight, they shall be en-
slaved; their boys shall be made eunuchs, and
their maidens transported to Bactra; while
their country shall be delivered into the hands
of foreigners."

10. Thus spake the Persians. The Ionian
tyrants sent accordingly by night to their re-
spective citizens, and reported the words of
the Persians; but the people were all staunch,
and refused to betray their countrymen, those
of each state thinking that they alone had had
overtures made to them. Now these events
happened on the first appearance of the Per-
sians before Miletus.

11. Afterwards, while the Ionian fleet was
still assembled at Lade", councils were held,
and speeches made by divers persons — among
the rest by Dionysius, the Phocaean captain,
who thus expressed himself: — "Our affairs
hang on the razor's edge, men of Ionia, either
to be free or to be slaves; and slaves, too, who
have shown themselves runaways. Now then
you have to choose whether you will endure
hardships, and so for the present lead a life of
toil, but thereby gain ability to overcome your
enemies and establish your own freedom; or
whether you will persist in this slothfulness
and disorder, in which case I see no hope of
your escaping the king's vengeance for your
rebellion. I beseech you, be persuaded by me,
and trust yourselves to my guidance. Then, if
the gods only hold the balance fairly between
us, I undertake to say that our foes will either
decline a battle, or, if they fight, suffer com-
plete discomfiture."

12. These words prevailed with the lonians,

188

HERODOTUS

[BOOK vi

and forthwith they committed themselves to
Dionysius; whereupon he proceeded every day
to make the ships move in column, and the
rowers ply their oars, and exercise themselves
in breaking the line; while the marines were
held under arms, and the vessels were kept, till
evening fell, upon their anchors, so that the
men had nothing but toil from morning even
to night. Seven days did the lonians continue
obedient, and do whatsoever he bade them;
but on the eighth day, worn out by the hard-
ness of the work and the heat of the sun, and
quite unaccustomed to such fatigues, they be-
gan to confer together, and to say one to anoth-
er, "What god have we offended to bring upon
ourselves such a punishment as this? Fools and
distracted that we were, to put ourselves into
the hands of this Phocaean braggart, who does
but furnish three ships to the fleet! He, now
that he has got us, plagues us in the most
desperate fashion; many of us, in consequence,
have fallen sick already — many more expect
to follow. We had better suffer anything rather
than these hardships; even the slavery with
which we are threatened, however harsh, can
be no worse than our present thraldom. Come,
let us refuse him obedience." So saying, they
forthwith ceased to obey his orders, and
pitched their tents, as if they had been soldiers,
upon the island, where they reposed under the
shade all day, and refused to go aboard the
ships and train themselves.

13. Now when the Samian captains per-
ceived what was taking place, they were more
inclined than before to accept the terms which
jfeaces, the son of Syloson, had been authorised
by the Persians to offer them, on condition of
their deserting from the confederacy. For they
saw that all was disorder among the lonians,
and they felt also that it was hopeless to con-
tend with the power of the king; since if they
defeated the fleet which had been sent against
them, they knew that another would come five
times as great. So they took advantage of the
occasion which now offered, and as soon as
ever they saw the lonians refuse to work, has-
tened gladly to provide for the safety of their
temples and their properties. This ^Eaces, who
made the overtures to the Samians, was the
son of Syloson, and grandson of the earlier
^aces. He had formerly been tyrant of Samos,
but was ousted from his government by Arista-
goras the Milesian, at the same time with the
other tyrants of the lonians.

14. The Phoenicians soon afterwards sailed
to the attack; and the lonians likewise put

themselves in line, and went out to meet them.
When they had now neared one another, and
joined battle, which of the lonians fought like
brave men and which like cowards, I cannot
declare with any certainty, for charges are
brought on all sides; but the tale goes that the
Samians, according to the agreement which
they had made with ^aces, hoisted sail, and
quitting their post bore away for Samos, ex-
cept eleven ships, whose captains gave no heed
to the orders of the commanders, but remained
and took part in the battle. The state of Samos,
in consideration of this action, granted to these
men, as an acknowledgment of their bravery,
the honour of having their names, and the
names of their fathers, inscribed upon a pillar,
which still stands in the market-place. The
Lesbians also, when they saw the Samians,
who were drawn up next them, begin to flee,
themselves did the like; and the example, once
set, was followed by the greater number of the
lonians.

15. Of those who remained and fought,
none were so rudely handled as the Chians,
who displayed prodigies of valour, and dis-
dained to play the part of cowards. They fur-
nished to the common fleet, as I mentioned
above, one hundred ships, having each of them
forty armed citizens, and those picked men, on
board; and when they saw the greater portion
of the allies betraying the common cause, they
for their part, scorning to imitate the base
conduct of these traitors, although they were
left almost alone and unsupported, a very few
friends continuing to stand by them, notwith-
standing went on with the fight, and ofttimes
cut the line of the enemy, until at last, after
they had taken very many of their adversaries'
ships, they ended by losing more than half of
their own. Hereupon, with the remainder of
their vessels, the Chians fled away to their own
country,

1 6. As for such of their ships as were dam-
aged and disabled, these, being pursued by the
enemy, made straight for Mycale*, where the
crews ran them ashore, and abandoning them
began their march along the continent. Hap-
pening in their way upon the territory of Ephe-
sus, they essayed to cross it; but here a dire
misfortune befell them. It was night, and the
Ephesian women chanced to be engaged in
celebrating the Thesmophoria — the previous
calamity of the Chians had not been heard of
— so when the Ephesians saw their country
invaded by an armed band, they made no ques-
tion of the new-comers being robbers who pur-

13-23]

THE HISTORY

189

posed to carry off their women; and accord-
ingly they marched out against them in full
force, and slew them all. Such were the mis-
fortunes which befell them of Chios.

17. Dionysius, the Phocaean, when he per-
ceived that all was lost, having first captured
three ships from the enemy, himself took to
flight. He would not, however, return to Pho-
caea, which he well knew must fall again, like
the rest of Ionia, under the Persian yoke; but
straightway, as he was, he set sail for Phoenicia,
and there sunk a number of merchantmen,
and gained a great booty; after which he di-
rected his course to Sicily, where he established
himself as a corsair, and plundered the Cartha-
ginians and Tyrrhenians, but did no harm to
the Greeks.

1 8. The Persians, when they had vanquished
the lonians in the sea-fight, besieged Miletus
both by land and sea, driving mines under the
walls, and making use of every known device,
until at length they took both the citadel and
the town, six years from the time when the
revolt first broke out under Aristagoras. All
the inhabitants of the city they reduced to
slavery, and thus the event tallied with the an-
nouncement which had been made by the
oracle.

19. For once upon a time, when the Argives
had sent to Delphi to consult the god about the
safety of their own city, a prophecy was given
them, in which others besides themselves were
interested; for while it bore in part upon the
fortunes of Argos, it touched in a by-clause the
fate of the men of Miletus. I shall set down the
portion which concerned the Argives when I
come to that part of my History, mentioning
at present only the passage in which the absent
Milesians were spoken of. This passage was as
follows: —

Then shah thou, Miletus, so oft the contriver of
evil,

Be, thyself, to many a feast and an excellent booty:

Then shall thy matrons wash the feet of long-
haired masters —

Others shall then possess our lov'd Didymian tem-
ple.

Such a fate now befell the Milesians; for the
Persians, who wore their hair long, after kill-
ing most of the men, made the women and
children slaves; and the sanctuary at Didyma,
the oracle no less than the temple was plun-
dered and burnt; of the riches whereof I have
made frequent mention in other parts of my
History.

20. Those of the Milesians whose lives were

spared, being carried prisoners to Susa, re-
ceived no ill treatment at the hands of King
Darius, but were established by him in Ampe,
a city on the shores of the Erythraean sea, near"
the spot where the Tigris flows into it. Miletus
itself, and the plain about the city, were kept
by the Persians for themselves, while the hill-
country was assigned to the Carians of Pedasus.

21. And now the Sybarites, who after the
loss of their city occupied Laiis and Scidrus,
failed duly to return the former kindness of
the Milesians. For these last, when Sybaris was
taken by the Crotoniats, made a great mourn-
ing, all of them, youths as well as men, shav-
ing their heads; since Miletus and Sybaris
were, of all the cities whereof we have any
knowledge, the two most closely united to one
another. The Athenians, on the other hand,
showed themselves beyond measure afflicted at
the fall of Miletus, in many ways expressing
their sympathy, and especially by their treat-
ment of Phrynichus. For when this poet
brought out upon the stage his drama of the
Capture of Miletus, the whole theatre burst
into tears; and the people sentenced him to
pay a fine of a thousand drachms, for recalling
to them their own misfortunes. They likewise
made a law that no one should ever again
exhibit that piece.

22. Thus was Miletus bereft of its inhabi-
tants. In Samos the people of the richer sort
were much displeased with the doings of the
captains, and the dealings they had had with
the Medes; they therefore held a council, very
shortly after the sea-fight, and resolved that
they would not remain to become the slaves of
^Eaces and the Persians, but before the tyrant
set foot in their country, would sail away and
found a colony in another land. Now it
chanced that about this time the Zanclaeans of
Sicily had sent ambassadors to the lonians, and
invited them to Kale-Acte*, where they wished
an Ionian city to be founded. This place, Kale-
Acte (or the Fair Strand) as it is called, is in
the country of the Sicilians, and is situated in
the part of Sicily which looks towards Tyr-
rhenia. The offer thus made to all the lonians
was embraced only by the Samians, and by
such of the Milesians as had contrived to effect
their escape.

23. Hereupon this is what ensued. The Sa-
mians on their voyage reached the country of
the Epizephyrian Locrians, at a time when the
Zanclaeans and their king Scythas were en-
gaged in the siege of a Sicilian town which
they hoped to take. Anaxilaiis, tyrant of Rhe-

190

HERODOTUS

[BOOK vi

glum, who was on ill terms with the Zan-
claeans, knowing how matters stood, made ap-
plication to the Samians, and persuaded them
to give up the thought of Kale-Acte*, the place
to which they were bound, and to seize Zancl£
itself, which was left without men. The Sa-
mians followed this counsel and possessed
themselves of the town; which the Zanclaeans
no sooner heard than they hurried to the res-
cue, calling to their aid Hippocrates, tyrant of
Gela, who was one of their allies. Hippocrates
came with his army to their assistance; but on
his arrival he seized Scythas, the Zanclaean
king, who had just lost his city, and sent him
away in chains, together with his brother
Pythogenes, to the town of Inycus; after which
he came to an understanding with the Sa-
mians, exchanged oaths with them, and agreed
to betray the people of Zancle*. The reward of
his treachery was to be one-half of the goods
and chattels, including slaves, which the town
contained, and all that he could find in the
open country. Upon this Hippocrates seized
and bound the greater number of the Zan-
claeans as slaves; delivering, however, into the
hands of the Samians three hundred of the
principal citizens, to be slaughtered; but the
Samians spared the lives of these persons.

24. Scythas, the king of the Zanclaeans, made
his escape from Inycus, and fled to Himera;
whence he passed into Asia, and went up to
the court of Darius. Darius thought him the
most upright of all the Greeks to whom he
afforded a refuge; for with the king's leave he
paid a visit to Sicily, and thence returned back
to Persia, where he lived in great comfort, and
died by a natural death at an advanced age.

25. Thus did the Samians escape the yoke
of the Medes, and possess themselves without
any trouble of Zancl£, a most beautiful city. At
Samos itself the Phoenicians, after the fight
which had Miletus for its prize was over, re-
established iEaces, the son of Syloson, upon his
throne. This they did by the command of the
Persians, who looked upon ^Eaces as one who
had rendered them a high service and there-
fore deserved well at their hands. They like-
wise spared the Samians, on account of the
desertion of their vessels, and did not burn
either their city or their temples, as they did
those of the other rebels. Immediately after the
fall of Miletus the Persians recovered Caria,
bringing some of the cities over by force, while
others submitted of their own accord.

26. Meanwhile tidings of what had befallen
Miletus reached Histiaeus the Milesian, who

was still at Byzantium, employed in intercept-
ing the Ionian merchantmen as they issued
from the Euxine. Histiaeus had no sooner heard
the news than he gave the Hellespont in charge
to Bisaltes, son of Apollophanes, a native of
Abydos, and himself, at the head of his Lesbi-
ans, set sail for Chios. One of the Chian gar-
risons which opposed him he engaged at a
place called "The Hollows," situated in the
Chian territory, and of these he slaughtered a
vast number; afterwards, by the help of his
Lesbians, he reduced all the rest of the Chians,
who were weakened by their losses in the sea-
fight, Polichne*, a city of Chios, serving him as
head-quarters.

27. It mostly happens that there is some
warning when great misfortunes are about to
befall a state or nation; and so it was in this
instance, for the Chians had previously had
some strange tokens sent to them. A choir of
a hundred of their youths had been despatched
to Delphi; and of these only two had returned;
the remaining ninety-eight having been car-
ried off by a pestilence. Likewise, about the
same time, and very shortly before the sea-
fight, the roof of a school-house had fallen in
upon a number of their boys, who were at
lessons; and out of a hundred and twenty
children there was but one left alive. Such were
the signs which God sent to warn them. It
was very shortly afterwards that the sea-fight
happened, which brought the city down upon
its knees; and after the sea-fight came the
attack of Histia*us and his Lesbians, to whom
the Chians, weakened as they were, furnished
an easy conquest.

28. Histiaeus now led a numerous army,
composed of lonians and ^Eolians, against
Thasos, and had laid siege to the place when
news arrived that the Phoenicians were about
to quit Miletus and attack the other cities of
Ionia. On hearing this, Histiaeus raised the
siege of Thasos, and hastened to Lesbos with
all his forces. There his army was in great
straits for want of food; whereupon Histiaeus
left Lesbos and went across to the mainland,
intending to cut the crops which were growing
in the Atarnean territory, and likewise in the
plain of the Caicus, which belonged to Mysia.
Now it chanced that a certain Persian named
Harpagus was in these regions at the head of
an army of no little strength. He, when His-
tiaeus landed, marched out to meet him, and
engaging with his forces destroyed the great-
er number of them, and took Histiaeus himself
prisoner.

24-35]

THE HISTORY

191

29. Histiaeus fell into the hands of the P«r-
sians in the following manner. The Greeks
and Persians engaged at Malena, in the region
of Atarneus; and the battle was for a long time
stoutly contested, till at length the cavalry
came up, and, charging the Greeks, decided
the conflict. The Greeks fled; and Histiaeus,
who thought that Darius would not punish
his fault with death, showed how he loved
his life by the following conduct. Overtaken
in his flight by one of the Persians, who was
about to run him through, he cried aloud in
the Persian tongue that he was Histiaeus the
Milesian.

30. Now, had he been taken straightway be-
fore King Darius, I verily believe that he
would have received no hurt, but the king
would have freely forgiven him. Artaphernes,
however, satrap of Sardis, and his captor
Harpagus, on this very account — because they
were afraid that, if he escaped, he would be
again received into high favour by the king —
put him to death as soon as he arrived at
Sardis. His body they impaled at that place,
while they embalmed his head and sent it up
to Susa to the king. Darius, when he learnt
what had taken place, found great fault with
the men engaged in this business for not bring-
ing Histiaeus alive into his presence, and com-
manded his servants to wash and dress the
head with all care, and then bury it, as the
head of a man who had been a great benefactor
to himself and the Persians. Such was the se-
quel of the history of Histia?us.

31. The naval armament of the Persians
wintered at Miletus, and in the following year
proceeded to attack the islands off the coast,
Chios, Lesbos, and Tenedos, which were re-
duced without difficulty. Whenever they be-
came masters of an island, the barbarians, in
every single instance, netted the inhabitants.
Now the mode in which they practise this
netting is the following. Men join1 hands, so
as to form a line across from the north coast to
the south, and then march through the island
from end to end and hunt out the inhabitants.
In like manner the Persians took also the Io-
nian towns upon the mainland, not however
netting the inhabitants, as it was not possible.

32. And now their generals made good all
the threats wherewith they had menaced the
lonians before the battle. For no sooner did
they get possession of the towns than they
choose out all the best favoured boys and made
them eunuchs, while the most beautiful of the
girls they tore from their homes and sent as

presents to the king, at the same time burning
the cities themselves, with their temples. Thus
were the lonians for the third time reduced
to slavery; once by the Lydians, and a second,
and now a third time, by the Persians.

33. The sea force, after quitting Ionia, pro-
ceeded to the Hellespont, and took all the
towns which lie on the left shore as one sails
into the straits. For the cities on the right bank
had already been reduced by the land force of
the Persians. Now these are the places which
border the Hellespont on the European side;
the Chersonese, which contains, a number of
cities, Perinthus, the forts in Thrace, Selybria,
and Byzantium. The Byzantines at this time,
and their opposite neighbours, the Chalce-
donians, instead of awaiting the coming of the
Phoenicians, quitted their country, and sailing
into the Euxine, took up their abode at the city
of Mesembria. The Phoenicians, after burning
all the places above mentioned, proceeded to
Proconnesus and Artaca, which they likewise
delivered to the flames; this done, they re-
turned to the Chersonese, being minded to re-
duce those cities which they had not ravaged
in their former cruise. Upon Cyzicus they
made no attack at all, as before their coming
the inhabitants had made terms with QEbares,
the son of Megabazus, and satrap of Dascyl-
eium, and had submitted themselves to the
king. In the Chersonese the Phoenicians sub-
dued all the cities, excepting Cardia.

34. Up to this time the cities of the Cherso-
nese had been under the government of Miltia-
des, the son of Cimon, and grandson of Stesa-
goras, to ,whom they had descended from
Miltiades, the son of Cypselus, who obtained
possession of them in the following manner.
The Dolonci, a Thracian tribe, to whom the
Chersonese at that time belonged, being har-
assed by a war in which they were engaged
with the Apsinthians, sent their princes to
Delphi to consult the oracle about the matter.
The reply of the Pythoness bade them "take
back with them as a colonist into their country
the man who should first offer them hospital-
ity after they quitted the temple." The Dolonci,
following the Sacred Road, passed through the
regions of Phocis and Boeotia; after which, as
still no one invited them in, they turned aside,
and travelled to Athens.

35. Now Pisistratus was at this time sole
lord of Athens; but Miltiades, the son of
Cypselus, was likewise a person of much dis-
tinction. He belonged to a family which was
wont to contend in the four-horse-chariot races.

192

HERODOTUS

[BOOK

and traced its descent to ^Eacus and Egina, but
which, from the time of Philaeas, the son of
Ajax, who was the first Athenian citizen of
the house, had been naturalised at Athens. It
happened that as the Dolonci passed his door
Miltiades was sitting in his vestibule, which
caused him to remark them, dressed as they
were in outlandish garments, and armed more-
over with lances. He therefore called to them,
and, on their approach, invited them in, offer-
ing them lodging and entertainment. The
strangers accepted his hospitality, and, after
the banquet was over, they laid before him in
full the directions of the oracle and besought
him on their own part to yield obedience to
the god. Miltiades was persuaded ere they had
done speaking; for the government of Pisi-
stratus was irksome to him, and he wanted to
be beyond the tyrant's reach. He therefore
went straightway to Delphi, and inquired of
the oracle whether he should do as the Dolonci
desired.

36. As the Pythoness backed their request,
Miltiades, son of Cypselus who had already
won the four-horse chariot-race at Olympia,
left Athens, taking with him as many of the
Athenians as liked to join in the enterprise,
and sailed away with the Dolonci. On his ar-
rival at the Chersonese, he was made king by
those who had invited him. After this his first
act was to build a wall across the neck of the
Chersonese from the city of Cardia to Pactya,
to protect the country from the incursions and
ravages of the Apsinthians. The breadth of the
isthmus at this part is thirty-six furlongs, the
whole length of the peninsula within the isth-
mus being four hundred and twenty furlongs.

37. When he had finished carrying the wall
across the isthmus, and had thus secured the
Chersonese against the Apsinthians, Miltiades
proceeded to engage in other wars, and first of
all attacked the Lampsacenians; but falling
into an ambush which they had laid he had the
misfortune to be taken prisoner. Now it hap-
pened that Miltiades stood high in the favour
of Croesus, king of Lydia. When Croesus there-
fore heard of his calamity, he sent and com-
manded the men of Lampsacus to give Mil-
tiades his freedom; "if they refused," he said,
"he would destroy them like a fir." Then the
Lampsacenians were somcwhile ip doubt about
this speech of Croesus, and could not tell how
to construe his threat "that he would destroy
them like a fir"; but at last one of their elders
divined the true sense, and told them that the
fir is the only tree which, when cut down,

makes no fresh shoots, but forthwith dies out-
right. So the Lampsacenians, being greatly
afraid of Croesus, released Miltiades, and let
him go free.

38. Thus did Miltiades, by the help of Croe-
sus, escape this danger. Some time afterwards
he died childless, leaving his kingdom and his
riches to Stesagoras, who was the son of Ci-
mon, his half-brother. Ever since his death the
people of the Chersonese have offered him the
customary sacrifices of a founder; and they
have further established in his honour a gym-
nic contest and a chariot-race, in neither of
which is it lawful for any Lampsacenian to
contend. Before the war with Lampsacus was
ended Stesagoras too died childless: he was
sitting in the hall of justice when he was struck
upon the head with a hatchet by a man who
pretended to be a deserter, but was in good
sooth an enemy, and a bitter one.

39. Thus died Stesagoras; and upon his death
the Pisistratidae fitted out a trireme, and sent
Miltiades, the son of Cimon, and brother of
the deceased, to the Chersonese, that he might
undertake the management of affairs in that
quarter. They had already shown him much
favour at Athens, as if, forsooth, they had
been no parties to the death of his father Ci-
mon — a matter whereof I will give an account
in another place. He upon his arrival remained
shut up within the house, pretending to do
honour to the memory of his dead brother;
whereupon the chief people of the Chersonese
gathered themselves together from all the cit-
ies of the land, and came in a procession to the
place where Miltiades was, to condole with
him upon his misfortune. Miltiades command-
ed them to be seized and thrown into prison;
after which he made himself master of the
Chersonese, maintained a body of five hun-
dred mercenaries, and married Hegesipyla,
daughter of the Thracian king Olorus.

40. This Miltiades, the son of Cimon, had
not been long in the country when a calamity
befell him yet more grievous than those in
which he was now involved: for three years
earlier he had had to fly before an incursion of
the Scyths. These nomads, angered by the at-
tack of Darius, collected in a body and
marched as far as the Chersonese. Miltiades
did not await their coming, but fled, and re-
mained away until the Scyths retired, when
the Dolonci sent and fetched him back. All
this happened three years before the events
which befell Miltiades at the present time.

41. He now no sooner heard that the Phce-

36-45l

nicians were attacking Tenedos than he load-
ed five triremes with his goods and chattels,
and set sail for Athens. Cardia was the point
from which he took his departure; and as he
sailed down the gulf of Melas, along the shore
of the Chersonese, he came suddenly upon the
whole Phoenician fleet. However he himself
escaped, with four of his vessels, and got into
Imbrus, one trireme only falling into the hands
of his pursuers. This vessel was under the com-
mand of his eldest son Metiochus, whose
mother was not the daughter of the Thracian
king Olorus, but a different woman. Metio-
chus and his ship were taken; and when the
Phoenicians found out that he was a son of
Miltiades they resolved to convey him to the
king, expecting thereby to rise high in the
royal favour. For they remembered that it was
Miltiades who counselled the lonians to heark-
en when the Scyths prayed them to break up
the bridge and return home. Darius, however,
when the Phoenicians brought Metiochus into
his presence, was so far from doing him any
hurt, that he loaded him with benefits. He
gave him a house and estate, and also a Per-
sian wife, by whom there were children born
to him who were accounted Persians. As for
Miltiades himself, from Imbrus he made his
way in safety to Athens.

42. At this time the Persians did no more
hurt to the lonians; but on the contrary, before
the year was out, they carried into effect the
following measures, which were greatly to
their advantage. Artaphernes, satrap of Sardis,
summoned deputies from all the Ionian cities,
and forced them to enter into agreements
with one another, not to harass each other by
force of arms, but to settle their disputes by
reference. He likewise took the measurement
of their whole country in parasangs — such is
the name which the Persians give to a distance
of thirty furlongs — and settled the tributes
which the several cities were to pay, at a rate
that has continued unaltered from the time
when Artaphernes fixed it down to the present
day. The rate was very nearly the same as that
which had been paid before the revolt. Such
were the peaceful dealings of the Persians with
the lonians.

43. The next spring Darius superseded all
the other generals, and sent down Mardonius,
the son of Gobryas, to the coast, and with him
a vast body of men, some fit for sea, others for
land service. Mardonius was a youth at this
time, and had only lately married Artazostra,
the king's daughter. When Mardonius, ac-

THE HISTORY 193

companied by this numerous host, reached Ci-
licia, he took ship and proceeded along shore
with his fleet, while the land army marched
under other leaders towards the Hellespont. In
the course of his voyage along the coast of Asia
he came to Ionia; and here I have a marvel to
relate which will greatly surprise those Greeks
who cannot believe that Otanes advised the
seven conspirators to make Persia a common-
wealth. Mardonius put down all the despots
throughout Ionia, and in lieu of them estab-
lished democracies. Having so done, he has-
tened to the Hellespont, and when a vast mul-
titude of ships had been brought together, and
likewise a powerful land force, he conveyed
his troops across the strait by means of his ves-
sels, and proceeded through Europe against
Eretria and Athens.

44. At least these towns served as a pretext
for the expedition, the real purpose of which
was to subjugate as great a number as possible
of the Grecian cities; and this became plain
when the Thasians, who did not even lift a
hand in their defence, were reduced by the sea
force, while the land army added the Mace-
donians to the former slaves of the king. All
the tribes on the hither side of Macedonia had
been reduced previously. From Thasos the
fleet stood across to the mainland, and sailed
along shore to Acanthus, whence an attempt
was made to double Mount Athos. But here a
violent north wind sprang up, against which
nothing could contend, and handled a large
number of the ships with much rudeness, shat-
tering them and driving them aground upon
Athos. 'Tis, said the number of the ships de-
stroyed was little short of three hundred; and
the men who perished were more than twenty
thousand. For the sea about Athos abounds in
monsters beyond all others; and so a portion
were seized and devoured by these animals,
while others were dashed violently against the
rocks; some, who did not know how to swim,
were engulfed; and some died of the cold.

45. While thus it fared with the fleet, on
land Mardonius and his army were attacked
in their camp during the night by the Brygi, a
tribe of Thracians; and here vast numbers of
the Persians were slain, and even Mardonius
himself received a wound. The Brygi, never-
theless, did not succeed in maintaining their
own freedom: for Mardonius would not leave
the country till he had subdued them and
made them subjects of Persia. Still, though he
brought them under the yoke, the blow which
his land force had received at their hands, and

194

HERODOTUS

[BooK vi

the great damage done to his fleet off Athos,
induced him to set out upon his retreat; and so
this armament, having failed disgracefully, re-
turned to Asia.

46. The year after these events, Darius re-
ceived information from certain neighbours of
the Thasians that those islanders were making
preparations for revolt; he therefore sent a
herald, and bade them dismantle their walls,
and bring all their ships to Abdera. The Thasi-
ans, at the time when Histiaeus the Milesian
made his attack upon them, had resolved that,
as their income was very great, they would ap-
ply their wealth to building ships of war, and
surrounding their city with another and a
stronger wall. Their revenue was derived part-
ly from their possessions upon the mainland,
partly from the mines which they owned. They
were masters of the gold mines at Scapte-Hyl£,
the yearly produce of which amounted in all
to eighty talents. Their mines in Thasos yield-
ed less, but still were so far prolific that, besides
being entirely free from land-tax, they had a
surplus income, derived from the two sources
of their territory on the main and their mines,
in common years of two hundred, and in the
best years of three hundred talents.

47. I myself have seen the mines in ques-
tion: by far the most curious of them are those
which the Phoenicians discovered at the time
when they went with Thasus and colonised the
island, which afterwards took its name from
him. These Phoenician workings are in Thasos
itself, between Coenyra and a place called ^Eny-
ra, over against Samothrace: a huge moun-
tain has been turned upside down in the search
for ores. Such then was the source of their
wealth. On this occasion no sooner did the
Great King issue his commands than straight-
way the Thasians dismantled their wall, and
took their whole fleet to Abdera.

48. After this Darius resolved to prove the
Greeks, and try the bent of their minds,
whether they were inclined to resist him in
arms or prepared to make their submission. He
therefore sent out heralds in divers directions
round about Greece, with orders to demand
everywhere earth and water for the king. At
the same time he sent other heralds to the vari-
ous seaport towns which paid him tribute, and
required them to provide a number of ships
of war and horse-transports.

49. These towns accordingly began their
preparations; and the heralds who had been
sent into Greece obtained what the king had
bid them ask from a large number of the states

upon the mainland, and likewise from all the
islanders whom they visited. Among these last
were included the Eginetans, who, equally
with the rest, consented to give earth and wa-
ter to the Persian king.

When the Athenians heard what the Egine-
tans had done, believing that it was from en-
mity to themselves that they had given consent,
and that the Eginetans intended to join the
Persian in his attack upon Athens, they
straightway took the matter in hand. In good
truth it greatly rejoiced them to have so fair a
pretext; and accordingly they sent frequent
embassies to Sparta, and made it a charge
against the Eginetans that their conduct in this
matter proved them to be traitors to Greece.

50. Hereupon Cleomcnes, the son of Anax-
andridas, who was then king of the Spartans,
went in person to Egina, intending to seize
those whose guilt was the greatest. As soon
however as he tried to arrest them, a number of
the Eginetans made resistance; a certain Crius,
son of Polycritus, being the foremost in vio-
lence. This person told him "he should not car-
ry off a single Eginetan without it costing him
dear — the Athenians had bribed him to make
this attack, for which he had no warrant from
his own government — otherwise both the
kings would have come together to make the
seizure." This he said in consequence of in-
structions which he had received from Demar-
atus. Hereupon Cleomenes, finding that he
must quit Egina, asked Crius his name; and
when Crius told him, "Get thy horns tipped
with brass with all speed, O Crius!" he said,
"for thou wilt have to struggle with a great
danger."

51. Meanwhile Demaratus, son of Ariston,
was bringing charges against Cleomenes at
Sparta. He too, like Cleomenes, was king of
the Spartans, but he belonged to the lower
house — not indeed that his house was of any
lower origin than the other, for both houses
are of one blood — but the house of Eurys-
thenes is the more honoured of the two, inas-
much as it is the elder branch.

52. The Lacedaemonians declare, contradict-
ing therein all the poets, that it was king Aris-
todemus himself, son of Aristomachus, grand-
son of Cleodaeus, and great-grandson of Hyl-
lus, who conducted them to the land which
they now possess, and not the sons of Aristo-
demus. The wife of Aristodemus, whose name
(they say) was Argeia, and who was daughter
of Autesion, son of Tisamenus, grandson of
Thersander, and great-grandson of Polynices,

4657]

THE HISTORY

195

within a little while after their coming into the
country, gave birth to twins. Aristodemus just
lived to see his children, but died soon after-
wards of a disease. The Lacedaemonians of
that day determined, according to custom, to
take for their king the elder of the two chil-
dren; but they were so alike, and so exactly of
one size, that they could not possibly tell which
of the two to choose: so when they found
themselves unable to make a choice, or haply
even earlier, they went to the mother and asked
her to tell them which was the elder, where-
upon she declared that "she herself did not
know the children apart"; although in good
truth she knew them very well, and only
feigned ignorance in order that, if it were pos-
sible, both of them might be made kings of
Sparta. The Lacedaemonians were now in a
great strait; so they sent to Delphi and in-
quired of the oracle how they should deal with
the matter. The Pythoness made answer, "Let
both be taken to be kings; but let the elder
have the greater honour." So the Lacedaemoni-
ans were in as great a strait as before, and
could not conceive how they were to discover
which was the first-born, till at length a cer-
tain Messenian, by name Panites, suggested to
them to watch and see which of the two the
mother washed and fed first; if they found she
always gave one the preference, that fact
would tell them all they wanted to know; if,
on the contrary, she herself varied, and some-
times took the one first, sometimes the other,
it would be plain that she knew as little as
they; in which case they must try some other
plan. The Lacedaemonians did according to the
advice of the Messenian, and, without letting
her know why, kept a watch upon the mother;
by which means they discovered that, when-
ever she either washed or fed her children, she
always gave the same child the preference. So
they took the boy whom the mother honoured
the most, and regarding him as the first-born,
brought him up in the palace; and the name
which they gave to the elder boy was Eurys-
thenes, while his brother they called Procles.
When the brothers grew up, there was always,
so long as they lived, enmity between them;
and the houses sprung from their loins have
continued the feud to this day.

53. Thus much is related by the Lacedae-
monians, but not by any of the other Greeks;
in what follows I give the tradition of the
Greeks generally. The kings of the Dorians
(they say) — counting up to Perseus, son of
Danae, and so omitting the god — are rightly

given in the common Greek lists, and rightly
considered to have been Greeks themselves;
for even at this early time they ranked among
that people. I say "up to Perseus," and not
further, because Perseus has no mortal father
by whose name he is called, as Hercules has in
Amphitryon; whereby it appears that I have
reason on my side, and am right in saying, "up
to Perseus." If we follow the line of Danae,
daughter of Acrisius, and trace her progeni-
tors, we shall find that the chiefs of the Dori-
ans are really genuine Egyptians. In the gen-
ealogies here given I have followed the com-
mon Greek accounts.

54. According to the Persian story, Perseus
was an Assyrian who became a Greek; his
ancestors, therefore, according to them, were
not Greeks. They do not admit that the fore-
fathers of Acrisius were in any way related to
Perseus, but say they were Egyptians, as the
Greeks likewise testify.

55. Enough however of this subject. How it
came to pass that Egyptians obtained the king-
doms of the Dorians, and what they did to
raise themselves to such a position, these are
questions concerning which, as they have been
treated by others, I shall say nothing. I proceed
to speak of points on which no other writer has
touched.

56. The prerogatives which the Spartans
have allowed their kings are the following. In
the first place, two priesthoods, those (namely)
of Lacedaemonian and of Celestial Jupiter;
also the right of making war on what country
soever they please, without hindrance from
any of the ojther Spartans, under pain of out-
lawry; on service the privilege of marching
first in the advance and last in the retreat, and
of having a hundred picked men for their
bodyguard while with the army; likewise the
liberty of sacrificing as many cattle in their ex-
peditions as it seems them good, and the right
of having the skins and the chines of ihe
slaughtered animals for their own use.

57. Such are their privileges in war; in peace
their rights are as follows. When a citizen
makes a public sacrifice the kings are given the
first seats at the banquet; they are served be-
fore any of the other guests, and have a double
portion of everything; they take the lead in
the libations; and the hides of the sacrificed
beasts belong to them. Every month, on the
first day, and again on the seventh of the first
decade,1 each king receives a beast without

1 The division of the Greek month was into dec-
ades.

196

HERODOTUS

[BOOK vi

blemish at the public cost, which he offers up
to Apollo; likewise a medimnus of meal,1 and
of wine a Laconian quart. In the contests of
the Games they have always the seat of hon-
our; they appoint the citizens who have to en-
tertain foreigners; they also nominate, each of
them, two of the Pythians, officers whose busi-
ness it is to consult the oracle at Delphi, who
eat with the kings, and, like them, live at the
public charge. If the kings do not come to the
public supper, each of them must have two
chccnixes of meal and a cotyle of wine sent
home to him at his house; if they come, they
are given a double quantity of each, and the
same when any private man invites them to
his table. They have the custody of all the
oracles which are pronounced; but the Pythi-
ans must likewise have knowledge of them.
They have the whole decision of certain causes,
which are these, and these only: — When a
maiden is left the heiress of her father's estate,
and has not been betrothed by him to any one,
they decide who is to marry her; in all matters
concerning the public highways they judge;
and if a person wants to adopt a child, he must
do it before the kings. They likewise have the
right of sitting in council with the eight-and-
twenty senators; and if they are not present,
then the senators nearest of kin to them have
their privileges, and give two votes as the royal
proxies, besides a third vote, which is their

own.

58. Such are the honours which the Spartan
people have allowed their kings during their
lifetime; after they are dead other honours
await them. Horsemen carry the news of their
death through all Laconia, while in the city the
women go hither and thither drumming upon
a kettle. At this signal, in every house two free
persons, a man and a woman, must put on
mourning, or else be subject to a heavy fine.
The Lacedaemonians have likewise a custom
at the demise of their kings which is common
to them with the barbarians of Asia — indeed
with the greater number of the barbarians ev-
erywhere— namely, that when one of their
kings dies, not only the Spartans, but a certain
number of the country people from every part
of Laconia are forced, whether they will or no,
to attend the funeral. So these persons and the
helots, and likewise the Spartans themselves,
flock together to the number of several thou-
sands, men and women intermingled; and all

1 The medimnus was about 12 gallons, the choc-
nix somewhat less than a quart, and a cotyle half
a pint.

of them smite their foreheads violently, and
weep and wail without stint, saying always
that their last king was the best. If a king dies
in battle, then they make a statue of him, and
placing it upon a couch right bravely decked,
so carry it to the grave. After the burial, by the
space of ten days there is no assembly, nor do
they elect magistrates, but continue mourning
the whole time.

59. They hold with the Persians also in an-
other custom. When a king dies, and another
comes to the throne, the newly-made monarch
forgives all the Spartans the debts which they
owe either to the king or to the public treasury.
And in like manner among the Persians each
king when he begins to reign remits the tribute
due from the provinces.

60. In one respect the Lacedaemonians re-
semble the Egyptians. Their heralds and flute-
players, and likewise their cooks, take their
trades by succession from their fathers. A flute-
player must be the son of a flute-player, a cook
of a cook, a herald of a herald; and other peo-
ple cannot take advantage of the loudness of
their voice to come into the profession and
shut out the heralds' sons; but each follows his
father's business. Such are the customs of the
Lacedaemonians.

61. At the time of which we are speaking,
while Cleomenes in Egina was labouring for
the general good of Greece, Demaratus at
Sparta continued to bring charges against him,
moved not so much by love of the Eginetans as
by jealousy and hatred of his colleague. Cleo-
menes therefore was no sooner returned from
Egina than he considered with himself how he
might deprive Demaratus of his kingly office;
and here the following circumstance lurnished
a ground for him to proceed upon. Ariston,
king of Sparta, had been married to two
wives, but neither of them had borne him any
children; as however he still thought it was
possible he might have offspring, he resolved to
wed a third; and this was how the wedding
was brought about. He had a certain friend, a
Spartan, with whom he was more intimate
than with any other citizen. This friend was
married to a wife whose beauty far surpassed
that of all the other women in Sparta; and
what was still more strange, she had once been
as ugly as she now was beautiful. For her
nurse, seeing how ill-favoured she was, and
how sadly her parents, who were wealthy peo-
ple, took her bad looks to heart, bethought her-
self of a plan, which was to carry the child ev-
ery day to the temple of Helen at Therapna,

58-66]

which stands above the Phcebeuiri, and there
to place her before the image, and beseech the
goddess to take away the child's ugliness. One
day, as she left the temple, a woman appeared
to her, and begged to know what it was she
held in her arms. The nurse told her it was a
child, on which she asked to see it; but the
nurse refused; the parents, she said, had for-
bidden her to show the child to any one. How-
ever the woman would not take a denial; and
the nurse, seeing how highly she prized a look,
at last let her see the child. Then the woman
gently stroked its head, and said, "One day
this child shall be the fairest dame in Sparta."
And her looks began to change from that very
day. When she was of marriageable age, Age-
tus, son of Alcides, the same whom I have
mentioned above as the friend of Ariston,
made her his wife.

62. Now it chanced that Ariston fell in love
with this person; and his love so preyed upon
his mind that at last he devised as follows. He
went to his friend, the lady's husband, and
proposed to him that they should exchange
gifts, each taking that which pleased him best
out of all the possessions of the other. His
friend, who felt no alarm about his wife, since
Ariston was also married, consented readily;
and so the matter was confirmed between
them by an oath. Then Ariston gave Agetus
the present, whatever it was, of which he had
made choice, and when it came to his turn to
name the present which he was to receive in
exchange, required to be allowed to carry
home with him Agetus's wife. But the other
demurred, and said, "except his wife, he might
have anything else": however, as he could not
resist the oath which he had sworn, or the
trickery which had been practised on him, at
last he suffered Ariston to carry her away to
his house.

63. Ariston hereupon put away his second
wife and took for his third this woman; and
she, in less than the due time — when she had
not yet reached her full term of ten months —
gave birth to a child, the Demaratus of whom
we have spoken. Then one of his servants
came and told him the news, as he sat in coun-
cil with the Ephors; whereat, remembering
when it was that the woman became his wife,
he counted the months upon his fingers, and
having so done, cried out with an oath, "The
boy cannot be mine." This was said in the hear-
ing of the Ephors; but they made no account
of it at the time. The boy grew up; and Aris-
ton repented of what he had said; for he be-

THE HISTORY

197

came altogether convinced that Demaratus was
truly his son. The reason why he named him
Demaratus was the following. Some time be-
fore these events the whole Spartan people,
looking upon Ariston as a man of mark be-
yond all the kings that had reigned at Sparta
before him, had offered up a prayer that he
might have a son. On this account, therefore,
the name Demaratus was given.

64. In course of time Ariston died; and
Demaratus received the kingdom: but it was
fated, as it seems, that these words, when bruit-
ed abroad, should strip him of his sovereignty.
This was brought about by means of Cleo-
menes, whom he had twice sorely vexed, once
when he led the army home from Eleusis, and
a second time when Cleomenes was gone
across to Egina against such as had espoused
the side of the Medes.

65. Cleomenes now, being resolved to have
his revenge upon Demaratus, went to Leoty-
chides, the son of Menares, and grandson of
Agis, who was of the same family as Demara-
tus, and made agreement with him to this ten-
or following. Cleomenes was to lend his aid to
make Leotychides king in the room of De-
maratus; and then Leotychides was to take
part with Cleomenes against the Eginetans.
Now Leotychides hated Demaratus chiefly
on account of Percalus, the daughter of Chilon,
son of Demarmenus: this lady had been be-
trothed to Leotychides; but Demaratus laid a
plot, and robbed him of his bride, forestalling
him in carrying her off, and marrying her.
Such was the origin of the enmity. At the time
of which we speak, Leotychides was prevailed
upon by the earnest desire of Cleomenes to
come forward against Demaratus and make
oath "that Demaratus was not rightful king of
Sparta, since he was not the true son of Aris-
ton." After he had thus sworn, Leotychides
sued Demaratus, and brought up against him
the phrase which Ariston had let drop when,
on the coming of his servant to announce to
him the birth of his son, he counted the
months, and cried out with an oath that the
child was not his. It was on this speech of Aris-
ton's that Leotychides relied to prove that
Demaratus was not his son, and therefore not
rightful king of Sparta; and he produced as
witnesses the Ephors who were sitting with
Ariston at the time and heard what he said.

66. At last, as there came to be much strife
concerning this matter, the Spartans made a
decree that the Delphic oracle should be asked
to say whether Demaratus were Ariston's son

198

HERODOTUS

[BooK vi

or no. Cleomenes set them upon this plan; and
no sooner was the decree passed than he made
a friend of Cobon, the son of Aristophantus, a
man of the greatest weight among the Del-
phians; and this Cobon prevailed upon Perial-
la, the prophetess, to give the answer which
Cleomenes wished. Accordingly, when the sa-
cred messengers came and put their question,
the Pythoness returned for answer "that De-
maratus was not Anston's son." Some time
afterwards all this became known; and Cobon
was forced to fly from Delphi; while Perialla
the prophetess was deprived of her office.

67.. Such were the means whereby the depo-
sition of Demaratus was brought about; but
his flying from Sparta to the Medes was by
reason of an affront which was put upon him.
On losing his kingdom he had been made a
magistrate; and in that office soon afterwards,
when the feast of the Gymnopaediae came
around, he took his station among the lookers-
on; whereupon Leotychides, who was now
king in his room, sent a servant to him and
asked him, by way of insult and mockery,
"how it felt to be a magistrate after one had
been a king?" Demaratus, who was hurt at the
question, made answer — "Tell him I have
tried them both, but he has not. Howbeit this
speech will be the cause to Sparta of infinite
blessings or else of infinite woes." Having thus
spoken he wrapped his head in his robe, and,
leaving the theatre, went home to his own
house, where he prepared an ox for sacrifice,
and offered it to Jupiter, after which he called
for his mother.

68. When she appeared, he took of the en-
trails, and placing them in her hand, besought
her in these words following: —

"Dear mother, I beseech you, by all the gods,
and chiefly by our own hearth-god Jupiter, tell
me the very truth, who was really my father.
For Leotychides, in the suit which we had to-
gether, declared that when thou becamest Ar-
iston's wife thou didst already bear in thy
womb a child by thy former husband, and oth-
ers repeat a yet more disgraceful tale, that our
groom found favour in thine eyes, and that I
am his son. I entreat thee therefore by the gods
to tell me the truth. For if thou hast gone
astray, thou hast done no more than many a
woman; and the Spartans remark it as strange,
if I am Ariston's son, that he had no children
by his other wives."

69. Thus spake Demaratus; and his mother
replied as follows: "Dear son, since thou en-
treatest so earnestly for the truth, it shall in-

deed be fully told to thee. When Ariston
brought me to his house, on the third night
after my coming, there appeared to me one like
to Ariston, who, after staying with me a while,
rose, and taking the garlands from his own
brows placed them upon my head, and so went
away. Presently after Ariston entered, and
when he saw the garlands which I still wore,
asked me who gave them to me. I said, 'twas
he; but this he stoutly denied; whereupon I
solemnly swore that it was none other, and
told him he did not do well to dissemble when
he had so lately risen from my side and left the
garlands with me. Then Ariston, when he
heard my oath, understood that there was
something beyond nature in what had taken
place. And indeed it appeared that the gar-
lands had come from the hero-temple which
stands by our court gates — the temple of him
they call Astrabacus — and the soothsayers,
moreover, declared that the apparition was
that very person. And now, my son, I have
told thee all thou wouldest fain know. Either
thou art the son of that hero — either thou may-
est call Astrabacus sire; or else Ariston was thy
father. As for that matter which they who hate
thee urge the most, the words of Ariston, who,
when the messenger told him of thy birth, de-
clared before many witnesses that 'thou wert
not his son, forasmuch as the ten months were
not fully out/ it was a random speech, uttered
from mere ignorance. The truth is, children
are born not only at ten months, but at nine,
and even at seven. Thou wert thyself, my son,
a seven months' child. Ariston acknowledged,
no long time afterwards, that his speech sprang
from thoughtlessness. Hearken not then to
other tales concerning thy birth, my son: for
be assured thou hast the whole truth. As for
grooms, pray Heaven Leotychides and all who
speak as he does may suffer wrong from
them!" Such was the mother's answer.

70. Demaratus, having learnt all that he
wished to know, took with him provision for
the journey, and went into Elis, pretending
that he purposed to proceed to Delphi, and
there consult the oracle. The Lacedaemonians,
however, suspecting that he meant to fly his
country, sent men in pursuit of him; but De-
maratus hastened, and leaving Elis before they
arrived, sailed across to Zacynthus. The Lace-
daemonians followed, and sought to lay hands
upon him, and to separate him from his re-
tinue; but the Zacynthians would not give him
up to them: so he escaping, made his way af-
terwards by sea to Asia, and presented him-

67-76]

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199

self before King Darius, who received him
generously, and gave him both lands and cit-
ies. Such was the chance which drove Demara-
tus to Asia, a man distinguished among the
Lacedemonians for many noble deeds and
wise counsels, and who alone of all the Spartan
kings brought honour to his country by win-
ning at Olympia the prize in the four-horse
chariot-race.

71. After Demaratus was deposed, Leoty-
chides, the son of Menares, received the king-
dom. He had a son, Zeuxidamus, called Cynis-
cus by many of the Spartans. This Zeuxidamus
did not reign at Sparta, but died before his
father, leaving a son, Archidamus. Leoty-
chides, when Zeuxidamus was taken from
him, married a second wife, named Eury-
dam£, the sister of Menius and daughter of Di-
actorides. By her he had no male offspring,
but only a daughter called Lampito, whom he
gave in marriage to Archidamus, Zeuxidamus'
son.

72. Even Leotychides, however, did not
spend his old age in Sparta, but suffered a
punishment whereby Demaratus was fully
avenged. He commanded the Lacedaemonians
when they made war against Thessaly, and
might have conquered the whole of it, but was
bribed by a large sum of money. It chanced
that he was caught in the fact, being found
sitting in his tent on a gauntlet, quite full of
silver. Upon this he was brought to trial and
banished from Sparta; his house was razed to
the ground; and he himself fled to Tegea,
where he ended his days. But these events took
place long afterwards.

73. At the time of which we are speaking,
Cleomenes, having carried his proceedings in
the matter of Demaratus to a prosperous issue,
forthwith took Leotychides with him, and
crossed over to attack the Eginetans; for his
anger was hot against them on account of the
affront which they had formerly put upon him.
Hereupon the Eginetans, seeing that both the
kings were come against them, thought it best
to make no further resistance. So the two kings
picked out from all Egina the ten men who for
wealth and birth stood the highest, among
whom were Crius, son of Polycntus, and Ca-
sambus, son of Aristocrates, who wielded the
chief power; and these men they carried with
them to Attica, and there deposited them in
the hands of the Athenians, the great enemies
of the Eginetans.

74. Afterwards, when it came to be known
what evil arts had been used against Demara-

f us, Cleomenes was seized with fear of his own
countrymen, and fled into Thessaly. From
thence he passed into Arcadia, where he began
to stir up troubles, and endeavoured to unite
the Arcadians against Sparta. He bound them
by various oaths to follow him whithersover
he should lead, and was even desirous of tak-
ing their chief leaders with him to the city of
Nonacris, that he might swear them to his
cause by the waters of the Styx. For the waters
of Styx, as the Arcadians say, are in that city,
and this is the appearance they present: you
see a little water, dripping from a rock into
a basin, which is fenced round by a low wall.
Nonacris, where this fountain is to be seen, is a
city of Arcadia near Pheneus.

75. When the Lacedaemonians heard how
Cleomenes was engaged, they were afraid, and
agreed with him that he should come back to
Sparta and be king as before. So Cleomenes
came back; but had no sooner returned than
he, who had never been altogether of sound
mind, was smitten with downright madness.
This he showed by striking every Spartan he
met upon the face with his sceptre. On his be-
having thus, and showing that he was gone
quite out of his mind, his kindred imprisoned
him, and even put his feet in the stocks. While
so bound, finding himself left alone with a
single keeper, he asked the man for a knife.
The keeper at first refused, whereupon Cleo-
menes began to threaten him, until at last he
was afraid, being only a helot, and gave him
what he required. Cleomenes had no sooner
got the steel than, beginning at his legs, he
horribly disfigured himself, cutting gashes in
his flesh, along his legs, thighs, hips, and loins,
until at last he reached his belly, which he
likewise began to gash, whereupon in a little
time he died. The Greeks generally think that
this fate came upon him because he induced
the Pythoness to pronounce against Demara-
tus; the Athenians differ from all others in say-
ing that it was because he cut down the sacred
grove of the goddesses when he made his in-
vasion by Eleusis; while the Argives ascribe it
to his having taken from their refuge and cut
to pieces certain Argives who had fled from bat-
tle into a precinct sacred to Argus, where Cleo-
menes slew them, burning likewise at the same
time, through irreverence, the grove itself.

76. For once, when Cleomenes had sent to
Delphi to consult the oracle, it was prophesied
to him that he should take Argos; upon which
he went out at the head of the Spartans, and
led them to the river Erasmus. This stream is

200

HERODOTUS

[BOOK vi

reported to flow from the Stymphalian lake,
the waters of which empty themselves into a
pitch-dark chasm, and then (as they say) re-
appear in Argos, where the Argives call them
the Erasinus. Cleomenes, having arrived upon
the banks of this river, proceeded to offer sac-
rifice to it, but, in spite of all that he could do,
the victims were not favourable to his crossing.
So he said that he admired the god for refus-
ing to betray his countrymen, but still the Ar-
gives should not escape him for all that. He
then withdrew his troops, and led them down
to Thyrea, where he sacrificed a bull to the
sea, and conveyed his men on shipboard to
Nauplia in the Tirynthian territory.

77. The Argives, when they heard of this,
marched down to the sea to defend their
country; and arriving in the neighbourhood of
Tiryns, at the place which bears the name of
Sepeia, they pitched their camp opposite to the
Lacedaemonians, leaving no great space be-
tween the hosts. And now their fear was not
so much lest they should be worsted in open
fight as lest some trick should be practised on
them; for such was the danger which the ora-
cle given to them in common with the Milesi-
ans seemed to intimate. The oracle ran as fol-
lows:—

Time shall be when the female shall conquer the

male, and shall chase him
Far away — gaining so great praise and honour in

Argos;
Then full many an Argive woman her checks

shall mangle —
Hence, in the times to come 'twill be said by the

men who are unborn,
"Tamed by the spear expired the coiled terrible

serpent"

At the coincidence of all these things the Ar-
gives were greatly cast down; and so they re-
solved that they would follow the signals of
the enemy's herald. Having made this resolve,
they proceeded to act as follows: whenever the
herald of the Lacedaemonians gave an order to
the soldiers of his own army, the Argives did
the like on their side.

78. Now when Cleomenes heard that the
Argives were acting thus, he commanded his
troops that, so soon as the herald gave the word
for the soldiers to go to dinner, they should
instantly seize their arms and charge the host
of the enemy. Which the Lacedarmonians did
accordingly, and fell upon the Argives just as,
following the signal, they had begun their re-
past; whereby it came to pass that vast num-
bers of the Argives were slain, while the rest,

who were more than they which died in the
fight, were driven to take refuge in the grove
of Argus hard by, where they were surround-
ed, and watch kept upon them.

79. When things were at this pass Cleo-
menes acted as follows: Having learnt the
names of the Argives who were shut up in the
sacred precinct from certain deserters who had
come over to him, he sent a herald to summon
them one by one, on pretence of having re-
ceived their ransoms. Now the ransom of pris-
oners among the Peloponnesians is fixed at
two minae the man. So Cleomenes had these
persons called forth severally, to the number
of fifty, or thereabouts, and massacred them.
All this while they who remained in the en-
closure knew nothing of wnat was happening;
for the grove was so thick that the people in-
side were unable to see what was taking place
without. But at last one of their number
climbed up into a tree and spied the treachery;
after which none of those who were sum-
moned would go forth.

80. Then Cleomenes ordered all the helots
to bring brushwood, and heap it around the
grove; which was done accordingly; and Cleo-
menes set the grove on fire. As the flames
spread he asked a deserter "Who was the god
of the grove?" whereto the other made answer,
"Argus." So he, when he heard that, uttered
a loud groan, and said: —

"Greatly hast thou deceived me, Apollo, god
of prophecy, in saying that I should take Ar-
gos. I fear me thy oracle has now got its ac-
complishment."

81. Cleomenes now sent home the greater
part of his army, while with a thousand of his
best troops he proceeded to the temple of Juno,
to offer sacrifice. When however he would
have slain the victim on the altar himself, the
priest forbade him, as it was not lawful (he
said) for a foreigner to sacrifice in that temple.
At this Cleomenes ordered his helots to drag
the priest from the altar and scourge him,
while he performed the sacrifice himself, after
which he went back to Sparta.

82. Thereupon his enemies brought him up
before the Ephors, and made it a charge
against him that he had allowed himself to be
bribed, and on that account had not taken Ar-
gos when he might have captured it easily. To
this he answered — whether truly or falsely I
cannot say with certainty — but at any rate his
answer to the charge was that "so soon as he
discovered the sacred precinct which he had
taken to belong to Argos, he directly imagined

77-86]

THE HISTORY

201

that the oracle had received its accomplish-
ment; he therefore thought it not good to at-
tempt the town, at the least until he had in-
quired by sacrifice, and ascertained if the god
meant to grant him the place, or was deter-
mined to oppose his taking it. So he offered in
the temple of Juno, and when the omens were
propitious, immediately there flashed forth a
flame of fire from the breast of the image;
whereby he knew of a surety that he was not
to take Argos. For if the flash had come from
the head, he would have gained the town, cit-
adel and all; but as it shone from the breast, he
had done so much as the god intended." And
his words seemed to the Spartans so true and
reasonable, that he came clear off from his ad-
versaries.

83. Argos however was left so bare of mep
that the slaves managed the state, filled the
offices, and administered everything until the
sons of those who were slain by Cleomenes
grew up. Then these latter cast out the slaves,
and got the city back under their own rule;
while the slaves who had been driven out
fought a battle and won Tiryns. After this for
a time there was peace between the two; but
a certain man, a soothsayer, named Oleander,
who was by race a Phigalean from Arcadia,
joined himself to the slaves, and stirred them
up to make a fresh attack upon their lords.
Then were they at war with one another by the
space of many years; but at length the Argives
with much trouble gained the upper hand.

84. The Argives say that Cleomenes lost his
senses, and died so miserably, on account of
these doings. But his own countrymen declare
that his madness proceeded not from any su-
pernatural cause whatever, but only from the
habit of drinking wine unmixed with water,
which he learnt of the Scyths. These nomads,
from the time that Darius made his inroad into
their country, had always had a wish for re-
venge. They therefore sent ambassadors to
Sparta to conclude a league, proposing to en-
deavour themselves to enter Media by the
Phasis, while the Spartans should march in-
land from Ephesus, and then the two armies
should join together in one. When the Scyths
came to Sparta on this errand Cleomenes was
with them continually; and growing some-
what too familiar, learnt of them to drink his
wine without water, a practice which is
thought by the Spartans to have caused his
madness. From this distance of time the Spar-
tans, according to their own account, have been
accustomed, when they want to drink purer

wine than common, to give the order to fill
"Scythian fashion." The Spartans then speak
thus concerning Cleomenes; but for my own
part I think his death was a judgment on him
for wronging Demaratus.

85. No sooner did the news of Cleomenes'
death reach Egina than straightway the Egine-
tans sent ambassadors to Sparta to complain
of the conduct of Leotychides in respect of
their hostages, who were still kept at Athens.
So they of Lacedaemon assembled a court of
justice and gave sentence upon Leotychides,
that whereas he had grossly affronted the peo-
ple of Egina, he should be given up to the am-
bassadors, to be led away in place of the men
whom the Athenians had in their keeping.
Then the ambassadors were about to lead him
away; but Theasides, the son of Leoprepes,
who was a man greatly esteemed in Sparta,
interfered, and said to them: —

"What are ye minded to do, ye men of Egi-
na ? To lead away captive the king of the Spar-
tans, whom his countrymen have given into
your hands? Though now in their anger they
have passed this sentence, yet Mike the time
will come when they will punish you, if you
act thus, by bringing utter destruction upon
your country."

The Eginetans, when they heard this,
changed their plan, and, instead of leading
Leotychides away captive, agreed with him
that he should come with them to Athens, and
give them back their men.

86. When however he reached that city, and
demanded the restoration of his pledge, the
Athenians, being unwilling to comply, pro-
ceeded to make excuses, saying "that two
kings had come and left the men with them,
and they did not think it right to give them
back to the one without the other." So when
the Athenians refused plainly to restore the
men, Leotychides said to them: —

"Men of Athens, act which way you choose
— give me up the hostages, and be righteous,
or keep them, and be the contrary. I wish,
however, to tell you what happened once in
Sparta about a pledge. The story goes among
us that three generations back there lived in
Lacedsemon one Glaucus, the son of Epicydes,
a man who in every other respect was on a
par with the first in the kingdom, and whose
character for justice was such as to place him
above all the other Spartans. Now to this man
at the appointed season the following events
happened. A certain Milesian came to Sparta
and, having desired to speak with him, said —

202

HERODOTUS

[BOOK vi

'I am of Miletus, and I have come hither, Glau-
cus, in the hope of profiting by thy honesty.
For when I heard much talk thereof in Ionia
and through all the rest of Greece, and when
I observed that whereas Ionia is always inse-
cure, the Peloponnese stands firm and un-
shaken, and noted likewise how wealth is con-
tinually changing hands in our country, I took
counsel with myself and resolved to turn one-
half of my substance into money, and place it
in thy hands, since I am well assured that it
will be safe in thy keeping. Here then is the
silver — take it — and take likewise these tallies,
and be careful of them; remember thou art to
give back the money to the person who shall
bring you their fellows/ Such were the words
of the Milesian stranger; and Glaucus took the
deposit on the terms expressed to him. Many
years had gone by when the sons of the man by
whom the money was left came to Sparta, and
had an interview with Glaucus, whereat they
produced the tallies, and asked to have the
money returned to them. But Glaucus sought
to refuse, and answered them: *I have no recol-
lection of the matter; nor can I bring to mind
any of those particulars whereof ye speak.
When I remember, I will certainly do what is
just. If I had the money, you have a right to re-
ceive it back; but if it was never given to me, I
shall put the Greek law in force against you.
For the present I give you no answer; but four
months hence I will settle the business/ So the
Milesians went away sorrowful, considering
that their money was utterly lost to them. As
for Glaucus, he made a journey to Delphi, and
there consulted the oracle. To his question if
he should swear, and so make prize of the
money, the Pythoness returned for answer
these lines following: —

Best for the present it were, O Glaucus, to do as

thou wlshest,
Swearing an oath to prevail, and so to ma\c prize

of the money.
Swear then — death is the lot e'en of those who

never swear falsely.
Yet hath the Oath-God a son who is nameless,

footless, and handless;
Mighty in strength he approaches to vengeance,

and whelms in destruction
All who belong to the race, or the house of the

man who is perjured.

But oath-beeping men leave behind them a flour-
ishing offspring.

Glaucus when he heard these words earnestly
besought the god to pardon his question; but
the Pythoness replied that it was as bad to have

tempted the god as it would have been to have
done the deed. Glaucus, however, sent for the
Milesian strangers, and gave them back their
money. And now I will tell you, Athenians,
what my purpose has been in recounting to
you this history. Glaucus at the present time
has not a single descendant; nor is there any
family known as his — root and branch has he
been removed from Sparta. It is a good thing,
therefore, when a pledge has been left with
one, not even in thought to doubt about re-
storing it."

Thus spake Leotychides; but, as he found
that the Athenians would not hearken to him,
he left them and went his way.

87. The Eginctans had never been punished
for the wrongs which, to pleasure the Thebans,
they had committed upon Athens. Now, how-
ever, conceiving that they were themselves
wronged, and had a fair ground of complaint
against the Athenians, they instantly prepared
to revenge themselves. As it chanced that the
Athenian thedris, which was a vessel of five
banks of oars, lay at Sunium, the Eginetans
contrived an ambush, and made themselves
masters of the holy vessel, on board of which
were a number of Athenians of the highest
rank, whom they took aod threw into prison.

88. At this outrage the Athenians no longer
delayed, but set to work to scheme their worst
against the Eginetans; and, as there was in
Egina at that time a man of mark, Nicodrom-
us by name, the son of Cncethus, who was on
ill terms with his countrymen because on a
former occasion they had driven him into ban-
ishment, they listened to overtures from this
man, who had heard how determined they
were to do the Eginetans a mischief, and
agreed with him that on a certain day he
should be ready to betray the island into their
hands, and they would come with a body of
troops to his assistance. And Nicodromus,
some time after, holding to the agreement,
made himself master of what is called the old
town.

89. The Athenians, however, did not come
to the day; for their own fleet was not of force
sufficient to engage the Eginetans, and while
they were begging the Corinthians to lend
them some ships, the failure of the enterprise
took place. In those days the Corinthians were
on the best of terms with the Athenians; and
accordingly they now yielded to their request,
and furnished them with twenty ships; but, as
their law did not allow the ships to be given
for nothing, they sold them to the Athenians

87-95]

THE HISTORY

203

for five drachms apiece. As soon then as the
Athenians had obtained this aid, and, by man-
ning also their own ships, had equipped a fleet
of seventy sail, they crossed over to Egina, but
arrived a day later than the time agreed upon.

90. Meanwhile Nicodromus, when he found
the Athenians did not come to the time ap-
pointed, took ship and made his escape from
the island. The Eginetans who accompanied
him were settled by the Athenians at Sunium,
whence they were wont to issue forth and
plunder the Eginetans of the island. But this
took place at a later date.

91. When the wealthier Eginetans had thus
obtained the victory over the common people
who had revolted with Nicodromus, they laid
hands on a certain number of them, and led
them out to death. But here they were guilty
of a sacrilege, which, notwithstanding all their
efforts, they were never able to atone, being
driven from the island before they had ap-
peased the goddess whom they now provoked.
Seven hundred of the common people had fall-
en alive into their hands; and they were all
being led out to death, when one of them es-
caped from his chains, and flying to the gate-
way of the temple of Ceres the Lawgiver, laid
hold of the door-handles, and clung to them.
The others sought to drag him from his ref-
uge; but, finding themselves unable to tear
him away, they cut off his hands, and so took
him, leaving the hands still tightly grasping
the handles.

92. Such were the doings of the Eginetans
among themselves. When the Athenians ar-
rived, they went out to meet them with seven-
ty ships; and a battle took place, wherein the
Eginetans suffered a defeat. Hereupon they
had recourse again to their old allies, the Ar-
gives; but these latter refused now to lend
them any aid, being angry because some Egin-
etan ships, which Cleomcncs had taken by
force, accompanied him in his invasion of
Argolis, and joined in the disembarkation. The
same thing had happened at the same time
with certain vessels of the Sicyonians; and the
Argives had laid a fine of a thousand talents
upon the misdocrs, five hundred upon each:
whereupon they of Sicyon acknowledged
themselves to have sinned, and agreed with
the Argives to pay them a hundred talents, and
so be quit of the debt; but the Eginetans would
make no acknowledgment at all, and showed
themselves proud and stiff-necked. For this
reason, when they now prayed the Argives for
aid, the state refused to send them a single

soldier. Notwithstanding, volunteers joined
them from Argos to the number of a thousand,
under a captain, Eurybates, a man skilled in
the pentathlic contests. Of these men the great-
er part never returned, but were slain by the
Athenians in Egina. Eurybates, their captain,
fought a number of single combats, and, after
killing three men in this way, was himself
slain by the fourth, who was a Decelean,
named S6phanes.

93. Afterwards the Eginetans fell upon the
Athenian fleet when it was in some disorder and
beat it, capturing four ships with their crews.

94. Thus did war rage between the Egine-
tans and Athenians. Meantime the Persian
pursued his own design, from day to day ex-
horted by his servant to "remember the Athen-
ians," and likewise urged continually by the
Pisistratidae, who were ever accusing their
countrymen. Moreover it pleased him well to
have a pretext for carrying war into Greece,
that so he might reduce all those who had re-
fused to give him earth and water. As for Mar-
donius, since his expedition had succeeded so
ill, Darius took the command of the troops
from him, and appointed other generals in his
stead, who were to lead the host against Ere-
tria and Athens; to wit, Datis, who was by
descent a Mcde, and Artaphernes, the son of
Artaphernes, his own nephew. These men re-
ceived orders to carry Athens and Eretria
away captive, and to bring the prisoners into
his presence.

95. So the new commanders took their de-
parture from the court and went down to Ci-
licia, to the Aleian plain, having with them a
numerous and well-appointed land army. En-
camping here, they were joined by the sea force
which had been required of the several states,
and at the same time by the horse-transports
which Darius had, the year before, command-
ed his tributaries to make ready. Aboard these
the horses were embarked; and the troops
were received by the ships of war; after which
the whole fleet, amounting in all to six hun-
dred triremes, made sail for Ionia. Thence, in-
stead of proceeding with a straight course
along the shore to the Hellespont and to
Thrace, they loosed from Samos and voyaged
across the Icarian sea through the midst of the
islands; mainly, as I believe, because they
feared the danger of doubling Mount Athos,
where the year before they had suffered so
grievously on their passage; but a constraining
cause also was their former failure to take
Naxos.

204

HERODOTUS

[BOOK vi

96. When the Persians, therefore, approach-
ing from the Icarian Sea, cast anchor at Naxos,
which, recollecting what there befell them
formerly, they had determined to attack be-
fore any other state, the Naxians, instead of
encountering them, took to flight, and hurried
off to the hills. The Persians however succeed-
ed in laying hands on some, and them they
carried away captive, while at the same time
they burnt all the temples together with the
town. This done, they left Naxos, and sailed
away to the other islands.

97. While the Persians were thus employed,
the Delians likewise quitted Delos, and took
refuge in Tenos. And now the expedition drew
near, when Datis sailed forward in advance of
the other ships; commanding them, instead of
anchoring at Delos, to rendezvous at Rhenea,
over against Delos, while he himself proceeded
to discover whither the Delians had fled; after
which he sent a herald to them with this mes-
sage:—

"Why are ye fled, O holy men? Why have
ye judged me so harshly and so wrongfully? I
have surely sense enough, even had not the
king so ordered, to spare the country which
gave birth to the two gods — to spare, I say,
both the country and its inhabitants. Come
back therefore to your dwellings; and once
more inhabit your island."

Such was the message which Datis sent by
his herald to the Delians. He likewise placed
upon the altar three hundred talents' weight
of frankincense, and offered it.

98. After this he sailed with his whole host
against Eretria, taking with him both lonians
and jEohans. When he was departed, Delos
(as the Delians told me) was shaken by an
earthquake, the first and last shock that has
been telt to this 'day. And truly this was a
prodigy whereby the god warned men of the
evils that were coming upon them. For in the
three following generations of Darius the son
of Hystaspes, Xerxes the son of Darius, and
Artaxerxes the son of Xerxes, more woes befell
Greece than in the twenty generations preced-
ing Darius — woes caused in part by the Per-
sians, but in part arising from the contentions
among their own chief men respecting the su-
preme power. Wherefore it is not surprising
that Delos, though it had never before been
shaken, should at that time have felt the shock
of an earthquake. And indeed there was an
oracle, which said of Delos —

Delos9 self will I shal(et which never yet has been
shaken.

Of the above names Darius may be rendered
"Worker," Xerxes "Warrior," and Artaxerxes
"Great Warrior." And so might we call these
kings in our own language with propriety.

99. The barbarians, after loosing from De-
los, proceeded to touch at the other islands,
and took troops from each, and likewise car-
ried off a number of the children as hostages.
Going thus from one to another, they came at
last to Carystus; but here the hostages were
refused by the Carystians, who said they
would neither give any, nor consent to bear
arms against the cities of their neighbours,
meaning Athens and Eretria. Hereupon the
Persians laid siege to Carystus, and wasted the
country round, until at length the inhabitants
were brought over and agreed to do what was
required of them.

100. Meanwhile the Eretrians, understand-
ing that the Persian armament was coming
against them, besought the Athenians for as-
sistance. Nor did the Athenians refuse their
aid, but assigned to them as auxiliaries the
four thousand landholders to whom they had
allotted the estates of the Chalcidean Hippo-
batae. At Erctria, however, things were in no
healthy state; for though they had called in the
aid of the Athenians, yet they were not agreed
among themselves how they should act; some
of them were minded to leave the city and to
take refuge in the heights of Eubcea, while
others, who looked to receiving a reward from
the Persians, were making ready to betray
their country. So when these things came to
the ears of jEschines, the son of Nothon, one
of the first men in Eretria, he made known the
whole state of affairs to the Athenians who
were already arrived, and besought them to re-
turn home to their own land, and not perish
with his countrymen. And the Athenians
hearkened to his counsel, and, crossing over to
Oropus, in this way escaped the danger.

10 1. The Persian fleet now drew near and
anchored at Tamynac, Chcereae, and ^Egilia,
three places in the territory of Eretria. Once
masters of these posts, they proceeded forth-
with to disembark their horses, and made
ready to attack the enemy. But the Eretrians
were not minded to sally forth and offer battle;
their only care, after it had been resolved not
to quit the city, was, if possible, to defend their
walls. And now the fortress was assaulted in
good earnest, and for six days there fell on
both sides vast numbers, but on the seventh
day Euphorbus, the son of Alcimachus, and
Philagrus, the son of Cyneas, who were both

96-107]

THE HISTORY

205

citizens of good repute, betrayed the place to
the Persians. These were no sooner entered
within the walls than they plundered and
burnt all the temples that there were in the
town, in revenge for the burning of their own
temples at Sardis; moreover, they did accord-
ing to the orders of Darius, and carried away
captive all the inhabitants.

102. The Persians, having thus brought Er-
etria into subjection after waiting a few days,
made sail for Attica, greatly straitening the
Athenians as they approached, and thinking
to deal with them as they had dealt with the
people of Eretria. And, because there was no
place in all Attica so convenient for their horse
as Marathon, and it lay moreover quite close
to Eretria, therefore Hippias, the son of Pisis-
tratus, conducted them thither.

103. When intelligence of this reached the
Athenians, they likewise marched their troops
to Marathon, and there stood on the defensive,
having at their head ten generals, of whom one
was Miltiades.

Now this man's father, Cimon, the son of
Stesagoras, was banished from Athens by Pisis-
tratus, the son of Hippocrates. In his banish-
ment it was his fortune to win the four-horse
chariot-race at Olympia, whereby he gained
the very same honour which had before been
carried off by Miltiades, his half-brother on the
mother's side. At the next Olympiad he won
the prize again with the same mares; upon
which he caused Pisistratus to be proclaimed
the winner, having made an agreement with
him that on yielding him this honour he
should be allowed to come back to his country.
Afterwards, still with the same mares, he won
the prize a third time; whereupon he was put
to death by the sons of Pisistratus, whose father
was no longer living. They set men to lie in
wait for him secretly; and these men slew him
near the government-house in the night-time.
He was buried outside the city, beyond what is
called the Valley Road; and right opposite his
tomb were buried the mares which had won
the three prizes. The same success had like-
wise been achieved once previously, to wit, by
the mares of Evagoras the Lacedaemonian, but
never except by them. At the time of Cimon's
death Stesagoras, the elder of his two sons,
was in the Chersonese, where he lived with
Miltiades his uncle; the younger, who was
called Miltiades after the founder of the
Chersonesite colony, was with his father in
Athens.

104. It was this Miltiades who now com-

manded the Athenians, after escaping from
the Chersonese, and twice nearly losing nis life.
First he was chased as far as Imbrus by the
Phoenicians, who had a great desire to take
him and carry him up to the king; and when
he had avoided this danger, and, having
reached his own country, thought himself to
be altogether in safety, he found his enemies
waiting for him, and was cited by them before
a court and impeached for his tyranny in the
Chersonese. But he came off victorious here
likewise, and was thereupon made general of
the Athenians by the free choice of the people.

105. And first, before they left the city, the
generals sent off to Sparta a herald, one Phei-
dippides, who was by birth an Athenian, and
by profession and practice a trained runner.
This man, according to the account which he
gave to the Athenians on his return, when he
was near Mount Parthenium, above Tegea,
fell in with the god Pan, who called him by his
name, and bade him ask the Athenians
"wherefore they neglected him so entirely,
when he was kindly disposed towards them,
and had often helped them in times past, and
would do so again in time to come?" The
Athenians, entirely believing in the truth of
this report, as soon as their affairs were once
more in good order, set up a temple to Pan
under the Acropolis, and, in return for the
message which I have recorded, established in
his honour yearly sacrifices and a torch-race.

1 06. On the occasion of which we speak
when Pheidippides was sent by the Athenian
generals, and, according to his own account,
saw Pan on his journey, he reached Sparta on
the very next day after quitting the city of
Athens. Upon his arrival he went before the
rulers, and said to them: —

"Men of Lacedaemon, the Athenians beseech
you to hasten to their aid, and not allow that
state, which is the most ancient in all Greece,
to be enslaved by the barbarians. Eretria, look
you, is already carried away captive; and
Greece weakened by the loss of no mean city."

Thus did Pheidippides deliver the message
committed to him. And the Spartans wished to
help the Athenians, but were unable to give
them any present succour, as they did not like
to break their established law. It was then the
ninth day of the first decade; and they could
not march out of Sparta on the ninth, when
the moon had not reached the full. So they
waited for the full of the moon.

107. The barbarians were conducted to Mar-
athon by Hippias, the son of Pisistratus, who

206

HERODOTUS

[BOOK vi

the night before had seen a strange vision in
his sleep. He dreamt of lying in his mother's
arms, and conjectured the dream to mean that
he would be restored to Athens, recover the
power which he had lost, and afterwards live
to a good old age in his native country. Such
was the sense in which he interpreted the vi-
sion. He now proceeded to act as guide to the
Persians; and, in the first place, he landed the
prisoners taken from Eretria upon the island
that is called ,/Egileia, a tract belonging to the
Styreans, after which he brought the fleet to
anchor off Marathon, and marshalled the
bands of the barbarians as they disembarked.
As he was thus employed it chanced that he
sneezed and at the same time coughed with
more violence than was his wont. Now, as he
was a man advanced in years, and the greater
number of his teeth were loose, it so happened
that one of them was driven out with the force
of the cough, and fell down into the sand. Hip-
pias took all the pains he could to find it; but
the tooth was nowhere to be seen: whereupon
he fetched a deep sigh, and said to the bystand-
ers:—

"After all, the land is not ours; and we shall
never be able to bring it under. All my share
in it is the portion of which my tooth has pos-
session."

So Hippias believed that in this way his
dream was fulfilled.

1 08. The Athenians were drawn up in or-
der ot battle in a sacred close belonging to
Hercules, when they were joined by the Platae-
ans, who came in full force to their aid. Some
time before, the Plataeans had put themselves
under the rule of the Athenians; and these last
had already undertaken many labours on their
behalf. The occasion of the surrender was the
following. The Plataeans suffered grievous
things at the hands of the men of Thebes; so,
as it chanced that Cleomenes, the son of Anax-
andridas, and the Lacedarmonians were in
their neighbourhood, they first of all offered to
surrender themselves to them. But the Lacedae-
monians refused to receive them, and said: —

"We dwell too far off from you, and ours
would be but chill succour. Ye might often-
times be carried into slavery before one of us
heard of it. We counsel you rather to give your-
selves up to the Athenians, who are your next
neighbours, and well able to shelter you."

This they said, not so much out of good will
towards the Plataeans as because they wished
to involve the Athenians in trouble by engag-
ing them in wars with the Boeotians. The Pla-

taeans, however, when the Lacedaemonians
gave them this counsel, complied at once; and
when the sacrifice to the Twelve Gods was be-
ing offered at Athens, they came and sat as
suppliants about the altar, and gave themselves
up to the Athenians. The Thebans no sooner
learnt what the Plataeans had done than in-
stantly they marched out against them, while
the Athenians sent troops to their aid. As the
two armies were about to join battle, the Cor-
inthians, who chanced to be at hand, would
not allow them to engage; both sides consented
to take them for arbitrators, whereupon they
made up the quarrel, and fixed the boundary-
line between the two states upon this condi-
tion: to wit, that if any of the Boeotians wished
no longer to belong to Bceotia, the Thebans
should allow them to follow their own incli-
nations. The Corinthians, when they had thus
decreed, forthwith departed to their homes:
the Athenians likewise set off on their return;
but the Boeotians fell upon them during the
march, and a battle was fought wherein they
were worsted by the Athenians. Hereupon
these last would not be bound by the line
which the Corinthians had fixed, but advanced
beyond those limits, and made the Asopus the
boundary-line between the country of the The-
bans and that of the Plataeans and Hysians.
Under such circumstances did the Plataeans
give themselves up to Athens; and now they
were come to Marathon to bear the Athenians
aid.

109. The Athenian generals were divided
in their opinions; and some advised not to risk
a battle, because they were too few to engage
such a host as that of the Medes, while others
were for fighting at once; and among these
last was Miltiades. He therefore, seeing that
opinions were thus divided, and that the less
worthy counsel appeared likely to prevail, re-
solved to go to the Polemarch, and have a con-
ference with him. For the man on whom the
lot fell to be Polemarch at Athens was entitled
to give his vote with the ten generals, since
anciently the Athenians allowed him an equal
right of voting with them. The Polemarch at
this juncture was Callimachus of Aphidnae; to
him therefore Miltiades went, and said: —

"With thee it rests, Callimachus, either to
bring Athens to slavery, or, by securing her
freedom, to leave behind thee to all future gen-
erations a memory beyond even Harmodius
and Aristogeiton. For never since the time that
the Athenians became a people were they in
so great a danger as now. If they bow their

108-115]

THE HISTORY

207

necks beneath the yoke of the Medes, the woes
which they will have to suffer when given into
the power of Hippias are already determined
on; if, on the other hand, they fight and over-
come, Athens may rise to be the very first city
in Greece. How it comes to pass that these
things are likely to happen, and how the de-
termining of them in some sort rests with thee,
I will now proceed to make clear. We gener-
als are ten in number, and our votes are di-
vided; half of us wish to engage, half to avoid
a combat. Now, if we do not fight, I look to
see a great disturbance at Athens which will
shake men's resolutions, and then I fear they
will submit themselves; but if we fight the bat-
tle before any unsoundness show itself among
our citizens, let the gods but give us fair play,
and we are well able to overcome the enemy.
On thee therefore we depend in this matter,
which lies wholly in thine own power. Thou
hast only to add thy vote to my side and thy
country will be free, and not free only, but the
first state in Greece. Or, if thou preferrest to
give thy vote to them who would decline the
combat, then the reverse will follow."

no. Miltiades by these words gained Calli-
machus; and the addition of the Polemarch's
vote caused the decision to be in favour of
fighting. Hereupon all those generals who had
been desirous of hazarding a battle, when their
turn came to command the army, gave up
their right to Miltiades. He however, though
he accepted their offers, nevertheless waited,
and would not fight until his own day of com-
mand arrived in due course.

in. Then at length, when his own turn was
come, the Athenian battle was set in array, and
this was the order of it. Calhmachus the Pole-
march led the right wing; for it was at that
time a rule with the Athenians to give the
right wing to the Polemarch. After this fol-
lowed the tribes, according as they were num-
bered, in an unbroken line; while last of all
came the Plataeans, forming the left wing. And
ever since that day it has been a custom with
the Athenians, in the sacrifices and assemblies
held each fifth year at Athens, for the Atheni-
an herald to implore the blessing of the gods
on the Plataeans conjointly with the Atheni-
ans. Now, as they marshalled the host upon the
field of Marathon, in order that the Athenian
front might be of equal length with the Medi-
an, the ranks of the centre were diminished,
and it became the weakest part of the line,
while the wings were both made strong with
a depth of many ranks.

112. So when the battle was set in array,
and the victims showed themselves favourable,
instantly the Athenians, so soon as they were
let go, charged the barbarians at a run. Now
the distance between the two armies was little
short of eight furlongs. The Persians, there-
fore, when they saw the Greeks coming on at
speed, made ready to receive them, although it
seemed to them that the Athenians were bereft
of their senses, and bent upon their own de-
struction; for they saw a mere handful of men
coming on at a run without either horsemen
or archers. Such was the opinion of the bar-
barians; but the Athenians in close array fell
upon them, and fought in a manner worthy of
being recorded. They were the first of the
Greeks, so far as I know, who introduced the
custom of charging the enemy at a run, and
they were likewise the first who dared to look
upon the Median garb, and to face men clad
in that fashion. Until this time the very name
of the Medes had been a terror to the Greeks
to hear.

113. The two armies fought together on the
plain of Marathon for a length of time; and in
the mid battle, where the Persians themselves
and the Sacae had their place, the barbarians
were victorious, and broke and pursued the
Greeks into the inner country; but on the two
wings the Athenians and the Plataeans defeated
the enemy. Having so done, they suffered the
routed barbarians to fly at their ease, and join-
ing the two wings in one, fell upon those who
had broken their own centre, and fought and
conquered them. These likewise fled, and now
the Athenians hung upon the runaways and
cut them down, chasing them all the way to
the shore, on reaching which they laid hold of
the ships and called aloud for fire.

114. It was in the struggle here that Calli-
machus the Polemarch, after greatly distin-
guishing himself, lost his life; Stesilaiis too, the
son of Thrasilaiis, one of the generals, was
slain; and Cynaegirus, the son of Euphorion,
having seized on a vessel of the enemy's by the
ornament at the stern, had his hand cut off by
the blow of an axe, and so perished; as like-
wise did many other Athenians of note and
name.

115. Nevertheless the Athenians secured in
this way seven of the vessels; while with the re-
mainder the barbarians pushed off, and taking
aboard their Eretrian prisoners from the island
where they had left them, doubled Cape Suni-
um, hoping to reach Athens before the return
of the Athenians. The Alcmaeonidae were ac-

208

HERODOTUS

[BooK vi

cused by their countrymen of suggesting this
course to them; they had, it was said, an un-
derstanding with the Persians, and made a sig-
nal to them, by raising a shield, after they were
embarked in their ships.

1 1 6. The Persians accordingly sailed round
Sunium. But the Athenians with all possible
speed marched away to the defence of their
city, and succeeded in reaching Athens before
the appearance of the barbarians: and as their
camp at Marathon had been pitched in a pre-
cinct of Hercules, so now they encamped in an-
other precinct of the same god at Cynosarges.
The barbarian fleet arrived, and lay to off
Phalerum, which was at that time the haven of
Athens; but after resting awhile upon their
oars, they departed and sailed away to Asia.

117. There fell in this battle of Marathon,
on the side of the barbarians, about six thou-
sand and four hundred men; on that of the
Athenians, one hundred and ninety-two. Such
was the number of the slain on the one side and
the other. A strange prodigy likewise hap-
pened at this fight. Epizelus, the son of Cuph-
agoras, an Athenian, was in the thick of the
fray, and behaving himself as a brave man
should, when suddenly he was stricken with
blindness, without blow of sword or dart; and
this blindness continued thenceforth during
the whole of his after life. The following is the
account which he himself, as I have heard,
gave of the matter: he said that a gigantic war-
rior, with a huge beard, which shaded all his
shield, stood over against him; but the ghostly
semblance passed him by, and slew the man at
his side. Such, as I understand, was the tale
which Epizelus told.

118. Datis meanwhile was on his way back
to Asia, and had reached Myconus, when he
saw in his sleep a vision. What it was is not
known; but no sooner was day come than he
caused strict search to be made throughout the
whole fleet, and finding on board a Phoenician
vessel an image of Apollo overlaid with gold,
he inquired from whence it had been taken,
and learning to what temple it belonged, he
took it with him in his own ship to Delos, and
placed it in the temple there, enjoining the
Delians, who had now come back to their is-
land, to restore the image to the Theban Deli-
um, which lies on the coast over against Chal-
cis. Having left these injunctions, he sailed
away; but the Delians failed to restore the stat-
ue; and it was not till twenty years afterwards
that the Thebans, warned by an oracle, them-
selves brought it back to Delium.

119. As for the Eretrians, whom Datis and
Artaphernes had carried away captive, when
the fleet reached Asia, they were taken up to
Susa. Now King Darius, before they were
made his prisoners, nourished a fierce anger
against these men for having injured him
without provocation; but now that he saw
them brought into his presence, and become
his subjects, he did them no other harm, but
only settled them at one of his own stations in
Cissia — a place called Ardericca — two hun-
dred and ten furlongs distant from Susa, and
forty from the well which yields produce of
three different kinds. For from this well they
get bitumen, salt, and oil, procuring it in the
way that I will now describe: they draw with
a swipe, and instead of a bucket make use of
the half of a wine-skin; with this the man dips,
and after drawing, pours the liquid into a
reservoir, wherefrom it passes into another,
and there takes three different shapes. The salt
and the bitumen forthwith collect and harden,
while the oil is drawn off into casks. It is called
by the Persians "rhadinace," is black, and has
an unpleasant smell. Here then King Darius
established the Eretrians; and here they con-
tinued to my time, and still spoke their old
language. So thus it fared with the Eretrians.

120. After the full of the moon two thou-
sand Lacedaemonians came to Athens. So eager
had they been to arrive in time, that they took
but three days to reach Attica from Sparta.
They came, however, too late for the battle;
yet, as they had a longing to behold the Medes,
they continued their march to Marathon and
there viewed the slain. Then, after giving the
Athenians all praise for their achievement, they
departed and returned home.

121. But it fills me with wonderment, and
I can in no wise believe the report, that the
Alcmaeonidae had an understanding with the
Persians, and held them up a shield as a signal,
wishing Athens to be brought under the yoke
of the barbarians and of Hippias — the Alcma:-
onidae, who have shown themselves at least as
bitter haters of tyrants as was Callias, the son
of Phamippus, and father of Hipponicus. This
Cailias was the only person at Athens who,
when the Pisistratidae were driven out, and
their goods were exposed for sale by the vote
of the people, had the courage to make pur-
chases, and likewise in many other ways to
display the strongest hostility.

122. He was a man very worthy to be had in
remembrance by all, on several accounts. For
not only did he thus distinguish himself be-

116-127]

THE HISTORY

209

yond others in the cause of his country's free-
dom; but likewise, by the honours which he
gained at the Olympic Games, where he car-
ried off the prize in the horse-race, and was
second in the four-horse chariot-race, and by
his victory at an earlier period in the Pythian
Games, he showed himself in the eyes of all the
Greeks a man most unsparing in his expendi-
ture. He was remarkable too for his conduct
in respect of his daughters, three in number;
for when they came to be of marriageable age,
he gave to each of them a most ample dowry,
and placed it at their own disposal, allowing
them to choose their husbands from among all
the citizens of Athens, and giving each in mar-
riage to the man of her own choice.1

123. Now the Alcmaeonidae fell not a whit
short of this person in their hatred of tyrants,
so that I am astonished at the charge made
against them, and cannot bring myself to be-
lieve that they held up a shield; for they were
men who had remained in exile during the
whole time that the tyranny lasted, and they
even contrived the trick by which the Pisistra-
tidae were deprived of their throne. Indeed I
look upon them as the persons who in good
truth gave Athens her freedom far more than
Harmodius and Aristogeiton. For these last
did but exasperate the other Pisistratidac by
slaying Hipparchus, and were far from doing
anything towards putting down the tyranny;
whereas the Alcmaeonidae were manifestly the
actual deliverers of Athens, if at least it be
true that the Pythoness was prevailed upon
by them to bid the Lacedaemonians set Athens
free, as I have already related.

124. But perhaps they were offended with
the people of Athens; and therefore betrayed
their country. Nay, but on the contrary there
were none of the Athenians who were held in
such general esteem, or who were so laden
with honours. So that it is not even reasonable
to suppose that a shield was held up by them
on this account. A shield was shown, no doubt;
that cannot be gainsaid; but who it was that
showed it I cannot any further determine.

125. Now the Alcmaeonidae were, even in
days of yore, a family of note at Athens; but
from the time of Alcmseon, and again of Meg-
acles, they rose to special eminence. The form-
er of these two personages, to wit, Alcma?on,
the son of Megacles, when Croesus the Lydian
sent men from Sardis to consult the Delphic

!This chapter is generally regarded as an in-
terpolation. It is wanting in several of the best
MSS.

oracle, gave aid gladly to his messengers, and
assisted them to accomplish their task. Croesus,
informed of Alcmzon's kindnesses by the
Lydians who from time to time conveyed his
messages to the god, sent for him to Sardis,
and when he arrived, made him a present of
as much gold as he should be able to carry at
one time about his person. Finding that this
was the gift assigned him, Alcmaeon took his
measures, and prepared himself to receive it
in the following way. He clothed himself in a
loose tunic, which he made to bag greatly at
the waist, and placing upon his feet the widest
buskins that he could anywhere find, followed
his guides into the treasure-house. Here he fell
to upon a heap of gold-dust, and in the first
place packed as much as he could inside his
buskins, between them and his legs; after
which he filled the breast of his tunic quite full
of gold, and then sprinkling some among his
hair, and taking some likewise in his mouth,
he came forth from the treasure-house, scarce-
ly able to drag his legs along, like anything
rather than a man, with his mouth crammed
full, and his bulk increased every way. On see-
ing him, Croesus burst into a laugh, and not
only let him have all that he had taken, but
gave him presents besides of fully equal worth.
Thus this house became one of great wealth;
and Alcmaeon was able to keep horses for the
chariot-race, and won the prize at Olympia.

126. Afterwards, in the generation which
followed, Clisthenes, king of Sicyon, raised the
family to still greater eminence among the
Greeks than even that to which it had attained
before. For this Clisthenes, who was the son
of Aristonymus, the grandson of Myron, and
the great-grandson of Andreas, had a daugh-
ter, called Agarista, whom he wished to marry
to the best husband that he could find in the
whole of Greece. At the Olympic Games, there-
fore, having gained the prize in the chariot-
race, he caused public proclamation to be made
to the following effect: — "Whoever among the
Greeks deems himself worthy to become the
son-in-law of Clisthenes, let him come, sixty
days hence, or, if he will, sooner, to Sicyon; for
within a year's time, counting from the end of
the sixty days, Clisthenes will decide on the
man to whom he shall contract his daughter."
So all the Greeks who were proud of their own
merit or of their country flocked to Sicyon as
suitors; and Clisthenes had a foot-course and
a wrestling-ground made ready, to try their
powers.

127. From Italy there came Smindyrides,

210

HERODOTUS

[BOOK vi

the son of Hippocrates, a native of Sybaris —
which city about that time was at the very
height of its prosperity. He was a man who
in luxuriousncss of living exceeded all other
persons. Likewise there came Damasus, the
son of Amyris, surnamed the Wise, a native of
Siris. These two were the only suitors from
Italy. From the Ionian Gulf appeared Am-
phimncstus, the son of Epistrophus, an Epi-
damnian; from ^Etolia Males, the brother of
that Titormus who excelled all the Greeks in
strength, and who wishing to avoid his fellow-
men, withdrew himself into the remotest parts
of the ^Etolian territory. From the Pelopon-
nesc came several — Leocedes, son of that Phei-
don, king of the Argives, who established
weights and measures throughout the Pelopon-
nese, and was the most insolent of all the
Grecians — the same who drove out the Elean
directors of the Games, and himself presided
over the contests at Olympia — Leocedes, I
say, appeared, this Pheidon's son; and likewise
Amiantus, son of Lycurgus, an Arcadian of the
city of Trapezus; Laphanes, an Azenian of
Paeus, whose father, Euphorion, as the story
goes in Arcadia, entertained the Dioscuri at
his residence, and thenceforth kept open
house for all comers; and lastly, Onomastus,
the son of Agxus, a native of Elis. These four
came from the Peloponnese. From Athens
there arrived Megacles, the son of that Alcmae-
on who visited Croesus, and Tisander's son,
Hippoclides, the wealthiest and handsomest of
the Athenians. There was likewise one Eu-
bcean, Lysanias, who came from Eretria, then
a flourishing city. From Thessaly came Diac-
torides, a Cranonian, of the race -of the Sco-
padae; and Alcon arrived from the Molossians.
This was the list of the suitors.

128. Now when they were ail come, and the
day appointed had arrived, Clisthenes first of
all inquired of each concerning his country
and his family; after which he kept them with
him a year, and made trial of their manly bear-
ing, their temper, their accomplishments, and
their disposition, sometimes drawing them
apart for converse, sometimes bringing them
all together. Such as were still youths he took
with him from time to time to the gymnasia;
but the greatest trial of all was at the banquet-
table. During the whole period of their stay he
lived with them as I have said; and, further,
from first to last he entertained them sumptu-
ously. Somehow or other the suitors who came
from Athens pleased him the best of all; and
of these Hippoclides, Tisander's son, was

specially in favour, partly on account of his
manly bearing, and partly also because his
ancestors were of kin to the Corinthian Cypse-
lids.

129. When at length the day arrived which
had been fixed for the espousals, and Clisthenes
had to speak out and declare his choice, he first
of all made a sacrifice of a hundred oxen, and
held a banquet, whereat he entertained all the
suitors and the whole people of Sicyon. After
the feast was ended, the suitors vied with each
other in music and in speaking on a given
subject. Presently, as the drinking advanced,
Hippoclides, who quite dumbfoundered the
rest, called aloud to the flute-player, and bade
him strike up a dance; which the man did, and
Hippoclides danced to it. And he fancied that
he was dancing excellently well; but Clisthe-
nes, who was observing him, began to mis-
doubt the whole business. Then Hippoclides,
after a pause, told an attendant to bring in a
table; and when it was brought, he mounted
upon it and danced first of all some Laconian
figures, then some Attic ones; after which he
stood on his head upon the table, and began to
toss his legs about. Clisthenes, notwithstand-
ing that he now loathed Hippoclides for a son-
in-law, by reason of his dancing and his
shamelessness, still, as he wished to avoid an
outbreak, had restrained himself during the
first and likewise during the second dance;
when, however, he saw him tossing his legs
in the air, he could no longer contain himself,
but cried out, "Son of Tisander, thou hast
danced thy wife away!" "What does Hippo-
clides care?" was the other's answer. And
hence the proverb arose.

130. Then Clisthenes commanded silence,
and spake thus before the assembled com-
pany:—

"Suitors of my daughter, well pleased am I
with you all; and right willingly, if it were pos-
sible, would I content you all, and not by mak-
ing choice of one appear to put a slight upon
the rest. But as it is out of my power, seeing
that I have but one daughter, to grant to all
their wishes, I will present to each of you
whom I must needs dismiss a talent of silver,
for the honour that you have done me in seek-
ing to ally yourselves with my house, and for
your long absence from your homes. But my
daughter, Agarista, I betroth to Megacles, the
son of Alcmaeon, to be his wife, according to
the usage and wont of Athens/'

Then Megacles expressed his readiness; and
Clisthenes had the marriage solemnised.

128-136]

THE HISTORY

211

131. Thus ended the affair of the suitors;
and thus the Alcmaeonidae came to be famous
throughout the whole of Greece. The issue of
this marriage was the Clisthenes — so named
after his grandfather the Sicyonian — who
made the tribes at Athens, and set up the pop-
ular government. Megacles had likewise an-
other son, called Hippocrates, whose children
were a Megacles and an Agarista, the latter
named after Agarista the daughter of Clis-
thenes. She married Xanthippus, the son of
Ariphron; and when she was with child by
him had a dream, wherein she fancied that she
was delivered of a lion; after which, within a
few days, she bore Xanthippus a son, to wit,
Pericles.

132. After the blow struck at Marathon,
Miltiades, who was previously held in high es-
teem by his countrymen, increased yet more in
influence. Hence, when he told them that he
wanted a fleet of seventy ships, with an armed
force, and money, without informing them
what country he was going to attack, but only
promising to enrich them if they would ac-
company him, seeing that it was a right
wealthy land, where they might easily get as
much gold as they cared to have — when he
told them this, they were quite carried away,
and gave him the whole armament which he
required.

133. So Miltiades, having got the armament,
sailed against Paros, with the object, as he al-
leged, of punishing the Parians for having gone
to war with Athens, inasmuch as a trireme of
theirs had come with the Persian fleet to Mara-
thon. This, however, was a mere pretence; the
truth was, that Miltiades owed the Parians a
grudge, because Lysagoras, the son of Tisias,
who was a Parian by birth, had told tales
against him to Hydarnes the Persian. Arrived
before the place against which his expedition
was designed, he drove the Parians within
their walls, and forthwith laid siege to the
city. At the same time he sent a herald to the
inhabitants, and required of them a hundred
talents, threatening that, if they refused, he
would press the siege, and never give it over
till the town was taken. But the Parians, with-
out giving his demand a thought, proceeded
to use every means that they could devise for
the defence of their city, and even invented
new plans for the purpose, one of which was,
by working at night, to raise such parts of the
wall as were likely to be carried by assault to
double their former height.

134. Thus far all the Greeks agree in their

accounts of this business; what follows is re-
lated upon the testimony of the Parians only.
Miltiades had come to his wit's end, when one
of the prisoners, a woman named Timo, who
was by birth a Parian, and had held the office
of under-priestess in the temple of the infernal
goddesses, came and conferred with him. This
woman, they say, being introduced into the
presence of Miltiades, advised him, if he set
great store by the capture of the place, to do
something which she could suggest to him.
When therefore she had told him what it was
she meant, he betook himself to the hill which
lies in front of the city, and there leapt the
fence enclosing the precinct of Ceres Thes-
mophorus, since he was not able to open the
door. After leaping into the place he went
straight to the sanctuary, intending to do
something within it — either to remove some of
the holy things which it was not lawful to stir,
or to perform some act or other, I cannot say
what — and had just reached the door, when
suddenly a feeling of horror came upon him,
and he returned back the way he had come;
but in jumping down from the outer wall, he
strained his thigh, or, as some say, struck the
ground with his knee.

135. So Miltiades returned home sick, with-
out bringing the Athenians any money, and
without conquering Paros, having done no
more than to besiege the town for six-and-
twenty days, and ravage the remainder of the
island. The Parians, however, when it came
to their knowledge that Timo, the under-pries-
tess of the goddesses, had advised Miltiades
what he should do, were minded to punish
her for her crime; they therefore sent messen-
gers to Delphi, as soon as the siege was at an
end, and asked the god if they should put the
under-priestess to death. "She had discovered,"
they said, "to the enemies of her country how
they might bring it into subjection, and had
exhibited to Miltiades mysteries which it was
not lawful for a man to know." But the Pytho-
ness forbade them, and said, "Timo was not
in fault; 'twas decreed that Miltiades should
come to an unhappy end; and she was sent to
lure him to his destruction." Such was the an-
swer given to the Parians by the Pythoness.

136. The Athenians, upon the return of Mil-
tiades from Paros, had much debate concern-
ing him; and Xanthippus, the son of Ari-
phron, who spoke more freely against him
than all the rest, impleaded him before the peo-
ple, and brought him to trial for his life, on
the charge of having dealt deceitfully with the

212

HERODOTUS

[BooK vi

Athenians. Miltiades, though he was present in
court, did not speak in his own defence; for his
thigh had begun to mortify, and disabled him
from pleading his cause. He was forced to lie
on a couch while his defence was made by his
friends, who dwelt at most length on the fight
at Marathon, while they made mention also
of the capture of Lemnos, telling how Milti-
ades took the island, and, after executing ven-
geance on the Pelasgians, gave up his conquest
to Athens. The judgment of the people was in
his favour so far as to spare his life; but for the
wrong he had done them they fined him fifty
talents. Soon afterwards his thigh completely
gangrened and mortified: and so Miltiades
died; and the fifty talents were paid by his son
Cimon.

137. Now the way in which Miltiades had
made himself master of Lemnos was the fol-
lowing. There were certain Pelasgians whom
the Athenians once drove out of Attica; wheth-
er they did it justly or unjustly I cannot say,
since I only know what is reported concern-
ing it, which is the following: Hecataeus, the
son of Hegesander, says in his History that it
was unjustly. "The Athenians," according to
him, "had given to the Pclasgi a tract of land
at the foot of Hymettus as payment for the
wall with which the Pelasgians had surround-
ed their citadel. This land was barren, and lit-
tle worth at the time; but the Pelasgians
brought it into good condition; whereupon the
Athenians begrudged them the tract, and de-
sired to recover it. And so, without any better
excuse, they took arms and drove out the Pelas-
gians." But the Athenians maintain that they
were justified in what they did. "The Pelasgi-
ans," they say, "while they lived at the foot of
Hymettus, were wont to sally forth from that
region and commit outrages on their children.
For the Athenians used at that time to send
their sons and daughters to draw water at the
fountain called 'the Nine Springs,' inasmuch
as neither they nor the other Greeks had any
household slaves in those days; and the maid-
ens, whenever they came, were used rudely
and insolently by the Pelasgians. Nor were
they even content thus; but at the last they
laid a plot, and were caught by the Athenians
in the act of making an attempt upon their
city. Then did the Athenians give a proof how
much better men they were than the Pelas-
gians; for whereas they might justly have
killed them all, having caught them in the very
act of rebelling, they spared their lives, and
only required that they should leave the coun-

try. Hereupon the Pelasgians quitted Attica,
and settled in Lemnos and other places." Such
are the accounts respectively of Hecataeus and
the Athenians.

138. These same Pelasgians, after they were
settled in Lemnos, conceived the wish to be re-
venged on the Athenians. So, as they were well
acquainted with the Athenian festivals, they
manned some penteconters, and having laid
an ambush to catch the Athenian women as
they kept the festival of Diana at Brauron,
they succeeded in carrying off a large number,
whom they took to Lemnos and there kept as
concubines. After a while the women bore chil-
dren, whom they taught to speak the language
of Attica and observe the manners of the
Athenians. These boys refused to have any
commerce with the sons of the Pelasgian wom-
en; and if a Pelasgian boy struck one of their
number, they all made common cause, and
joined in avenging their comrade; nay, the
Greek boys even set up a claim to exercise lord-
ship over the others, and succeeded in gaining
the upper hand. When these things came to the
ears of the Pelasgians, they took counsel to-
gether, and, on considering the matter, they
grew frightened, and said one to another, "If
these boys even now are resolved to make com-
mon cause against the sons of our lawful
wives, and seek to exercise lordship over them,
what may we expect when they grow up to be
men?" Then it seemed good to the Pelasgians
to kill all the sons of the Attic women; which
they did accordingly, and at the same time slew
likewise their mothers. From this deed, and
that former crime of the Lemnian women,
when they slew their husbands in the days of
Thoas, it has come to be usual throughout
Greece to call wicked actions by the name of
"Lemnian deeds."

139. When the Pelasgians had thus slain
their children and their women, the earth re-
fused to bring forth its fruits for them, and
their wives bore fewer children, and their
flocks and herds increased more slowly than
before, till at last, sore pressed by famine and
bereavement, they sent men to Delphi, and
begged the god to tell them how they might
obtain deliverance from their sufferings. The
Pythoness answered that "they must give the
Athenians whatever satisfaction they might
demand." Then the Pelasgians went to Athens
and declared their wish to give the Athenians
satisfaction for the wrong which they had
done to them. So the Athenians had a couch
prepared in their townhall, and adorned it

137-14° ]

THE HISTORY

213

with the fairest coverlets, and set by its side a
table laden with all manner of good things,
and then told the Pelasgians they must de-
liver up their country to them in a similar con-
dition. The Pelasgians answered and said,
"When a ship comes with a north wind from
your country to ours in a single day, then will
we give it up to you." This they said because
they knew that what they required was impos-
sible, for Attica lies a long way to the south of
Lemnos.

140. No more passed at that time. But very
many years afterwards, when the Hellespon-

tian Chersonese had been brought under the
power of Athens, Miltiades, the son of Cimon,
sailed, during the prevalence of the Etesian
winds, from Elxus in the Chersonese to Lem-
nos, and called on the Pelasgians to quit their
island, reminding them of the prophecy which
they had supposed it impossible to fulfil. The
people of Hephaestia obeyed the call; but they
of Myrina, not acknowledging the Chersonese
to be any part of Attica, refused and were be-
sieged and brought over by force. Thus was
Lemnos gained by the Athenians and Milti-
ades.

The Seventh Book, Entitled
POLYMNIA

I. Now when tidings of the battle that had
been fought at Marathon reached the ears of
King Darius, the son of Hystaspcs, his anger
against the Athenians, which had been al-
ready roused by their attack upon Sardis,
waxed still fiercer, and he became more than
ever eager to lead an army against Greece. In-
stantly he sent off messengers to make procla-
mation through the several states that fresh
levies were to be raised, and these at an in-
creased rate; while ships, horses, provisions,
and transports were likewise to be furnished.
So the men published his commands; and now
all Asia was in commotion by the space of
three years, while everywhere, as Greece was
to be attacked, the best and bravest were en-
rolled for the service, and had to make their
preparations accordingly.

After this, in the fourth year, the Egyptians
whom Cambyses had enslaved revolted from
the Persians; whereupon Darius was more hot
for war than ever, and earnestly desired to
march an army against both adversaries.

2. Now, as he was about to lead forth his
levies against Egypt and Athens, a fierce con-
tention for the sovereign power arose among
his sons; since the law of the Persians was that
a king must not go out with his army, until
he has appointed one to succeed him upon the
throne. Darius, before he obtained the king-
dom, had had three sons born to him from his
former wife, who was a daughter of Gobryas;
while, since he began to reign, Atossa, the
daughter of Cyrus, had borne him four. Arta-
bazanes was the eldest of the first family, and
Xerxes of the second. These two, therefore,
being the sons of different mothers, were now
at variance. Artabazanes claimed the crown as
the eldest of all the children, because it was an
established custom all over the world for the
eldest to have the pre-eminence; while Xerxes,
on the other hand, urged that he was sprung

214

from Atossa, the daughter of Cyrus, and that
it was Cyrus who had won the Persians their
freedom.

3. Before Darius had pronounced on the
matter, it happened that Demaratus, the son of
Ariston, who had been deprived of his crown
at Sparta, and had afterwards, of his own ac-
cord, gone into banishment, came up to Susa,
and there heard of the quarrel of the princes.
Hereupon, as report says, he went to Xerxes,
and advised him, in addition to all that he had
urged before, to plead — that at the time when
he was born Darius was already king, and bore
rule over the Persians; but when Artabazanes
came into the world, he was a mere private
person. It would therefore be neither right nor
seemly that the crown should go to another in
preference to himself. "For at Sparta," said
Demaratus, by way of suggestion, "the law is
that if a king has sons before he comes to the
throne, and another son is born to him after-
wards, the child so born is heir to his father's
kingdom." Xerxes followed this counsel, and
Darius, persuaded that he had justice on his
side, appointed him his successor. For my own
part I believe that, even without this, the
crown would have gone to Xerxes; for Atossa
was all-powerful.

4. Darius, when he had thus appointed Xer-
xes his heir, was minded to lead forth his ar-
mies; but he was prevented by death while his
preparations were still proceeding. He died in
the year following the revolt of Egypt and the
matters here related, after having reigned in
all six-and-thirty years, leaving the revolted
Egyptians and the Athenians alike unpun-
ished. At his death the kingdom passed to his
son Xerxes.

5. Now Xerxes, on first mounting the
throne, was coldly disposed towards the Gre-
cian war, and made it his business to collect
an army against Egypt. But Mardonius, the

THE HISTORY

215

son of Gobryas, who was at the court, and had
more influence with him than any of the other
Persians, being his own cousin, the child of a
sister of Darius, plied him with discourses like
the following: —

"Master, it is not fitting that they of Athens
escape scot-free, after doing the Persians such
great injury. Complete the work which thou
hast now in hand, and then, when the pride of
Egypt is brought low, lead an army against
Athens. So shalt thou thyself have good report
among men, and others shall fear hereafter to
attack thy country."

Thus far it was of vengeance that he spoke;
but sometimes he would vary the theme, and
observe by the way, "that Europe was a won-
drous beautiful region, rich in all kinds of cul-
tivated trees, and the soil excellent: no one,
save the king, was worthy to own such a land."

6. All this he said, because he longed for
adventures, and hoped to become satrap of
Greece under the king; and after a while he
had his way, and persuaded Xerxes to do ac-
cording to his desires. Other things, however,
occurring about the same time, helped his per-
suasions. For, in the first place, it chanced
that messengers arrived from Thessaly, sent by
the Aleuadae, Thessalian kings, to invite Xer-
xes into Greece, and to promise him all the as-
sistance which it was in their power to give.
And further, the Pisistratidae, who had come
up to Susa, held the same language as the
Aleuadae, and worked upon him even more
than they, by means of Onomacritus of Athens,
an oracle-monger, and the same who set forth
the prophecies of Musxus in their order. The
Pisistratidae had previously been at enmity
with this man, but made up the quarrel before
they removed to Susa. He was banished from
Athens by Hipparchus, the son of Pisistratus,
because he foisted into the writings of Musae-
us a prophecy that the islands which lie off
Lemnos would one day disappear in the sea.
Lasus of Hermione caught him in the act of
so doing. For this cause Hipparchus banished
him, though till then they had been the closest
of friends. Now, however, he went up to Susa
with the sons of Pisistratus, and they talked
very grandly of him to the king; while he, for
his part, whenever he was in the king's com-
pany, repeated to him certain of the oracles;
and while he took care to pass over all that
spoke of disaster to the barbarians, brought
forward the passages which promised them
the greatest success. " Twas fated," he told
Xerxes, "that a Persian should bridge the Hel-

lespont, and march an army from Asia into
Greece." While Onomacritus thus plied Xer-
xes with his oracles, the Pisistratidae and Aleu-
adae did not cease to press on him their advice,
till at last the king yielded, and agreed to lead
forth an expedition.

7. First, however, in the year following the
death of Darius, he marched against those who
had revolted from him; and having reduced
them, and laid all Egypt under a tar harder
yoke than ever his father had put upon it, he
gave the government to Achxmenes, who was
his own brother, and son to Darius. This
Achaemenes was afterwards slain in his gov-
ernment by Inaros, the son of Psammetichus,
a Libyan.

8. (§ i.) After Egypt was subdued, Xer-
xes, being about to take in hand the expedition
against Athens, called together an assembly of
the noblest Persians to learn their opinions,
and to lay before them his own designs. So,
when the men were met, the king spake thus
to them: —

"Persians, I shall not be the first to bring in
among you a new custom — I shall but follow
one which has come down to us from our fore-
fathers. Never yet, as our old men assure me,
has our race reposed itself, since the time when
Cyrus overcame Astyages, and so we Persians
wrested the sceptre from the Medes. Now in
all this God guides us; and we, obeying his
guidance, prosper greatly. What need have I
to tell you of the deeds of Cyrus and Cam-
byses, and my own father Darius, how many
nations they conquered, and added to our do-
minions? Ye know right well what great
things they achieved. But for myself, I will say
that, from the day on which I mounted the
throne, I have not ceased to consider by what
means I may rival those who have preceded
me in this post of honour, and increase the
power of Persia as much as any of them. And
truly I have pondered upon this, until at last
I have found out a way whereby we may at
once win glory, and likewise get possession of
a land which is as large and as rich as our own
— nay, which is even more varied in the fruits
it bears — while at the same time we obtain
satisfaction and revenge. For this cause I have
now called you together, that I may make
known to you what I design to do. (§ 2.) My
intent is to throw a bridge over the Hellespont
and march an army through Europe against
Greece, that thereby I may obtain vengeance
from the Athenians for the wrongs committed
by them against the Persians and against my

216

HERODOTUS

[BOOK vii

father. Your own eyes saw the preparations of
Darius against these men; but death came
upon him, and balked his hopes of revenge. In
his behalf, therefore, and in behalf of all the
Persians, I undertake the war, and pledge my-
self not to rest till I have taken and burnt Ath-
ens, which has dared, unprovoked, to injure
me and my father. Long since they came to
Asia with Aristagoras of Miletus, who was one
of pur slaves, and, entering Sardis, burnt its
temples and its sacred groves; again, more
lately, when we made a landing upon their
coast under Datis and Artaphernes, how
roughly they handled us ye do not need to be
told. (§3*) For these reasons, therefore, I am
bent upon this war; and I see likewise there-
with united no few advantages. Once let us
subdue this people, and those neighbours of
theirs who hold the land of Pelops the Phrygi-
an, and we shall extend the Persian territory
as far as God's heaven reaches. The sun will
then shine on no land beyond our borders; for
I will pass through Europe from one end to the
other, and with your aid make of all the lands
which it contains one country. For thus, if
what I hear be true, affairs stand: the nations
whereof I have spoken, once swept away, there
is no city, no country left in all the world,
which will venture so much as to withstand us
in arms. By this course then we shall bring all
mankind under our yoke, alike those who are
guilty and those who are innocent of doing us
wrong. (§ 4.) For yourselves, if you wish to
please me, do as follows: when I announce
the time for the army to meet together, hasten
to the muster with a good will, every one of
you; and know that to the man who brings
with him the most gallant array I will give the
gifts which our people consider the most hon-
ourable. This then is what ye have to do. But
to show that I am not self-willed in this matter,
I lay the business before you, and give you full
leave to speak your minds upon it openly."

Xerxes, having so spoken, held his peace.

9. (§ i.) Whereupon Mardonius took the
word, and said: —

"Of a truth, my lord, thou dost surpass, not
only all living Persians, but likewise those yet
unborn. Most true and right is each word that
thou hast now uttered; but best of all thy re-
solve not to let the lonians who live in Europe
— a worthless crew — mock us any more. It were
indeed a monstrous thing if, after conquering
and enslaving the Sacae, the Indians, the Ethi-
opians, the Assyrianst and many other mighty
nations, not for any wrong that they had done

us, but only to increase our empire, we should
then allow the Greeks, who have done us such
wanton injury, to escape our vengeance. What
is it that we fear in them? — not surely their
numbers? — not the greatness of their wealth?
We know the manner of their battle — we
know how weak their power is; already have
we subdued their children who dwell in our
country, the lonians, ^Eolians, and Dorians. I
myself have had experience of these men when
I marched against them by the orders of thy
father; and though I went as far as Macedonia,
and came but a little short of reaching Athens
itself, yet not a soul ventured to come out
against me to battle. (§ 2.) And yet, I am told,
these very Greeks are wont to wage wars
against one another in the most foolish
way, through sheer perversity and doltishness,
For no sooner is war proclaimed than they
search out the smoothest and fairest plain that
is to be found in all the land, and there they
assemble and fight; whence it comes to pass
that even the conquerors depart with great
loss: I say nothing of the conquered, for they
are destroyed altogether. Now surely, as they
are all of one speech, they ought to interchange
heralds and messengers, and make up their
differences by any means rather than battle; or,
at the worst, if they must needs fight one
against another, they ought to post themselves
as strongly as possible, and so try their quar-
rels. But, notwithstanding that they have so
foolish a manner of warfare, yet these Greeks,
when I led my army against them to the very
borders of Macedonia, did not so much as
think of offering me battle. (§ 3.) Who then
will dare, O king! to meet thee in arms, when
thou comest with all Asia's warriors at thy
back, and with all her ships? For my part I
do not believe the Greek people will be so
foolhardy. Grant, however, that I am mistaken
herein, and that they are foolish enough to
meet us in open fight; in that case they will
learn that there are no such soldiers in the
whole world as we. Nevertheless let us spare
no pains; for nothing comes without trouble;
but all that men acquire is got by painstak-
ing."

When Mardonius had in this way softened
the harsh speech of Xerxes, he too held his
peace.

10. [§ i.] The other Persians were silent; all
feared to raise their voice against the plan pro-
posed to them. But Artabanus, the son of Hys-
tases, and uocle of Xerxes, trusting to his rela-
bold to speak:-*--"Q king!" he

THE HISTORY

217

said, "it is impossible, if no more than one opin-
ion is uttered, to make choice of the best: a man
is forced then to follow whatever advice may
have been given him; but if opposite speeches
are delivered, then choice can be exercised. In
like manner pure gold is not recognised by
itself; but when we test it along with baser ore,
we perceive which is the better. I counselled
thy father, Darius, who was my own brother,
not to attack the Scyths, a race of people who
had no town in their whole land. He thought
however to subdue those wandering tribes,
and would not listen to me, but marched an
army against them, and ere he returned home
lost many of his bravest warriors. Thou art
about, O king! to attack a people far superior
to the Scyths, a people distinguished above oth-
ers both by land and sea, 'Tis fit therefore that
I should tell thee what danger thou incurrest
hereby. (§ 2.) Thou sayest that thou wilt
bridge the Hellespont, and lead thy troops
through Europe against Greece. Now suppose
some disaster befall thee by land or sea, or by
both. It may be even so; for the men are re-
puted valiant. Indeed one may measure their
prowess from what they have already done;
for when Datis and Artaphernes led their huge
army against Attica, the Athenians singly de-
feated them. But grant they are not successful
on both elements. Still, if they man their ships,
and, defeating us by sea, sail to the Hellespont,
and there destroy our bridge — that, sire, were
a fearful hazard. (§ 3.) And here 'tis not by
my own mother wit alone that I conjecture
what will happen; but I remember how nar-
rowly we escaped disaster once, when thy
father, after throwing bridges over the Thra-
cian Bosphorus and the Ister, marched against
the Scythians, and they tried every sort of
prayer to induce the lonians, who had charge
of the bridge over the Ister, to break the pas-
sage. On that day, if Histiaeus, the king of
Miletus, had sided with the other princes, and
not set himself to oppose their views, the em-
pire of the Persians would have come to
nought. Surely a dreadful thing is this even to
hear said, that the king's fortunes depended
wholly on one man.

(§4.) "Think then no more of incurring so
great a danger when no need presses, but fol-
low the advice I tender. Break up this meeting,
and when thou hast well considered the mat-
ter with thyself, and settled what thou wilt do,
declare to us thy resolve. I know not of aught
in the world that so profits a man as taking
good counsel with himself; for even if things

fall out against one's hopes, still one has coun-
selled weu, though fortune has made the coun-
sel of none effect: whereas if a man counsels
ill and luck follows, he has gotten a windfall,
but his counsel is none the less silly. (§ 5.)
Seest thou how God with his lightning smites
always the bigger animals, and will not suffer
them to wax insolent, while those of a lesser
bulk chafe him not? How likewise his bolts
fall ever on the highest houses and the tallest
trees? So plainly does He love to bring down
everything that exalts itself. Thus ofttimes a
mighty host is discomfited by a few men, when
God in his jealousy sends fear or storm from
heaven, and they perish in a way unworthy of
them. For God allows no one to have high
thoughts but Himself. (§ 6.) Again, hurry al-
ways brings about disasters, from which huge
sufferings are wont to arise; but in delay lie
many advantages, not apparent (it may be)
at first sight, but such as in course of time are
seen of all. Such then is my counsel to thee, O
king!

(§7.) "And thou, Mardonius, son of Go-
bryas, forbear to speak foolishly concerning
the Greeks, who are men that ought not to be
lightly esteemed by us. For while thou revilest
the Greeks, thou dost encourage the king to
lead his own troops against them; and this, as
it seems to me, is what thou art specially striv-
ing to accomplish. Heaven send thou succeed
not to thy wish ! For slander is of all evils the
most terrible. In it two men do wrong, and one
man has wrong done to him. The slanderer
does wrong, forasmuch as he abuses a man be-
hind his back; and the hearer, forasmuch as he
believes what he has not searched into thor-
oughly. The man slandered in his absence suf-
fers wrong at the hands of both: for one brings
against him a false charge; and the other
thinks him an evildoer. (§ 8.) If, however, it
must needs be that we go to war with this peo-
ple, at least allow the king to abide at home in
Persia. Then let thee and me both stake our
children on the issue, and do thou choose out
thy men, ^nd, taking with thee whatever num-
ber of troops thou likest, lead forth our armies
to battle. If things go well for the king, as
thou sayest they will, let me and my children
be put to death; but if they fall out as I proph-
esy, let thy children suffer, and thyself too, if
thou shalt come back alive. But shouldest thou
refuse this wager, and still resolve to march an
army against Greece, sure I am that some of
those whom thou leavest behind thee here will
one day receive the sad tidings that Mardoni-

218

HERODOTUS

[BOOK vii

us has brought a great disaster upon the Per-
sian people, and lies a prey to dogs and birds
somewhere in the land of the Athenians, or
else in that of the Laceda-momans; unless in-
deed thou shalt have perished sooner by the
way, experiencing in thy own person the
might of those men on whom thou wouldcst
fain induce the king to make war."

ir. Thus spake Artabanus. Hut Xerxes, full
of wrath, replied to him: —

"Artabanus, thou art my father's brother —
that shall save thec from receiving the due
meed of thy silly words. One shame however
I will lay upon thee, coward and faint-hearted
as thou art — thou shalt not come with me to
fight these Greeks, but shalt tarry here with
the women. Without thy aid I will accomplish
all of which I spake. For let me not be thought
the child of Darius, the son of- Hystaspes, the
son of Arsamcs, the son of Ariaramnes, the son
of Teispes, the son of Cyrus, the son of Cam-
by ses, the son of Teispes, the son of Acha>
mcnes, if I take not vengeance on the Atheni-
ans. Full well I know that, were we to remain
at rest, yet would not they, but would most
certainly invade our country, if at least it be
right to judge from what they have already
done; tor, remember, it was they who fired
Sardis and attacked Asia. So now retreat is on
both sides impossible, and the choice lies be-
tween doing and suffering injury; either our
empire must pass under the dominion of the
( i reeks, or their land become the prey of the
Persians; for there is no middle course left in
this quarrel. It is right then that we, who have
in times past received wrong, should now
avenge it, and that I should thereby discover
what that great risk is which I run in march-
ing against these men — men whom Pelops the
Phrygian, a vassal of my forefathers, subdued
so utterly, that to this day both the land, and
the people who dwell therein, alike bear the
name of the conqueror'"

12. Thus far did the speaking proceed.
Afterwards evening fell; and Xerxes began to
find the advice of Artabanus greatly disquiet
him. So he thought upon it during the night,
and concluded at last that it was not for his ad-
vantage to lead an army into Greece. When he
had thus made up his mind anew, he fell
asleep. And now he saw m the night, as the
Persians declare, a vision of this nature — he
thought a tall and beautiful man stood over
him and said, "Hast thou then changed thy
mind, Persian, and wilt thou not lead forth
thy host against the Greeks, after commanding

the Persians to gather together their levies?
Be sure thou doest not well to change; nor is
there a man here who will approve thy con-
duct. The course that thou didst determine on
during the day, let that be followed." After
thus speaking the man seemed to Xerxes to fly
away.

13. Day dawned; and the king made no ac-
count of this dream, but called together the
same Persians as before, and spake to them as
follows: —

"Men of Persia, forgive me if I alter the re-
solve to which I came so lately. Consider that
I have not yet reached to the full growth of my
wisdom, and that they who urge me to engage
in this war leave me not to myself for a mo-
ment. When I heard the advice of Artabanus,
my young blood suddenly boiled; and I spake
words against him little befitting his years:
now however 1 confess my fault, and am re-
solved to follow his counsel. Understand then
that I have changed my intent with respect to
carrying war into Greece, and cease to trouble
yourselves."

When they heard these words, the Persians
were full of joy, and, falling down at the feet
of Xerxes, made obeisance to him.

14. Hut when night came, again the same
vision stood over Xerxes as he slept, and said,
"Son of Darius, it seems thou hast openly be-
fore all the Persians renounced the expedition,
making light of my words, as though thou
hadst not heard them spoken. Know therefore
and be well assured, that unless thou go forth
to the war, this thing shall happen unto thce —
as thou art grown mighty and puissant in a
short space, so likewise shalt thou within a lit-
tle time be brought low indeed."

15. Then Xerxes, greatly frightened at the
vision which he had seen, sprang from his
couch, and sent a messenger to call Artabanus,
who came at the summons, when Xerxes spoke
to him in these words: —

"Artabanus, at the moment I acted foolishly,
when I gave thee ill words in return for thy
good advice. However it was not long ere I
repented, and was convinced that thy counsel
was such as I ought to follow. But I may not
now act in this way, greatly as I desire to do
so. For ever since I repented and changed my
mind a dream has haunted me, which disap-
proves my intentions, and has now just gone
from me with threats. Now if this dream is
sent to me from God, and if it is indeed his
will that our troops should march against
Greece, thou too wilt have the same dream

THE HISTORY

219

come to thee and receive the same commands
as myself. And this will be most sure to hap-
pen, I think, if thou puttest on the dress which
I am wont to wear, and then, after taking thy
seat upon my throne, liest down to sleep on
my bed."

r 6. Such were the words of Xerxes. Arta-
banus would not at first yield to the command
of the king; for he deemed himself unworthy
to sit upon the royal throne. At the last how-
ever he was forced to give way, and did as
Xerxes bade him; but first he spake thus to the
king [§ i.]:—

"To me, sire, it seems to matter little wheth-
er a man is wise himself or willing to hearken
to such as give good advice. In thee truly are
found both tempers; but the counsels of evil
men lead thee astray: they are like the gales of
wind which vex the sea — else the most useful
thing for man in the whole world — and suffer
it not to follow the bent of its own nature. For
myself, it irked me not so much to be re-
proached by thee, as to observe that when two
courses were placed before the Persian people,
one of a nature to increase their prule, the
other to humble it, by showing them how hurt-
ful it is to allow one's heart always to covet
more than one at present possesses, thou
madest choice of that which was the worse
both for thyseli and for the Persians. (§ 2.)
Now thou sayest that from the time when
thou didst approve the better course, and give
up the thought of warring against Greece, a
dream has haunted thee, sent by some god or
other, which will not suffer thee to lay aside
the expedition. But such things, my son, have
of a truth nothing divine in them. The dreams
that wander to and fro among mankind, I
will tell thee of what nature they are — I who
have seen so many more years than thou.
Whatever a man has been thinking of during
the day is wont to hover round him in the
visions of his dreams at night. Now we during
these many days past have had our hands full
of this enterprise. (§ 3.) If however the matter
be not as I suppose, but God has indeed some
part therein, thou hast in brief declared the
whole that can be said concerning it — let it
e'en appear to me as it has to thee, and lay on
me the same injunctions. But it ought not to
appear to me any the more if I put on thy
clothes than if I wear my own, nor if I go to
sleep in thy bed than if I do so in mine — sup-
posing, I mean, that it is about to appear at all.
For this thing, be it what it may, that visits
thee in thy sleep, surely is not so far gone in

folly as to see me, and because I am dressed in
thy clothes, straightway to mistake me for
thee. Now however our business is to see if it
will regard me as of small account, and not
vouchsafe to appear to me, whether I wear
mine own clothes or thine, while it keeps on
haunting thee continually. If it does so, and
appears often, I should myselt say that it was
from God. For the rest, if thy mind is fixed,
and it is not possible to turn thee irom thy de-
sign, but I must needs go and sleep in thy bed,
well and good, let it be even so; and when I
have done as thou wishcst, then let the dream
appear to me. Till such time, however, I shall
keep to my former opinion."

17. Thus spake Artabanus; and when he
had so said, thinking to show Xerxes that his
words were nought, he did according to his
orders. Having put on the garments which
Xerxes was wont to wear and taken his seat
upon the royal throne, he lay down to sleep
upon the king's own bed. As he slept, there ap-
peared to him the very same dream which had
been seen by Xerxes; it came and stood over
Artabanus, and said: —

"Thou art the man, then, who, feigning to
be tender of Xerxes, seekest to dissuade him
from leading his armies against the Greeks!
But thou shalt not escape scathless, either now
or in time to come, because thou hast sought
to prevent that which is fated to happen. As
for Xerxes, it has been plainly told to himself
what will befall him, if he refuses to perform
my bidding."

1 8. In such words, as Artabanus thought,
the vision threatened him, and then endeav-
oured to burn out his eyes with red-hot irons.
At this he shrieked, and, leaping from his
couch, hurried to Xerxes, and, sitting down at
his side, gave him a full account of the vision;
after which he went on to speak in the words
which follow: —

"I, O King! am a man who have seen many
mighty empires overthrown by weaker ones;
and therefore it was that I sought to hinder
thee from being quite carried away by thy
youth; since I knew how evil a thing it is to
covet more than one possesses. I could remem-
ber the expedition of Cyrus against the Mas-
sagetx, and what was the issue of it; I could
recollect the march of Cambyses against the
Ethiops; I had taken part in the attack of Dar-
ius upon the Scyths — bearing therefore all
these things in mind, I thought with myself
that if thou shouldst remain at peace, all men
would deem thee fortunate. But as this im-

220

HERODOTUS

[BOOK vn

pulse has plainly come from above, and a
heaven-sent destruction seems about to over-
take the Greeks, behold, I change to another
mind, and alter my thoughts upon the matter.
Do thou therefore make known to the Per-
sians what the gt>d has declared, and bid them
follow the orders which were first given, and
prepare their levies. Be careful to act so that
the bounty of the god may not be hindered by
slackness on thy part."

Thus spake these two together; and Xerxes,
being in good heart on account of the vision,
when day broke, laid all before the Persians;
while Artabanus, who had formerly been the
only person openly to oppose the expedition,
now showed as openly that he favoured it.

19. After Xerxes had thus determined to go
forth to the war, there appeared to him in his
sleep yet a third vision. The Magi wore con-
sulted upon it, and said that its meaning
reached to the whole earth, and that all man-
kind would become his servants. Now the
vision which the king saw was this: he dreamt
that he was crowned with a branch of an
olive tree, and that boughs spread out from the
olive branch and covered the whole earth; then
suddenly the garland, as it lay upon his brow,
vanished. So when the Magi had thus inter-
preted the vision, straightway all the Persians
who were come together departed to their
several governments, where each displayed the
greatest zeal, on the faith of the king's offers.
For all hoped to obtain for themselves the gifts
which had been promised. And so Xerxes
gathered together his host, ransacking every
corner of the continent.

20. Reckoning from the recovery of Egypt,
Xerxes spent four full years in collecting his
host, and making ready all things that were
needful for his soldiers. It was not till the close
of the filth year that he set forth on his march,
accompanied by a mighty multitude. For of
all the armaments whereof any mention has
reached us, this was by far the greatest; inso-
much that no other expedition compared to
this seems of any account, neither that which
Darius undertook against the Scythians, nor
the expedition of the Scythians (which the
attack of Darius was designed to avenge),
when they, being in pursuit of the Cimme-
rians, fell upon the Median territory, and sub-
dued and held for a time almost the whole of
Upper Asia; nor, again, that of the Atridae
against Troy, of which we hear in story; nor
that of the Mysians and Teucrians, which was
still eailier, wherein these nations crossed the

Bosphorus into Europe, and, after conquering
all Thrace, pressed forward till they came to
the Ionian Sea, while southward they reached
as far as the river Peneus.

21. All these expeditions, and others, if such
there were, are as nothing compared with this.
For was there a nation in all Asia which Xerx-
es did not bring with him against Greece? Or
was there a river, except those of unusual
size, which sufficed for his troops to drink?
One nation furnished ships; another was ar-
rayed among the foot-soldiers; a third had to
supply horses; a fourth, transports for the
horse and men likewise for the transport serv-
ice; a fifth, ships of war towards the bridges;
a sixth, ships and provisions.

22. And in the first place, because the former
fleet had met with so great a disaster about
Athos, preparations were made, by the space
of about three years, in that quarter. A fleet of
triremes lay at Elaeus in the Chersonese; and
from this station detachments were sent by the
various nations whereof the army was com-
posed, which relieved one another at intervals,
and worked at a trench beneath the lash of
taskmasters; while the people dwelling about
Athos bore likewise a part in the labour. Two
Persians, Bubares, the son of Megabazus, and
Artacha?es, the son of Arta:us, superintended
the undertaking.

Athos is a great and famous mountain, in-
habited by men, and stretching far out into the
sea. Where the mountain ends towards the
mainland it forms a peninsula; and in this
place there is a neck of land about twelve fur-
longs across, the whole extent whereof, from
the sea of the Acanthians to that over against
Torone, is a level plain, broken only by a few
low hills. Here, upon this isthmus where Athos
ends, is Sand, a Greek city. Inside of Sane, and
upon Athos itself, are a number of towns,
which Xerxes was now employed in disjoining
from the continent: these are Dium, Olophyx-
us, Acrothoum, Thyssus, and Cleonac. Among
these cities Athos was divided.

23. Now the manner in which they dug was
the following: a line was drawn across by the
city of Sane; and along this the various nations
parcelled out among themselves the work to
be done. When the trench grew deep, the
workmen at the bottom continued to dig,
while others handed the earth, as it was dug
out, to labourers placed higher up upon lad-
ders, and these taking it, passed it on farther,
till it came at last to those at the top, who
carried it off and emptied it away. All the

19-29]

THE HISTORY

221

other nations, therefore, except the Phoeni-
cians, had double labour; for the sides of the
trench fell in continually, as could not but
happen, since they made the width no greater
at the top than it was required to be at the
bottom. But the Phoenicians showed in this the
skill which they are wont to exhibit in all
their undertakings. For in the portion of the
work which was allotted to them they began
by making the trench at the top twice as wide
as the prescribed measure, and then as they
dug downwards approached the sides nearer
and nearer together, so that when they reached
the bottom their part of the work was of the
same width as the rest. In a meadow near,
there was a place of assembly and a market;
and hither great quantities of corn, ready
ground, were brought from Asia.

24. It seems to me, when I consider this
work, that Xerxes, in making it, was actuated
by a feeling of pride, wishing to display the
extent of his power, and to leave a memorial
behind him to posterity. For notwithstanding
that it was open to him, with no trouble at
all, to have had his ships drawn across the
isthmus, yet he issued orders that a canal
should be made through which the sea might
flow, and that it should be of such a width as
would allow of two triremes passing through
it abreast with the oars in action. He likewise
gave to the same persons who were set over the
digging of the trench, the task of making a
bridge across the river Strymon.

25. While these things were in progress, he
was having cables prepared for his bridges,
some of papyrus and some of white flax, a
business which he entrusted to the Phoeni-
cians and the Egyptians. He likewise laid up
stores of provisions in divers places, to save
the army and the beasts of burthen from suf-
fering want upon their march into Greece. He
inquired carefully about all the sites, and had
the stores laid up in such as were most con-
venient, causing them to be brought across
from various parts of Asia and in various ways,
some in transports and others in merchantmen.
The greater portion was carried to Leuce-Acte*,
upon the Thracian coast; some part, however,
was conveyed to Tyrodiza, in the country of
the Perinthians, some to Doriscus, some to
Eion upon the Strymon, and some to Mace-
donia.

26. During the time that all these labours
were in progress, the land army which had
been collected was marching with Xerxes
towards Sardis, having started from Critalla

in Cappadocia. At this spot all the host which
was about to accompany the king in his pass-
age across the continent had been bidden to
assemble. And here I have it not in my power
to mention which of the satraps was adjudged
to have brought his troops in the most gallant
array, and on that account rewarded by the
king according to his promise; for I do not
know whether this matter ever came to a
judgment. But it is certain that the host of
Xerxes, after crossing the river Halys, marched
through Phrygia till it reached the city of Ce-
laena1. Here are the sources of the river Ma>
ander, and likewise of another stream of no
less size, which bears the name ot Catarrhactes
(or the Cataract); the last-named river has its
rise in the market-place of Celama?, and emp-
ties itself into the Mseander. Here, too, in this
market-place, is hung up to view the skin of
the Silenus Marsyas, which Apollo, as the
Phrygian story goes, stripped off and placed
there.

27. Now there lived in this city a certain
Pythius, the son of Atys, a Lydian. This man
entertained Xerxes and his whole army in a
most magnificent fashion, offering at the same
time to give him a sum of money for the war.
Xerxes, upon the mention of money, turned
to the Persians who stood by, and asked of
them, "Who is this Pythius, and what wealth
has he, that he should venture on such an offer
as this?" They answered him, "This is the
man, O king! who gave thy father Darius the
golden plane-tree, and likewise the golden
vine; and he is still the wealthiest man we
know of in all the world, excepting thee."

28. Xerxes marvelled at these last words;
and now, addressing Pythius with his own
lips, he asked him what the amount of his
wealth really was. Pythius answered as fol-
lows:—

"O king! I will not hide this matter from
thee, nor make pretence that I do not know
how rich I am; but as I know perfectly, I will
declare all fully before thee. For when thy
journey was noised abroad, and I heard thou
wert coming down to the Grecian coast,
straightway, as I wished to give thee a sum of
money for the war, I made count of my stores,
and found them to be two thousand talents of
silver, and of gold four millions of Daric
staters, wanting seven thousand. All this I
willingly make over to thee as a gift; and when
it is gone, my slaves and my estates in land
will be wealth enough for my wants."

29. This speech charmed Xerxes, and he re-

222

HERODOTUS

BOOK vn

plied, "Dear Lydian, since I left Persia there
is no man but thou who has either desired to
entertain my army, or come forward of his
own free will to offer me a sum of money for
the war. Thou hast done both the one and the
other, feasting my troops magnificently, and
now making offer of a right noble sum. In
return, this is what I will bestow on thee.
Thou shalt be my sworn friend from this day;
and the seven thousand staters which are
wanting to make up thy four millions I will
supply, so that the full tale may be no longer
lacking, and that thou mayest owe the comple-
tion of the round sum to me. Continue to
enjoy all that thou hast acquired hitherto; and
be sure to remain ever such as thou now art.
If thou dost, thou wilt not repent of it so long
as thy life endures."

30. When Xerxes had so spoken and had
made good his promises to Pythius, he pressed
forward upon his march; and passing Anaua,
a Phrygian city, and a lake from which salt is
gathered, he came to Colossa!, a Phrygian city
of great size, situated at a spot where the river
Lycus plunges into a chasm and disappears.
This river, after running under ground a dis-
tance of about five furlongs, reappears once
more, and empties itself, like the stream above
mentioned, into the Mxandcr. Leaving Co-
lossa:, the army approached the borders of
Phrygia where it abuts on Lydia; and here
they came to a city called Cydrara, where was
a pillar set up by Croesus, having an inscrip-
tion on it, showing the boundaries of the two
countries.

31. Where it quits Phrygia and enters Lydia
the road separates; the way on the left leads
into Caria, while that on the right conducts
to Sarclis. If you follow this route, you must
cross the Macandcr, and then pass by the city
Callatebus, where the men live who make
honey out of wheat and the fruit of the tama-
risk. Xerxes, who chose this way, found here
a plane-tree so beautiful, that he presented it
with golden ornaments, and put it under the
care of one of his Immortals. The day after,
he entered the Lydian capital.

32. Here his first care was to send off heralds
into Greece, who were to prefer a demand for
earth and water, and to require that prepara-
tions should be made everywhere to feast the
king. To Athens indeed and to Sparta he sent
no such demand; but these cities excepted, his
messengers went everywhere. Now the reason
why he sent for earth and water to states which
had already refused was this: he thought that

although they had refused when Darius made
the demand, they would now be too frightened
to venture to say him nay. So he sent his her-
alds, wishing to know for certain how it
would be.

33. Xerxes, after this, made preparations to
advance to Abydos, where the bridge across
the Hellespont from Asia to Europe was lately
finished. Midway between Sestos and Ma-
dytus in the Hellespontme Chersonese, and
right over against Abydos, there is a rocky
tongue of land which runs out for some dis-
tance into the sea. This is the place where no
long time afterwards the Greeks under Xan-
thippus, the son of Ariphron, took Artayctes
the Persian, who was at that time governor of
Sestos, and nailed him living to a plank. He
was the Artayctes who brought women into
the temple of Protesilaiis at Elacus, and there
was guilty of most unholy deeds.

34. Towards this tongue of land then, the
men to whom the business was assigned car-
ried out a double bridge from Abydos; and
while the Phoenicians constructed one line
with cables of white flax, the Egyptians in the
other used ropes made of papyrus. Now it is
seven furlongs across from Abydos to the op-
posite coast. When, therefore, the channel had
been bridged successfully, it happened that a
great storm arising broke the whole work to
pieces, and destroyed all that had been done.

3«v So when Xerxes heard of it he was full
of wrath, and straightway gave orders that
the Hellespont should receive three hundred
lashes, and that a pair of fetters should be cast
into it. Nay, I have even heard it said that he
bade the brandcrs take their irons and there-
with brand the Hellespont. It is certain that he
commanded those who scourged the waters to
utter, as they lashed them, these barbarian and
wicked words: "Thou bitter water, thy lord
lays on thec this punishment because thou hast
wronged him without a cause, having suffered
no evil at his hands. Verily King Xerxes will
cross thee, whether thou wilt or no. Well dost
thou deserve that no man should honour thec
with sacrifice; for thou art of a truth a treach-
erous and unsavoury river." While the sea
was thus punished by his orders, he likewise
commanded that the overseers of the work
should lose their heads.

36. Then they, whose business it was, ex-
ecuted the unpleasing task laid upon them;
and other master-builders were set over the
work, who accomplished it in the way which
I will now describe.

3o-4o ]

They joined together triremes and pente-
conters, 360 to support the bridge on the side
of the Euxine Sea, and 314 to sustain the
other; and these they placed at right angles
to the sea, and in the direction ot the current
of the Hellespont, relieving by these means
the tension of the shore cables. Having joined
the vessels, they moored them with anchors
ok unusual size, that the vessels of the bridge
towards the Euxine might resist the winds
which blow from within the straits, and that
those of the more western bridge facing the
Egean might withstand the winds which set
in from the south and from the south-east.
A gap was left in the pentecontcrs in no fewer
than three places, to afford a passage for such
light craft as chose to enter or leave the Eux-
ine. When all this was done, they made the
cables taut from the shore by the help of wood-
en capstans. This time, moreover, instead of
using the two materials separately, they as-
signed to each bridge six cables, two of which
were ot white flax, while four were of papyrus.
Both cables were of the same size and quality;
but the flaxen were the heavier, weighing not
less than a talent the cubit. When the bridge
across the channel was thus complete, trunks
of trees were sawn into planks, which were
cut to the width of the bridge, and these were
laid side by side upon the tightened cables,
and then fastened on the top. This done,
brushwood was brought, and arranged upon
the planks, after which earth was heaped upon
the brushwood, and the whole trodden down
into a solid mass. Lastly a bulwark was set up
on either side of this causeway, of such a
height as to prevent the sumpter-beasts and
the horses from seeing over it and taking fright
at the water.

37. And now when all was prepared — the
bridges, and the works at Athos, the break-
waters about the mouths of the cutting, which
were made to hinder the surf from blocking
up the entrances, and the cutting itself; and
when the news came to Xerxes that this last
was completely finished — then at length the
host, having first wintered at Sardis, began its
march towards Abydos, fully equipped, on
the first approach of spring. At the moment
ot departure, the sun suddenly quitted his seat
in the heavens, and disappeared, though there
were no clouds in sight, but the sky was clear
and serene. Day was thus turned into night;
whereupon Xerxes, who saw and remarked
the prodigy, was seized with alarm, and send-
ing at once for the Magians, inquired of them

THE HISTORY

223

the meaning of the portent. They replied —
"God is foreshowing to the Greeks the destruc-
tion of their cities; for the sun foretells for
them, and the moon for us." So Xerxes, thus
instructed, proceeded on his way with great
gladness of heart.

38. The army had begun its march, when
Pythius the Lydian, affrighted at the heaven-
ly portent, and emboldened by his gifts, came
to Xerxes and said — "Grant me, O my lord1
a favour which is to thee'a light matter, but
to me of vast account." Then Xerxes, who
looked for nothing less than such a prayer as
Pythius in fact preferred, engaged to grant him
whatever he wished, and commanded him to
tell his wish freely. So Pythius, full of bold-
ness, went on to say: —

"O my lord! thy servant has five sons; and
it chances that all are called upon to join thec
in this march against Greece. I beseech thee,
have compassion upon my years; and let one
of my sons, the eldest, remain behind, to be
my prop and stay, and the guardian of my
wealth. Take with thee the other four; and
when thou hast done all that is in thy heart,
mayest thou come back in safety."

39. But Xerxes was greatly angered, and re-
plied to him: "Thou wretch! darest thou speak
to me of thy son, when I am myself on the
march against Greece, with sons, and brothers,
and kinsfolk, and friends? Thou, who art my
bond-slave, and art in duty bound to follow
me with all thy household, not excepting thy
wife! Know that man's spirit dwellcth in his
ears, and when it hears good things, straight-
way it fills all his body with delight; but no
sooner does it hear the contrary than it heaves
and swells with passion. As when thou didst
good deeds and madcst good offers to me,
thou wert not able to boast of having outdone
the king in bountifulness, so now when thou
art changed and grown impudent, thou shalt
not receive all thy deserts, but less. For thyseli
and four of thy five sons, the entertainment
which I had of thec shall gain protection; but
as for him to whom thou clmgest above the
rest, the forfeit of his life shall be thy punish-
ment." Having thus spoken, forthwith he com-
manded those to whom such tasks were as-
signed to seek out the eldest of the sons of
Pythius, and having cut his body asunder, to
place the two halves, one on the right, the
other on the left, of the great road, so that the
army might march out between them.

40. Then the king's orders were obeyed;
and the army marched out between the two

224

HERODOTUS

[BOOK vn

halves of the carcase. First of all went the
baggage-bearers, and the sumpter-bcasts, and
then a vast crowd of many nations mingled
together without any intervals, amounting to
more than one half of the army. After these
troops an empty space was left, to separate be-
tween them and the king. In front of the king
went first a thousand horsemen, picked men of
the Persian nation — then spearmen a thou-
sand, likewise chosen troops, with their spear-
heads pointing towards the ground — next ten
of the sacred horses called Nissan, all daintily
caparisoned. (Now these horses arc called Ni-
saean, because they come from the Nisaran
plain, a vast flat in Media, producing horses
of unusual size.) After the ten sacred horses
came the holy chariot of Jupiter, drawn by
eight milk-white steeds, with the charioteer on
foot behind them holding the reins; for no
mortal is ever allowed to mount into the car.
Next to this came Xerxes himself, riding in a
chariot drawn by Nisaean horses, with his
charioteer, Patiramphes, the son of Otanes, a
Persian, standing by his side.

41. Thus rode forth Xerxes from Sardis —
but he was accustomed every now and then,
when the fancy took him, to alight from his
chariot and travel in a litter. Immediately be-
hind the king there followed a body of a thou-
sand spearmen, the noblest and bravest of the
Persians, holding their lances in the usual man-
ner— then came a thousand Persian horse,
picked men — then ten thousand, picked also
after the rest, and serving on foot. Of these
last one thousand carried spears with golden
pomegranates at their lower end instead of
spikes; and these encircled the other nine thou-
sand, who bore on their spears pomegranates
ofr silver. The spearmen too who pointed their
lances towards the ground had golden pome-
granates; and the thousand Persians who fol-
lowed close after Xerxes had golden apples.
Behind the ten thousand footmen came a body
of Persian cavalry, likewise ten thousand; after
which there was again a void space for as much
as two furlongs; and then the rest of the army
followed in a confused crowd.

42. The march of the army, after leaving
Lydia, was directed upon the river Caicus and
the land of Mysia. Beyond the Caicus the road,
leaving Mount Cana upon the left, passed
through the Atarnean plain, to the city of
Carina. Quitting this, the troops advanced
across the plain of Thebe, passing Adramyt-
tium, and Antandrus, the Pelasgic city; then,
holding Mount Ida upon the left hand, it

entered the Trojan territory. On this march
the Persians suffered some loss; for as they
bivouacked during the night at the foot of Ida,
a storm of thunder and lightning burst upon
them, and killed no small number.

43. On reaching the Scamander, which was
the first stream, of all that they had crossed
since they left Sardis, whose water failed them
and did not suffice to satisfy the thirst of men
and cattle, Xerxes ascended into the Pergamus
of Priam, since he had a longing to behold the
place. When he had seen everything, and in-
quired into all particulars, he made an offer-
ing of a thousand oxen to the Trojan Minerva,
while the Magians poured libations to the
heroes who were slain at Troy. The night after,
a panic fell upon the camp: but in the morn-
ing they set off with daylight, and skirting on
the left hand the towns Rhoeteum, Ophryne-
um, and Dardanus (which borders on Aby-
dos), on the right the Tcucnans of Gergis, so
reached Abydos.

44. Arrived here, Xerxes wished to look
upon all his host; so as there was a throne of
white marble upon a hill near the city, which
they of Abydos had prepared beforehand, by
the king's bidding, for his especial use, Xerxes
took his seat on it, and, gazing thence upon the
shore below, beheld at one view all his land
forces and all his ships. While thus employed,
he felt a desire to behold a sailing-match
among his ships, which accordingly took place,
and was won by the Phoenicians of Sidon,
much to the joy of Xerxes, who was delighted
alike with the race and with his army.

45. And now, as he looked and saw the
whole Hellespont covered with the vessels of
his fleet, and all the shore and every plain
about Abydos as full as possible of men, Xerxes
congratulated himself on his good fortune;
but after a little while he wept.

46. Then Artabanus, the king's uncle (the
same who at the first so freely spake his mind
to the king, and advised him not to lead his
army against Greece), when he heard that
Xerxes was in tears, went to him, and said: —

"How different, sire, is what thou art now
doing, from what thou didst a little while ago!
Then thou didst congratulate thyself; and
now, behold! thou weepest."

"There came upon me," replied he, "a sud-
den pity, when I thought of the shortness of
man's life, and considered that of all this host,
so numerous as it is, not one will be alive when
a hundred years are gone by."

"And yet there are sadder things in life than

THE HISTORY

22S

that," returned the other. "Short as our time
is, there is no man, whether it be here among
this multitude or elsewhere, who is so happy,
as not to have felt the wish — I will not say once,
but full many a time — that he were dead rather
than alive. Calamities fall upon us; sicknesses
vex and harass us, and make life, short though
it be, to appear long. So death, through the
wretchedness of our life, is a most sweet refuge
to our race: and God, who gives us the tastes
that we enjoy of pleasant times, is seen, in his
very gift, to be envious."

47. "True," said Xerxes; "human life is even
such as thou hast painted it, O Artabanus! But
for this very reason let us turn our thoughts
from it, and not dwell on what is so sad, when
pleasant things are in hand. Tell me rather, if
the vision which we saw had not appeared so
plainly to thyself, wouldst thou have been still
of the same mind as formerly, and have con-
tinued to dissuade me from warring against
Greece, or wouldst thou at this time think dif-
ferently ? Come now, tell me this honestly."

"O king!" replied the other, "may the dream
which hath appeared to us have such issue as
we both desire' For my own part, I am still
full of fear, and have scarcely power to control
myself, when I consider all our dangers, and
especially when I see that the two things which
arc of most consequence are alike opposed to
thec."

48. "Thou strange man!" said Xerxes in re-
ply— "what, I pray thee, are the two things
thou speakest of ? Does my land army seem to
thee too small in number, and will the Greeks,
thinkest thou, bring into the field a more
numerous host? Or is it our fleet which thou
deemest weaker than theirs? Or art thou fear-
ful on both accounts? If in thy judgment we
fall short in either respect, it were easy to bring
together with all speed another armament."

49. "O king!" said Artabanus, "it is not
possible that a man of understanding should
find fault with the size ot thy army or the
number of thy ships. The more thou addest to
these, the more hostile will those two things,
whereof I spake, become. Those two things
are the land and the sea. In all the wide sea
there is not, I imagine, anywhere a harbour
large enough to receive thy vessels, in case a
storm arise, and afford them a sure protection.
And yet thou wilt want, not one such harbour
only, but many in succession, along the entire
coast by which thou art about to make thy
advance. In default then of such harbours, it
is well to bear in mind that chances rule men,

and not men chances. Such is the first of the
two dangers; and now I will speak to thee ot
the second. The land will also be thine enemy;
for if no one resists thy advance, as thou pro-
ceedest farther and farther, insensibly allured
onwards (for who is ever sated with success?),
thou wilt find it more and more hostile. I
mean this, that, should nothing else withstand
thee, yet the mere distance, becoming greater
as time goes on, will at last produce a famine.
Methmks it is best for men, when they take
counsel, to be timorous, and imagine all possi-
ble calamities, but when the time tor action
comes, then to deal boldly."

50. Whereto Xerxes answered — "There is
reason, O Artabanus' in everything which
thou hast said; but I pray thee, fear not all
things alike, nor count up every risk. For if in
each matter that comes before us thou wilt look
to all possible chances, never wilt thou achieve
anything. Far better is it to have a stout heart
always, and suffer one's share of evils, than
to be ever fearing what may happen, and never
incur a mischance. Moreover, it thou wilt op-
pose whatever is said by others, without thy-
self showing us the sure course which we
ought to take, thou art as likely to lead us into
failure as they who advise differently; for thou
art but on a par with them. And as for that
sure course, how canst thou show it us when
thou art but a man? I do not believe thou
canst. Success for the most part attends those
who act boldly, not those who weigh every-
thing, and are slack to venture. Thou seest to
how great a height the power of Persia has
now reached — never would it have grown to
this point if they who sate upon the throne be-
fore me had been like-minded with thee, or
even, though not like-minded, had listened to
councillors of such a spirit. 'Twas by brave ven-
tures that they extended their sway; for great
empires can only be conquered by great risks.
We follow then the example of our fathers in
making this march; and we set forward at the
best season of the year; so, when we have
brought Europe under us, we shall return,
without suffering from want or experiencing
any other calamity. For while on the one hand
we carry vast stores of provisions with us, on
the other we shall have the grain of all the
countries and nations that we attack; since our
march is not directed against a pastoral people,
but against men who are tillers of the ground."

51. Then said Artabanus — "If, sire, thou
art determined that we shall not fear anything,
at least hearken to a counsel which I wish to

226

HERODOTUS

[BooK vii

offer; for when the matters in hand are so
many, one cannot but have much to say. Thou
knowest that Cyrus the son of Cambyses re-
duced and made tributary to the Persians all
the race of the lonians, except only those of
Attica.1 Now my advice is that thou on no ac-
count lead forth these men against their fa-
thers; since we are well able to overcome them
without such aid. Their choice, if we take them
with us to the war, lies between showing them-
selves the most wicked of men by helping to
enslave their fatherland, or the most righteous
by joining in the struggle to keep it free. If
then they choose the side of injustice, they will
do us but scant good; while if they determine
to act justly, they may greatly injure our host.
Lay thou to heart the old proverb, which says
truly, 'The beginning and end ot a matter are
not always seen at once.' "

52. "Artabanus," answered Xerxes, "there
is nothing in all that thou hast said, wherein
thou art so wholly wrong as in this, that thou
suspcctest the faith of the lonians. Have they
not given us the surest proof of their attach-
ment— a proof which thou didst thyself wit-
ness, and likewise all those who fought with
Darius against the Scythians? When it lay
wholly with them to save or to destroy the en-
tire Persian army, they dealt by us honourably
and with good faith, and did us no hurt at all.
Besides, they will leave behind them in our
country their wives, their children, and their
properties — can it then be conceived that they
will attempt rebellion? Have no fear, there-
fore, on this score; but keep a brave heart and
uphold my house and empire. To thee, and
thee only, do I intrust my sovereignty."

53. After Xerxes had thus spoken, and had
sent Artabanus away to return to Susa, he sum-
moned before him all the Persians of most re-
pute, and when they appeared, addressed them
in these words: —

"Persians, I have brought you together be-
cause I wished to exhort you to behave bravely,
and not to sully with disgrace the former
achievements of the Persian people, which are
very great and famous. Rather let us one and
all, singly and jointly, exert ourselves to the
uttermost; for the matter wherein we arc en-
gaged concerns the common weal. Strain ev-
ery nerve, then, I beseech you, in this war.
Brave warriors arc the men we march against,
if report says true; and such that, if we con-

1 This, of course, was not true; but the Persians
might not unnaturally be supposed ignorant of all
the lonians of Europe except the Athenians.

quer them, there is not a people in all the
world which will venture thereafter to with-
stand our arms. And now let us offer prayers
to the gods who watch over the welfare of Per-
sia, and then cross the channel."

54. All that day the preparations for the pas-
sage continued; and on the morrow they burnt
all kinds of spices upon the bridges, and
strewed the way with myrtle boughs, while
they waited anxiously for the sun, which they
hoped to see as he rose. And now the sun ap-
peared; and Xerxes took a golden goblet and
poured from it a libation into the sea, praying
the while with his face turned to the sun "that
no misfortune might befall him such as to hin-
der his conquest of Europe, until he had pene-
trated to its uttermost boundaries." After he
had prayed, he cast the golden cup into the
Hellespont, and with it a golden bowl, and a
Persian sword of the kind which they call
acinaces. I cannot say for certain whether it
was as an offering to the sun-god that he threw
these things into the deep, or whether he had
repented of having scourged the Hellespont,
and thought by his gifts to make amends to the
sea for what he had done.

55. When, however, his offerings were
made, the army began to cross; and the foot-
soldiers, with the horsemen, passed over by one
of the bridges — that (namely) which lay to-
wards the Euxine — while the sumpter-beasts
and the camp-followers passed by the other,
which looked on the Egean. Foremost went
the Ten Thousand Persians, all wearing gar-
lands upon their heads; and after them a mixed
multitude of many nations. These crossed
upon the first day.

On the next day the horsemen began the pas-
sage; and with them went the soldiers who
carried their spears with the point downwards,
garlanded, like the Ten Thousand; — then
came the sacred horses and the sacred chariot;
next Xerxes with his lancers and the thousand
horse; then the rest of the army. At the same
time the ships sailed over to the opposite
shore. According, however, to another account
which I have heard, the king crossed the last.

56. As soon as Xerxes had reached the Eu-
ropean side, he stood to contemplate his army
as they crossed under the lash. And the cross-
ing continued during seven days and seven
nights, without rest or pause. 'Tis said that
here, after Xerxes had made the passage, a
Hellcspontian exclaimed —

"Why, O Jove, dost thou, in the likeness of
a Persian man, and with the name of Xerxes

THE HISTORY

227

instead of thine own, lead the whole race of
mankind to the destruction of Greece? It
would have been as easy for thee to destroy it
without their aid!"

57. When the whole army had crossed, and
the troops were now upon their march, a
strange prodigy appeared to them, whereof the
king made no account, though its meaning
was not difficult to conjecture. Now the prod-
igy was this: — a mare brought forth a hare.
Hereby it was shown plainly enough, that Xer-
xes would lead forth his host against Greece
with mighty pomp and splendour, but, in or-
der to reach again the spot from which he set
out, would have to run for his life. There had
also been another portent, while Xerxes was
still at Sardis — a mule dropped a foal, neither
male nor female; but this likewise was disre-
garded.

58. So Xerxes, despising the omens,
marched forwards; and his land army accom-
panied him. But the fleet held an opposite
course, and, sailing to the mouth of the Hel-
lespont, made its way along the shore. Thus
the fleet proceeded westward, making for
Cape Sarpedon, where the orders were that it
should await the coming up of the troops; but
the land army marched eastward along the
Chersonese, leaving on the right the tomb of
Helle, the daughter of Athamas, and on the
left the city of Cardia. Having passed through
the town which is called Agora, they skirted
the shores of the Gulf of Melas, and then
crossed the river Melas, whence the gulf takes
its name, the waters of which they found too
scanty to supply the host. From this point their
march was to the west; and after passing
/Enos, an ^Eolian settlement, and likewise
Lake Stentoris, they came to Doriscus.

59. The name Doriscus is given to a beach
and a vast plain upon the coast of Thrace,
through the middle of which flows the strong
stream of the Hebrus. Here was the royal fort
which is likewise called Doriscus, where Dari-
us had maintained a Persian garrison ever
since the time when he attacked the Scythians.
This place seemed to Xerxes a convenient spot
for reviewing and numbering his soldiers;
which things accordingly he proceeded to do.
The sea-captains, who had brought the fleet
to Doriscus, were ordered to take the vessels
to the beach adjoining, where Sale stands, a
city of the Samothracians, and Zone*, another
city. The beach extends to Serrheum, the well-
known promontory; the whole district in for-
mer times was inhabited by the Ciconians.

Here then the captains were to bring their
ships, and to haul them ashore for refitting,
while Xerxes at Doriscus was employed in
numbering the soldiers.

60. What the exact number of the troops of
each nation was I cannot say with certainty —
for it is not mentioned by any one — but the
whole land army together was found to
amount to one million seven hundred thou-
sand men. The manner in which the number-
ing took place was the following. A body of ten
thousand men was brought to a certain place,
and the men were made to stand as close to-
gether as possible; after which a circle was
drawn around them, and the men were let go:
then where the circle had been, a fence was
built about the height of a man's middle; and
the enclosure was filled continually with fresh
troops, till the whole army had in this way
been numbered. When the numbering was
over, the troops were drawn up according to
their several nations.

61. Now these were the nations that took
part in this expedition. The Persians, who
wore on their heads the soft hat called the
tiara, and about their bodies, tunics with
sleeves of divers colours, having iron scales
upon them like the scales of a fish. Their legs
were protected by trousers; and they bore
wicker shields for bucklers; their quivers
hanging at their backs, and their arms being a
short spear, a bow of uncommon size, and ar-
rows of reed. They had likewise daggers sus-
pended from their girdles along their right
thighs. Otanes, the father of Xerxes' wife,
Amestris, was their leader. This people was
known to the Greeks in ancient times by the
name of Cephenians; but they called them-
selves and were called by their neighbours, Ar-
tacans. It was not till Perseus, the son of Jove
and Danac, visited Cepheus the son of Belus,
and, marrying his daughter Andromeda, had
by her a son called Perses (whom he left be-
hind him in the country because Cepheus had
no male offspring), that the nation took from
this Perses the name of Persians.

62. The Medes had exactly the same equip-
ment as the Persians; and indeed the dress
common to both is not so much Persian as
Median. They had for commander Tigranes,
of the race of the Achaemenids. These Medes
were called anciently by all people Arians; but
when Medea, the Colchian, came to them from
Athens, they changed their name. Such is the
account which they themselves give.

The Cissians were equipped in the Persian

228

HERODOTUS

[BOOK vii

fashion, except in one respect: — they wore on
their heads, instead of hats, fillets. Anaphes,
the son of Otanes, commanded them.

The Hyrcanians were likewise armed in the
same way as the Persians. Their leader was
Megapanus, the same who was afterwards sa-
trap of Babylon.

63. The Assyrians went to the war with hel-
mets upon their heads made of brass, and plait-
ed in a strange fashion which it is not easy to
describe. They carried shields, lances, and dag-
gers very like the Egyptian; but in addition,
they had wooden clubs knotted with iron, and
linen corselets. This people, whom the Greeks
call Syrians, are called Assyrians by the bar-
barians. The Chaldarans served in their ranks,
and they had for commander Otaspes, the son
ot Artachaeus.

64. The Bactnans went to the war wearing
a head-dress very like the Median, but armed
with bows of cane, after the custom of their
country, and with short spears.

The Sacac, or Scyths, were clad in trousers,
and had on their heads tall stifl caps rising to a
point. They bore the bow of their country and
the dagger; besides which they carried the
battle-axe, or sagaris. They were in truth
Amyrgian Scythians, but the Persians called
them Saca?, since that is the name which they
give to all Scythians. The Bactrians and the
Sact'L- had for leader Hystaspes, the son of Dari-
us and of Atossa, the daughter of Cyrus.

65. The Indians wore cotton dresses, and
earned bows of cane, and arrows also of cane
with iron at the point. Such was the equip-
ment of the Indians, and they marched under
the command of Pharnazathres the son of Ar-
tabates.

66. The Arians carried Median bows, but in
other respects were equipped like the Bactri-
ans. Their commander was Sisamnes the son
of Hydarnes.

The Parthians and Chorasmians, with the
Sogdians, the Gandarians, and the Dadicac,
had the Bactrian equipment in all respects.
The Parthians and Chorasmians were com-
manded by Artabazus the son of Pharnaces,
the Sogdians by Azanes the son of Artacus, and
the Gandarians and Dadica? by Artyphius the
son of Artabanus.

67. The Caspians were clad in cloaks of
skin, and carried the cane bow of their coun-
try and the scymitar. So equipped they went
to the war; and they had for commander Ario-
mardus the brother of Artyphius.

The Sarangians had dyed garments which

showed brightly, and buskins which reached
to the knee: they bore Median bows, and lan-
ces. Their leader was Pherendates, the son of
Megabazus.

The Pactyans wore cloaks of skin, and car-
ried the bow of their country and the dagger.
Their commander was Artyntes, the son of
Ithamatres.

68. The Utians, the Mycians, and the Pari-
canians were all equipped like the Pactyans.
They had for leaders, Arsamenes, the son of
Darius, who commanded the Utians and Myci-
ans; and Siromitres, the son of CEobazus, who
commanded the Paricanians.

69. The Arabians wore the zeira, or long
cloak, fastened about them with a girdle; and
carried at their right side long bows, which
when unstrung bent backwards.

The Ethiopians were clothed m the skins of
leopards and lions, and had long bows made of
the stem of the palm-leaf, not less than four
cubits in length. On these they laid short ar-
rows made of reed, and armed at the tip, not
with iron, but with a piece of stone, sharpened
to a point, of the kind used in engraving seals.
They carried likewise spears, the head of
which was the sharpened horn of an antelope;
and in addition they had knotted clubs. When
they went into battle they painted their bodies,
half with chalk, and half with vermilion. The
Arabians, and the Ethiopians who came from
the region above Egypt, were commanded by
Arsames, the son of Darius and of Artystone
daughter of Cyrus. This Artystone was the
best-beloved of all the wives of Darius; and it
was she whose statue he caused to be made of
gold wrought with the hammer. Her son Ar-
sames commanded these two nations.

70. The eastern Ethiopians — for two na-
tions of this name served in the army — were
marshalled with the Indians. They differed in
nothing from the other Ethiopians, save in
their language, and the character of their hair.
For the eastern Ethiopians have straight hair,
while they of Libya are more woolly-haired
than any other people in the world. Their
equipment was in most points like that of the
Indians; but they wore upon their heads the
scalps of horses, with the ears and mane at-
tached; the ears were made to stand upright,
and the mane served as a crest. For shields this
people made use of the skins of cranes.

71. The Libyans wore a dress of leather, and
carried javelins made hard in the fire. They
had for commander Massages, the son of Oari-
zus.

63-8i]

72. The Paphlagonians went to the war
with plaited helmets upon their heads, and
carrying small shields and spears of no great
size. They had also javelins and daggers, and
wore on their feet the buskin of their country,
which reached half way up the shank. In the
same fashion were equipped the Ligyans, the
Matienians, the Mariandynians, and the Syri-
ans (or Cappadocians, as they are called by the
Persians). The Paphlagonians and Matienians
were under the command of Dotus the son of
Megasidrus; while the Mariandynians, the Li-
gyans, and the Syrians had for leader Gobryas,
the son of Darius and Artystone.

73. The dress of the Phrygians closely re-
sembled the Paphlagonian, only in a very few
points differing from it. According to the
Macedonian account, the Phrygians, during
the time that they had their abode in Europe
and dwelt with them in Macedonia, bore the
name of Brigians; but on their removal to Asia
they changed their designation at the same
time with their dwelling-place.

The Armenians, who are Phrygian colo-
nists, were armed in the Phrygian fashion. Both
nations were under the command of Artoch-
mcs, who was married to one of the daughters
of Darius.

74. The Lydians were armed very nearly in
the Grecian manner. These Lydians in ancient
times were called Maronians, but changed their
name, and took their present title from Lydus
the son of Atys.

The Mysians wore upon their heads a hel-
met made after the fashion of their country,
and carried a small buckler; they used as jave-
lins staves with one end hardened in the fire.
The Mysians are Lydian colonists, and from
the mountain-chain of Olympus, are called
Olympiem. Both the Lydians and the Mysians
were under the command of Artaphernes, the
son of that Artaphernes who, with Datis,
made the landing at Marathon.

75. The Thracians went to the war wearing
the skins of foxes upon their heads, and about
their bodies tunics, over which was thrown a
long cloak of many colours. Their legs and
feet were clad in buskins made from the skins
of fawns; and they had for arms javelins, with
light targes, and short dirks. This people, after
crossing into Asia, took the name of Bithyni-
ans; before, they had been called Strymomans,
while they dwelt upon the Strymon; whence,
according to their own account, they had been
driven out by the Mysians and Teucrians. The
commander of these Asiatic Thracians was

THE HISTORY

229

Bassaces the son of Artabanus.

76. 1. . . had small shields made of the hide
of the ox, and carried each of them two spears
such as are used in wolf-hunting. Brazen hel-
mets protected their heads; and above these
they wore the ears and horns of an ox fash-
ioned in brass. They had also crests on their
helms; and their legs were bound round with
purple bands. There is an oracle of Mars in the
country of this people.

77. The Cabahans, who are Mneonians, but
are called Lasonians, had the same equipment
as the Cilicians — an equipment which I shall
describe when I come in due course to the Ci-
lician contingent.

The Milyans bore short spears, and had their
garments fastened with buckles. Some of their
number carried Lycian bows. They wore about
their heads skull-caps made of leather. Badres
the son of Hystanes led both nations to battle.

78. The Moschians wore helmets made of
wood, and carried shields and spears of a small
size: their spear-heads, however, were long.
The Moschian equipment was that likewise of
the Tibarenians, the Macronians, and the
Mosyncecians. The leaders of these nations
were the following: the Moschians and Tiba-
renians were under the command of Ariomar-
dus, who was the son of Darius and of Parmys,
daughter of Smerdis son of Cyrus; while the
Macronians and Mosynoccians had for leader
Artayctes, the son of Cherasmis, the governor
of Sestos upon the Hellespont.

79. The Mares wore on their heads the
plaited helmet peculiar to their country, and
used small leathern bucklers, and javelins.

The Colchians wore wooden helmets, and
carried small shields of raw hide, and short
spears; besides which they had swords. Both
Mares and Colchians were under the command
of Pharandates, the son of Teaspes.

The Alarodians and Saspinans were armed
like the Colchians; their leader was Masistes,
the son of Siromitras.

80. The Islanders who came from the Ery-
thraean Sea, where they inhabited the islands
to which the king sends those whom he ban-
ishes, wore a dress and arms almost exactly
like the Median. Their leader was Mardontes
the son of Bagxus, who the year after per-
ished in the battle of Mycale", where he was
one of the captains.

81. Such were the nations who fought upon

1 There is a defect here in the text of Herodotus;
the name of the nation has been lost and cannot
be satisfactorily supplied.

230

HERODOTUS

[BOOK vn

the dry land, and made up the infantry of the
Persians. And they were commanded by the
captains whose names have been above record-
ed. The marshalling and numbering of the
troops had been committed to them; and by
them were appointed the captains over a thou-
sand, and the captains over ten thousand; but
the leaders of ten men, or a hundred, were
named by the captains over ten thousand.
There were other officers also, who gave the
orders to the various ranks and nations; but
those whom I have mentioned above were the
commanders.

82. Over these commanders themselves, and
over the whole of the infantry, there were set
six generals — namely, Mardonius, son of Go-
bryas; Tntantacchmes, son of the Artabanus
who gave his advice against the war with
Greece; Smerdomenes, son of Otanes — these
two were the sons of Darius' brothers, and thus
were cousins of Xerxes — Masistcs, son of Dari-
us and Atossa; Gcrgis, son of Anzus; and
Megabyzus, son of Zopyrus.

83. The whole of the infantry was under the
command of these generals, excepting the Ten
Thousand. The Ten Thousand, who were all
Persians and all picked men, were led by Hy-
darnes, the son of Hydarnes. They were called
"the Immortals," for the following reason. If
one of their body failed either by the stroke of
death or of disease, forthwith his place was
filled up by another man, so that their num-
ber was at no time either greater or less than
10,000.

Oi all the troops the Persians were adorned
with the greatest magmiicence, and they were
likewise the most valiant. Besides their arms,
which have been already described, they glit-
tered all over with gold, vast quantities of
which they wore about their persons. They
were followed by litters, wherein rode their
concubines, and by a numerous train of attend-
ants handsomely dressed. Camels and sumpter-
beasts earned their provision, apart from
that of the other soldiers.

84. All these various nations fight on horse-
back; they did not, however, at this time all
furnish horsemen, but only the following:—-

(i.) The Persians, who were armed in the
same way as their own footmen, excepting
that some of them wore upon their heads
devices fashioned with the hammer in brass
or steel.

85. (ii.) The wandering tribe known by
the name of Sagartians — a people Persian in
language, and in dress half Persian, half Pac-

tyan, who furnished to the army as many as
eight thousand horse. It is not the wont of
this people to carry arms, either of bronze or
steel, except only a dirk; but they use lassoes
made of thongs plaited together, and trust to
these whenever they go to the wars. Now the
manner in which they fight is the following:
when they meet their enemy, straightway they
discharge their lassoes, which end in a noose;
then, whatever the noose encircles, be it man
or be it horse, they drag towards them; and
the foe, entangled in the toils, is forthwith
slain. Such is the manner in which this people
fight; and now their horsemen were drawn up
with the Persians.

86. (in.) The Medes, and Cissians, who
had the same equipment as their foot-soldiers.

(iv.) The Indians, equipped as their foot-
men, but some on horseback and some in chari-
ots— the chariots drawn either by horses, or
by wild asses.

(v.) The Bactrians and Caspians, arrayed
as their foot-soldiers.

(vi.) The Libyans, equipped as their foot-
soldiers, like the rest; but all riding in chariots.

(vn.) The Caspeinans and Pancamans,
equipped as their foot-soldiers.

(viii.) The Arabians, in the same array as
their footmen, but all riding on camels, not
inferior in fleetness to horses.

87. These nations, and these only, furnished
horse to the army: and the number of the horse
was eighty thousand, without counting cam-
els or chariots. All were marshalled in squad-
rons, excepting the Arabians; who were placed
last, to avoid frightening the horses, which
cannot endure the sight of the camel.

88. The horse was commanded by Arma-
mithras and Tithaeus, sons of Datis. The other
commander, Pharnuches, who was to have
been their colleague, had been left sick at Sar-
dis; since at the moment that he was leaving
the city, a sad mischance befell him: — a dog
ran under the feet of the horse upon which he
was mounted; and the horse, not seeing it
coming, was startled, and, rearing bolt up-
right, threw his rider. After this fall Phar-
nuches spat blood, and fell into a consumption.
As for the horse, he was treated at once as
Pharnuches ordered: the attendants took him
to the spot where he had thrown his master,
and there cut off his four legs at the hough.
Thus Pharnuches lost his command.

89. The triremes amounted in all to twelve
hundred and seven; and were furnished by the
following nations: —

82-96]

THE HISTORY

231

(i.) The Phoenicians, with the Syrians of
Palestine, furnished three hundred vessels, the
crews of which were thus accoutred: upon
their heads they wore helmets made nearly in
the Grecian manner; about their bodies they
had breastplates of linen; they carried shields
without rims; and were armed with javelins.
This nation, according to their own account,
dwelt anciently upon the Erythraean Sea, but
crossing thence, fixed themselves on the sea-
coast of Syria, where they still inhabit. This
part of Syria, and all the region extending from
hence to Egypt, is known by the name of Pales-
tine.

(ii.) The Egyptians furnished two hundred
ships. Their crews had plaited helmets upon
their heads, and bore concave shields with rims
of unusual size. They were armed with spears
suited for a sea-fight, and with huge pole-axes.
The greater part of them wore breastplates;
and all had long cutlasses.

90. (in.) The Cyprians furnished a hun-
dred and fifty ships, and were equipped in the
following fashion. Their kings had turbans
bound about their heads, while the people
wore tunics; in other respects they were clad
like the Greeks. They are of various races;
some are sprung from Athens and Salamis,
some from Arcadia, some from Cythnus, some
from Phoenicia, and a portion, according to
their own account, from Ethiopia.

91. (iv.) The Cilicians furnished a hun-
dred ships. The crews wore upon their heads
the helmet of their country, and carried in-
stead of shields light targes made of raw hide;
they were clad in woollen tunics, and were
each armed with two javelins, and a sword
closely resembling the cutlass of the Egyptians.
This people bore anciently the name of Hy-
pachaeans, but took their present title from
Cilix, the son of Agenor, a Phoenician.

(v.) The Pamphyhans furnished thirty
ships, the crews of which were armed exactly
as the Greeks. This nation is descended from
those who on the return from Troy were dis-
persed with Amphilochus and Calchas.

92. (vi.) The Lycians furnished fifty ships.
Their crews wore greaves and breastplates,
while for arms they had bows of cornel wood,
reed arrows without feathers, and javelins.
Their outer garment was the skin of a goat,
which hung from their shoulders; their head-
dress a hat encircled with plumes; and besides
their other weapons they carried daggers and
falchions. This people came from Crete, and
were once called Termilx; they got the name

which they now bear from Lycus, the son of
Pandion, an Athenian.

93. (vii.) The Dorians of Asia furnished
thirty ships. They were armed in the Grecian
fashion, inasmuch as their forefathers came
from the Peloponnese.

(viii.) The Carians furnished seventy ships,
and were equipped like the Greeks, but car-
ried, in addition, falchions and daggers. What
name the Carians bore anciently was declared
in the first part of this History.

94. (ix.) The lonians furnished a hundred
ships, and were armed like the Greeks. Now
these lonians, during the time that they dwelt
in the Peloponnese and inhabited the land now
called Achaea (which was before the arrival of
Danaiis and Xuthus in the Peloponnese), were
called, according to the Greek account, &gi-
alean Pelasgi, or "Pelasgi of the Sea-shore";
but afterwards, from Ion the son of Xuthus,
they were called lonians.

95. The Islanders furnished seventeen ships,
and wore arms like the Greeks. They too were
a Pelasgian race, who in later times took the
name of lonians for the same reason as those
who inhabited the twelve cities founded from
Athens.

The ^olians furnished sixty ships, and were
equipped in the Grecian fashion. They too
were anciently called Pelasgians, as the Greeks
declare.

The Hellespontians from the Pontus, who
are colonists of the lonians and Dorians, fur-
nished a hundred ships, the crews of which
wore the Grecian armour. This did not include
the Abydenians, who stayed in their own
country, because the king had assigned them
the special duty of guarding the bridges.

96. On board of every ship was a band of
soldiers, Persians, Medes, or Sacans. The
Phoenician ships were the best sailers in the
fleet, and the Sidoman the best among the
Phoenicians. The contingent of each nation,
whether to the fleet or to the land army, had
at its head a native leader; but the names of
these leaders I shall not mention, as it is not
necessary for the course of my History. For
the leaders of some nations were not worthy
to have their names recorded; and besides,
there were in each nation as many leaders as
there were cities. And it was not really as com-
manders that they accompanied the army, but as
mere slaves, like the rest of the host. For I have
already mentioned the Persian generals who
had the actual command, and were at the head of
the several nations which composed the army.

232

HERODOTUS

[BOOK vii

97. The fleet was commanded by the follow-
ing— Ariabignes, the son of Darius, Prexaspes,
the son of Aspathines, Megabazus, the son of
Megabates, and Acha>menes, the son of Dari-
us. Ariabignes, who was the child of Darius
by a daughter of Gobryas, was leader of the
Ionian and Carian ships; Achacmenes, who
was own brother to Xerxes, of the Egyptian;
the rest of the fleet was commanded by the
other two. Besides the triremes, there was an
assemblage of thirty-oared and fifty-oared gal-
leys, of cercuri, and transports for conveying
horses, amounting in all to three thousand.

98. Next to the commanders, the following
were the most renowned of those who sailed
aboard the fleet: — Tetramncstus, the son of
Anysus, the Sidonian; Mapen, the son of Si-
rom, the Tyrian; Merbal, the son of Agbal, the
Aradian; Syennesis, the son of Oromedon, the
Cilician; Cyberniscus, the son of Sicas, the Ly-
cian; Gorgus, the son of Chersis, and Timo-
nax, the son of Timagoras, the Cyprians; and
Histiaeus, the son of Timnes, Pigres, the son
of Seldomus, and Damasithymus, the son of
Candaules, the Carians.

99. Of the other lower officers I shall make
no mention, since no necessity is laid on me;
but I must speak of a certain leader named
Artemisia, whose participation in the attack
upon Greece, notwithstanding that she was a
woman, moves my special wonder. She had
obtained the sovereign power after the death
of her husband; and, though she had now a
son grown up, yet her brave spirit and manly
daring sent her forth to the war, when no need
required her to adventure. Her name, as I
said, was Artemisia, and she was the daughter
of Lygdamis; by race she was on his side a
Halicarnassian, though by her mother a Cre-
tan. She ruled over the Halicarnassians, the
men of Cos, of Nisyrus, and of Calydna; and
the five triremes which she furnished to the
Persians were, next to the Sidonian, the most
famous ships in the fleet. She likewise gave to
Xerxes sounder counsel than any of his other
allies. Now the cities over which I have men-
tioned that she bore sway were one and all
Dorian; for the Halicarnassians were colonists
from Trcezen, while the remainder were from
Epidaurus. Thus much concerning the sea-
force.

100. Now when the numbering and mar-
shalling of the host was ended, Xerxes con-
ceived a wish to go himself throughout the
forces, and with his own eyes behold every-
thing. Accordingly he traversed the ranks seat-

ed in his chariot, and, going from nation to
nation, made manifold inquiries, while his
scribes wrote down the answers; till at last he
had passed from end to end of the whole land
army, both the horsemen and likewise the foot.
This done, he exchanged his chariot for a
Sidonian galley, and, seated beneath a golden
awning, sailed along the prows of all his ves-
sels (the vessels having now been hauled down
and launched into the sea), while he made in-
quiries again, as he had done when he re-
viewed the land-force, and caused the answers
to be recorded by his scribes. The captains took
their ships to the distance of about four hun-
dred feet from the shore, and there lay to, with
their vessels in a single row, the prows facing
the land, and with the fighting-men upon the
decks accoutred as if for war, while the king
sailed along in the open space between the
ships and the shore, and so reviewed the fleet.

101. Now after Xerxes had sailed down the
whole line and was gone ashore, he sent for
Demaratus the son of Ariston, who had ac-
companied him in his march upon Greece, and
bespake him thus: —

"Demaratus, it is my pleasure at this time to
ask thee certain things which I wish to know.
Thou art a Greek, and, as I hear from the oth-
er Greeks with whom I converse, no less than
from thine own lips, thou art a native of a city
which is not the meanest or the weakest in
their land. Tell me, therefore, what thinkest
thou? Will the Greeks lift a hand against us?
Mine own judgment is, that even if all the
Greeks and all the barbarians of the West were
gathered together in one place, they would not
be able to abide my onset, not being really of
one mind. But I would fain know what thou
thinkest hereon."

Thus Xerxes questioned; and the other re-
plied in his turn, — "O king! is it thy will that
I give thee a true answer, or dost thou wish
for a pleasant one?"

Then the king bade him speak the plain
truth, and promised that he would not on that
account hold him in less favour than hereto-
fore.

102. So Demaratus, when he heard the
promise, spake as follows: —

"O king! since thou biddest me at all risks
speak the truth, and not say what will one day
prove me to have lied to thee, thus I answer.
Want has at all times been a fellow-dweller
with us in our land, while Valour is an ally
whom we have gained by dint of wisdom and
strict laws. Her aid enables us to drive out

97-106]

THE HISTORY

233

want and escape thraldom. Brave are all the
Greeks who dwell in any Dorian land; but
what I am about to say does not concern all,
but only the Lacedaemonians. First then, come
what may, they will never accept thy terms,
which would reduce Greece to slavery; and
further, they are sure to join battle with thee,
though all the rest of the Greeks should sub-
mit to thy will. As for their numbers, do not
ask how many they are, that their resistance
should be a possible thing; for if a thousand of
them should take the field, they will meet thee
in battle, and so will any number, be it less
than this, or be it more."

103. When Xerxes heard this answer of De-
maratus, he laughed and answered: —

"What wild words, Dcmaratus! A thousand
men join battle with such an army as this!
Come then, wilt thou — who wert once, as thou
sayest, their king — engage to fight this very
day with ten men ? 1 trow not. And yet, if all
thy fellow-citizens be indeed such as thou say-
est they are, thou oughtest, as their king, by
thine own country's usages, to be ready to
fight with twice the number. If then each one
of them be a match for ten of my soldiers, I
may well call upon thee to be a match for
twenty. So wouldest thou assure the truth of
what thou hast now said. If, however, you
Greeks, who vaunt yourselves so much, are of
a truth men like those whom I have seen about
my court, as thyself, Demaratus, and the others
with whom I am wont to converse — if, I say,
you are really men of this sort and size, how is
the speech that thou hast uttered more than a
mere empty boast? For, to go to the very verge
of likelihood — how could a thousand men, or
ten thousand, or even fifty thousand, particu-
larly if they were all alike free, and not under
one lord — how could such a force, I say, stand
against an army like mine? Let them be five
thousand, and we shall have more than a
thousand men to each one of theirs. If, indeed,
like our troops, they had a single master, their
fear of him might make them courageous be-
yond their natural bent; or they might be
urged by lashes against an enemy which far
outnumbered them. But left to their own free
choice, assuredly they will act differently. For
mine own part, I believe, that if the Greeks
had to contend with the Persians only, and the
numbers were equal on both sides, the Greeks
would find it hard to stand their ground. We
too have among us such men as those of whom
thou spakest — not many indeed, but still we
possess a few. For instance, some of my body-

guard would be willing to engage singly with
three Greeks. But this thou didst not know;
and therefore it was thou talkedst so foolishly."

104. Demaratus answered him — "I knew,

0 king! at the outset, that if I told thee the
truth, my speech would displease thine ears.
But as thou didst require me to answer thee
with all possible truthfulness, I informed thee
what the Spartans will do. And in this I spake
not from any love that I bear them — for none
knows better than thou what my love towards
them is likely to be at the present time, when
they have robbed me of my rank and my an-
cestral honours, and made me a homeless ex-
ile, whom thy father did receive, bestowing on
me both shelter and sustenance. What likeli-
hood is there that a man of understanding
should be unthankful for kindness shown him,
and not cherish it in his heart? For mine own
self, I pretend not to cope with ten men, nor
with two — nay, had I the choice, I would
rather not fight even with one. But, if need
appeared, or if there were any great cause
urging me on, I would contend with right
good will against one of those persons who
boast themselves a match for any three Greeks.
So likewise the Lacedaemonians, when they
fight singly, are as good men as any in the
world, and when they fight in a body, are the
bravest of all. For though they be freemen, they
are not in all respects free; Law is the master
whom they own; and this master they fear
more than thy subjects fear thee. Whatever he
commands they do; and his commandment is
always the same: it forbids them to flee in bat-
tle, whatever the number of their foes, and
requires them to stand firm, and either to con-
quer or die. If in these words, O king! I seem
to thee to speak foolishly, I am content from
this time forward evermore to hold my peace.

1 had not now spoken unless compelled by thee.
Certes, I pray that all may turn out according
to thy wishes."

105. Such was the answer of Demaratus;
and Xerxes was not angry with him at all, but
only laughed, and sent him away with words
of kindness.

After this interview, and after he had made
Mascames the son of Megadostes governor of
Doriscus, setting aside the governor appointed
by Darius, Xerxes started with his army, and
marched upon Greece through Thrace.

1 06. This man, Mascames, whom he left be-
hind him, was a person of such merit that gifts
were sent him yearly by the king as a special
favour, because he excelled all the other gov-

234

I^ERODOTUS

[BOOK vii

ernors that had been appointed either by Xer-
xes or by Darius. In like manner, Artaxerxes,
the son of Xerxes, serft gifts yearly to the de-
scendants of Mascames. Persian governors had
been established in Thrace and about the Hel-
lespont before the march of Xerxes began; but
these persons, after the expedition was over,
were all driven from their towns by the
Greeks, except the governor of Doriscus: no
one succeeded m driving out Mascames,
though many made the attempt. For this rea-
son the gifts are sent him every year by the
king who reigns over the Persians.

107. Of the other governors whom the
Greeks drove out, there was not one who, in
the judgment of Xerxes, showed himself a
brave man, excepting Boges, the governor of
Eion. Him Xerxes never could praise enough;
and such of his sons as were left in Persia, and
survived their father, he very specially hon-
oured. And of a truth this Boges was worthy of
great commendation; for when he was be-
sieged by the Athenians under Cimon, the son
of Miltiades, and it was open to him to retire
from the city upon terms, and return to Asia,
he refused, because he feared the king might
think he had played the coward to save his
own life, wherefore, instead of surrendering,
he held out to the last extremity. When all the
food in the fortress was gone, he raised a vast
funeral pile, slew his children, his wife, his
concubines, and his household slaves, and cast
them all into the flames. Then, collecting what-
ever gold and silver there was in the place, he
flung it from the walls into the Strymon; and,
when that was done, to crown all, he himself
leaped into the fire. For this action Boges is
with reason praised by the Persians even at the
present day.

1 08. Xerxes, as I have said, pursued his
march from Doriscus against Greece; and on
his way he forced all the nations through
which he passed to take part in the expedition.
For the whole country as far as the frontiers of
Thessaly had been (as I have already shown)
enslaved and made tributary to the king by
the conquests of Mcgabazus, and, more lately,
of Mardonius. And first, after leaving Doris-
cus, Xerxes passed the Samothracian fortresses,
whereof Mesambria is the farthermost as one
goes toward the west. The next city is Stryme,
which belongs to Thasos. Midway between it
and Mesambria flows the river Lissus, which
did not suffice to furnish water for the army,
but was drunk up and failed. This region was
formerly called Gallaka; now it bears the

name of Briantica; but in strict truth it like-
wise is really Ciconian.

109. After crossing the dry channel of the
Lissus, Xerxes passed the Grecian cities of
Maroneia, Dicaca, and Abdera, and likewise
the famous lakes which are in their neighbour-
hood, Lake Ismaris between Maroneia and
Stryme, and Lake Bistonis near Dicaea, which
receives the waters of two rivers, the Travus
and the Compsatus. Near Abdera there was
no famous lake for him to pass; but he crossed
the river Nestus, which there reaches the sea.
Proceeding further upon his way, he passed
by several continental cities, one of them pos-
sessing a lake nearly thirty furlongs in circuit,
full of fish, and very salt, of which the sump-
ter-beasts only drank, and which they drained
dry. The name of this city was Pistyrus. All
these towns, which were Grecian, and lay
upon the coast, Xerxes kept upon his left hand
as he passed along.

no. The following are the Thracian tribes
through whose country he marched: the Paeti,
the Ciconians, the Bistonians, the Sapaeans, the
Dersaeans, the Edomans, and the Satrac. Some
of these dwelt by the sea, and furnished ships
to the king's fleet; while others lived in the
more inland parts, and ot these all the tribes
which I have mentioned, except the Satrae,
were forced to serve on foot.

in. The Satrse, so far as our knowledge
goes, have never yet been brought under by
any one, but continue to this day a free and
unconquered people, unlike the other Thraci-
ans. They dwell amid lofty mountains clothed
with forests of different trees and capped with
snow, and are very valiant in fight. They are
the Thracians who have an oracle of Bacchus
in their country, which is situated upon their
highest mountain-range. The Bessi, a Satrian
race, deliver the oracles; but the prophet, as at
Delphi, is a woman; and her answers are not
harder to read.

112. When Xerxes had passed through the
region mentioned above, he came next to the
Pierian fortresses, one of which is called Pha-
gres, and another Pergamus. Here his line of
march lay close by the walls, with the long
high range of Pangaeum upon his right, a tract
in which there are mines both of gold and sil-
ver, some worked by the Pierians and Odo-
mantians, but the greater part by the Satrae.

113. Xerxes then marched through the
country of the Paeonian tribes — the Doberians
and the Paeoplae — which lay to the north of
Pangaeum, and, advancing westward, reached

107-120 ]

THE HISTORY

235

the river Strymon and the city Ei'on, whereof
Boges, of whom I spoke a short time ago, and
who was then still alive, was governor. The
tract of land lying about Mount Pangaeum is
called Phyllis; on the west it reaches to the riv-
er Angitcs, which flows into the Strymon, and
on the south to the Strymon itself, where at this
time the Magi were sacrificing white horses to
make the stream favourable.

114. After propitiating the stream by these
and many other magical ceremonies, the Per-
sians crossed^ the Strymon, by bridges made
before their arrival, at a place called "The
Nine Ways," which was in the territory of
the Edonians. And when they learnt that the
name of the place was "The Nine Ways," they
took nine of the youths of the land and as many
of their maidens, and buried them alive on
the spot. Burying alive is a Persian custom. I
have heard that Amestris, the wife of Xerxes,
in her old age buried alive seven pairs of Per-
sian youths, sons of illustrious men, as a thank-
offering to the god who is supposed to dwell
underneath the earth.

115. From the Strymon the army, proceed-
ing westward, came to a strip of shore, on
which there stands the Grecian town of Argi-
lus. This shore, and the whole tract above it,
is called Bisaltia. Passing this, and keeping on
the left hand the Gulf of Posideium, Xerxes
crossed the Sylean plain, as it is called, and
passing by Stagirus, a Greek city, came to
Acanthus. The inhabitants of these parts, as
well as those who dwelt about Mount Pangae-
um, were forced to join the armament, like
those others of whom I spoke before; the dwell-
ers along the coast being made to serve in the
fleet, while those who lived more inland had
to follow with the land forces. The road which
the army of Xerxes took remains to this day
untouched: the Thracians neither plough nor
sow it, but hold it in great honour.

1 1 6. On reaching Acanthus, the Persian
king, seeing the great zeal of the Acanthians
for his service, and hearing what had been
done about the cutting, took them into the
number of his sworn friends, sent them as a
present a Median dress, and besides commend-
ed them highly.

117. It was while he remained here that
Artachaees, who presided over the canal, a
man in high repute with Xerxes, and by birth
an Achaemenid, who was moreover the tallest
of all the Persians, being only four fingers short
of five cubits, royal measure, and who had a
stronger voice than any other man in the

world, fell sick and died. Xerxes therefore,
who was greatly afflicted at the mischance, car-
ried him to the tomb and buried him with all
magnificence; while the whole army helped
to raise a mound over his grave. The Acanthi-
ans, in obedience to an oracle, offer sacrifice to
this Artachaees as a hero, invoking him in their
prayers by name. But King Xerxes sorrowed
greatly over his death.

1 1 8. Now the Greeks who had to feed the
army, and to entertain Xerxes, were brought
thereby to the very extremity of distress, inso-
much that some of them were forced even to
forsake house and home. When the Thasians
received and feasted the host, on account of
their possessions upon the mainland, Anti-
pater, the son of Orges, one of the citizens of
best repute, and the man to whom the business
was assigned, proved that the cost of the meal
was four hundred talents of silver.

119. And estimates almost to the same
amount were made by the superintendents in
other cities. For the entertainment, which had
been ordered long beforehand and was reck-
oned to be of much consequence, was, in the
manner of it, such as I will now describe. No
sooner did the heralds who brought the orders
give their message, than in every city the in-
habitants made a division of their stores of
corn, and proceeded to grind flour of wheat
and of barley for many months together. Be-
sides this, they purchased the best cattle that
they could find, and fattened them; and fed
poultry and water-fowl in ponds and build-
ings, to be in readiness for the army; while
they likewise prepared gold and silver vases
and drinking-cups, and whatsoever else is
needed for the service of the table. These last
preparations were made for the king only, and
those who sat at meat with him; for the rest
of the army nothing was made ready beyond
the food for which orders had been given. On
the arrival of the Persians, a tent ready pitched
for the purpose received Xerxes, who took his
rest therein, while the soldiers remained un-
der the open heaven. When the dinner hour
came, great was the toil of those who enter-
tained the army; while the guests ate their fill,
and then, after passing the night at the place,
tore down the royal tent next morning, and
seizing its contents, carried them all off, leav-
ing nothing behind.

120. On one of these occasions Megacreon
of Abdera wittily recommended his country-
men "to go to the temples in a body, men and
women alike, and there take their station as

236

HERODOTUS

suppliants, and beseech the gods that they
would in future always spare them one-half of
the woes which might threaten their peace —
thanking them at the same time very warmly
for their past goodness in that they had caused
Xerxes to be content with one meal in the
day/' For had the order been to provide break-
fast for the king as well as dinner, the Ab-
dcritcs must either have fled before Xerxes
carne, or, \i they awaited his coming, have been
brought to absolute ruin. As it was, the na-
tions, though suffering heavy pressure, com-
plied nevertheless with the directions that had
been given.

121. At Acanthus Xerxes separated from his
fleet, bidding the captains sail on ahead and
await his coming at Therma, on the Thermaic
Gulf, the place from which the bay takes its
name. Through this town lay, he understood,
his shortest road. Previously, his order of
march had been the following: — from Doris-
cus to Acanthus his land force had proceeded
in three bodies, one of which took the way
along the sea-shore in company with the fleet,
and was commanded by Mardomus and Mas-
istes, while another pursued an inland track
under Tritantarchmes and Gergis; the third,
with which was Xerxes himself marching mid-
way between the other two, and having for its
leaders Smerdomenes and Megabyzus.

122. The fleet, therefore, after leaving the
king, sailed through the channel which had
been cut for it by Mount Athos, and came into
the bay whereon lie the cities of Assa, Pilorus,
Singus, and Sarta; from all which it received
contingents. Thence it stood on for the Ther-
maic Gulf, and rounding Cape Ampelus, the
promontory of the Toronaeans, passed the
Grecian cities Torone, Galepsus, Sermyla,
Mccyberna, and Olynthus, receiving from
each a number of ships and men. This region
is called Sithonia.

123. From Cape Ampelus the fleet stretched
across by a short course to Cape Canastraeum,
which is the point of the peninsula of Fallen^
that runs out farthest into the sea, and gath-
ered fresh supplies of ships and men from Poti-
daea, Aphytis, Neapolis, ^ga, Therambus, Sci-
6n£, Mende, and Sane. These are the cities of
the tract called anciently Phlegra, but now
Pallene*. Hence they again followed the coast,
still advancing towards the place appointed by
the king, and had accessions from all the cities
that lie near Pallene*, and border on the Ther-
maic Gulf, whereof the names are Lipaxus,
Combreia, Lisa?, Gigonus, Campsa, Smila,

[BooK vii

and ^Enea. The tract where these towns lie
still retains its old name of Crossa:a. After pass-
ing ^Enea, the city which I last named, the
fleet found itself arrived in the Thermaic Gulf,
off the land of Mygdonia. And so at length
they reached Therma, the appointed place, and
came likewise to Smdus and Chalestra upon
the river Axius, which separates Bottiaca from
Mygdonia. Bottiaea has a scanty sea-board,
which is occupied by the two cities Ichnae and
Pclla.

124. So the fleet anchored off the Axius, and
off Therma, and the towns that lay between,
waiting the king's coming. Xerxes meanwhile
with his land force left Acanthus, and started
for Therma, taking his way across the land.
This road led him through Pseonia and Cres-
tonia to the river Echeidorus, which rising in
the country of the Crestonians, flows through
Mygdonia, and reaches the sea near the marsh
upon the Axius.

125. Upon this march the camels that car-
ried the provisions of the army were set upon
by lions, which left their lairs and came down
by night, but spared the men and the sumpter-
beasts, while they made the camels their prey.
I marvel what may have been the cause which
compelled the lions to leave the other animals
untouched and attack the camels, when they
had never seen that beast before, nor had any
experience of it.

126. That whole region is full of lions and
wild bulls, with gigantic horns, which are
brought into Greece. The lions are confined
within the tract lying between the river Nestus
(which flows through Abdera) on the one side,
and the Acheloiis (which waters Acarnania)
on the other. No one ever sees a lion in the
fore part of Europe east of the Nestus, nor
through the entire continent west of the Ache-
loiis; but in the space between these bounds
lions are found.

127. On reaching Therma Xerxes halted his
army, which encamped along the coast, begin-
ning at the city of Therma in Mygdonia, and
stretching out as far as the rivers Lydias and
Hahacmon, two streams which, mingling their
waters in one, form the boundary between Bot-
taa and Macedonia. Such was the extent of
country through which the barbarians en-
camped. The rivers here mentioned were all
of them sufficient to supply the troops, except
the Echeidorus, which was drunk dry.

128. From Therma Xerxes beheld the Thes-
sahan mountains, Olympus and Ossa, which
are of a wonderful height. Here, learning that

THE HISTORY

237

there lay between these mountains a narrow
gorge through which the river Peneus ran, and
where there was a road that gave an entrance
into Thessaly, he formed the wish to go by sea
himself, and examine the mouth of the river.
His design was to lead his army by the upper
road through the country of the inland Mace-
donians, and so to enter Perrhaebia, and come
down by the city of Gonnus; for he was told
that that way was the most secure. No sooner
therefore had he formed this wish than he act-
ed accordingly. Embarking, as was his wont on
all such occasions, aboard a Sidonian vessel, he
gave the signal to the rest of the fleet to get un-
der weigh, and quitting his land army, set sail
and proceeded to the Peneus. Here the view of
the mouth caused him to wonder greatly; and
sending for his guides, he asked them whether
it were possible to turn the course of the
stream, and make it reach the sea at any other
point.

129. Now there is a tradition that Thessaly
was in ancient times a lake, shut in on every
side by huge hills. Ossa and Pehon — ranges
which join at the foot — do in fact inclose it
upon the east, while Olympus forms a barrier
upon the north, Pindus upon the west, and
Othrys towards the south. The tract contained
within these mountains, which is a deep basin,
is called Thessaly. Many rivers pour their wa-
ters into it; but five of them are of more note
than the rest, namely, the Peneus, the Api-
danus, the Onochonus, the Enipeus, and the
Pamisus. These streams flow down from the
mountains which surround Thessaly, and,
meeting in the plain, mingle their waters to-
gether, and discharge themselves into the sea
by a single outlet, which is a gorge of extreme
narrowness. After the junction all the other
names disappear, and the river is known as the
Peneus. It is said that of old the gorge which al-
lows the waters an outlet did not exist; accord-
ingly the rivers, which were then, as well as
the Lake Bcebeis, without names, but flowed
with as much water as at present, made Thes-
saly a sea. The Thessalians tell us that the
gorge through which the water escapes was
caused by Neptune; and this is likely enough;
at least any man who believes that Neptune
causes earthquakes, and that chasms so pro-
duced are his handiwork, would say, upon
seeing this rent, that Neptune did it. For it
plainly appeared to me that the hills had been
torn asunder by an earthquake.

130. When Xerxes therefore asked the
guides if there were any other outlet by which

the waters could reach the sea, they, being men
well acquainted with the nature of their coun-
try, made answer: —

"O king! there is no other passage by which
this stream can empty itself into the sea save
that which thine eye beholds. For Thessaly is
girt about with a circlet of hills."

Xerxes is said to have observed upon this —

"Wise men truly are they of Thessaly, and
good reason had they to change their minds in
time and consult for their own safety. For, to
pass by others matters, they must have felt that
they lived in a country which may easily be
brought under and subdued. Nothing more is
needed than to turn the river upon their lands
by an embankment which should fill up the
gorge and force the stream from its present
channel, and lo! all Thessaly, except the moun-
tains, would at once be laid under water."

The king aimed in this speech at the sons
of Aleuas, who were Thessalians, and had
been the first of all the Greeks to make submis-
sion to him. He thought that they had made
their friendly offers in the name of the whole
people. So Xerxes, when he had viewed the
place, and made the above speech, went back
to Therma.

131. The stay of Xerxes in Pieria lasted for
several days, during which a third part of his
army was employed in cutting down the woods
on the Macedonian mountain-range to give his
forces free passage into Perrhaebia. At this time
the heralds who had been sent into Greece to
require earth for the king returned to the
camp, some of them empty-handed, others
with earth and water.

132. Among the number of those from
whom earth and water were brought were the
Thessalians, Dolopians, Emamans, Perrhae-
bians, Locrians, Magnetians, Malians, Achae-
ans of Phthiotis, Thebans, and Boeotians gen-
erally, except those of Platd-a and Thespisc.
These are the nations against whom the
Greeks that had taken up arms to resist the
barbarians swore the oath, which ran thus —
"From all those of Greek blood who delivered
themselves up to the Persians without neces-
sity, when their affairs were in good condition,
we will take a tithe of their goods, and give it
to the god at Delphi." So ran the words of the
Greek oath.

133. King Xerxes had sent no heralds either
to Athens or Sparta to ask earth and water, for
a reason which I will now relate. When Darius
some time before sent messengers for the same
purpose, they were thrown, at Athens, into

238

HERODOTUS

the pit of punishment, at Sparta into a well,
and bidden to take therefrom earth and water
for themselves, and carry it to their king. On
this account Xerxes did not send to ask them.
What calamity came upon the Athenians to
punish them for their treatment of the heralds
I cannot say, unless it were the laying waste of
their city and territory; but that I believe was
not on account of this crime.

134. On the Lacedaemonians, however, the
wrath of Talthybms, Agamemnon's herald,
fell with violence. Talthybius has a temple at
Sparta; and his descendants, who are called
Talthybiadae, still live there, and have the
privilege of being the only persons who dis-
charge the office of herald. When therefore the
Spartans had done the deed of which we
speak, the victims at their sacrifices failed to
give good tokens; and this failure lasted for a
very long time. Then the Spartans were
troubled; and, regarding what had befallen
them as a grievous calamity, they held fre-
quent assemblies of the people, and made proc-
lamation through the town, "Was any Lace-
daemonian willing to give his life for Sparta?"
Upon this two Spartans, Sperthias, the son of
Anenstus, and Bui is, the son of Nicolaiis, both
men of noble birth, and among the wealthiest
in the place, came forward and freely offered
themselves as an atonement to Xerxes for the
heralds of Darius slam at Sparta. So the Spar-
tans sent thorn away to the Medes to undergo
death.

135. Nor is the courage which these men
hereby displayed alone worthy of wonder; but
so likewise are the following speeches which
were made by them. On their road to Susa
they presented themselves before Hydarncs.
This Hydarncs was a Persian by birth, and had
the command of all the nations that dwelt
along the sea-coast of Asia. He accordingly
showed them hospitality, and invited them to
a banquet, where, as they feasted, he said to
them: —

"Men of Lacedaemon, why will ye not con-
sent to be friends with the king? Ye have but
to look at me and my fortune to see that the
king knows well how to honour merit. In like
manner ye yourselves, were ye to make your
submission to him, would receive at his hands,
seeing that he deems you men of merit, some
government in Greece."

"Hydarncs," they answered, "thou art a one-
sided counsellor. Thou hast experience of
half the matter; but the other half is beyond
thy knowledge. A slave's life thou understand-

[BooK vii

est; but, never having tasted liberty, thou canst
not tell whether it be sweet or no. Ah! hadst
thou known what freedom is, thou wouldst
have bidden us fight for it, not with the spear
only, but with the battle-axe."
So they answered Hydarnes.

136. And afterwards, when they were come
to Susa into the king's presence, and the guards
ordered them to fall down and do obeisance,
and went so far as to use force to compel them,
they refused, and said they would never do
any such thing, even were their heads thrust
down to the ground; for it was not their cus-
tom to worship men, and they had not come to
Persia for that purpose. So they fought off the
ceremony; and having done so, addressed the
king in words much like the following: —

"O king of the Medes! the Lacedemonians
have sent us hither, in the place of those her-
alds of thine who were slain in Sparta, to make
atonement to thee on their account."

Then Xerxes answered with true greatness
of soul "that he would not act like the Lacedae-
monians, who, by killing the heralds, had
broken the laws which all men hold in com-
mon. As he had blamed such conduct in them,
he would never be guilty of it himself. And
besides, he did not wish, by putting the two
men to death, to free the Lacedaemonians
from the stain of their former outrage."

137. This conduct on the part ot the Spar-
tans caused the anger of Talthybius to cease
for a while, notwithstanding that Sperthias
and Bulis returned home alive. But many
years afterwards it awoke once more, as the
Lacedemonians themselves declare, during the
war between the Peloponnesians and the
Athenians.

In my judgment this was a case wherein the
hand of Heaven was most plainly manifest.
That the wrath of Talthybius should have
fallen upon ambassadors and not slacked till
it had full vent, so much justice required; but
that it should have come upon the sons of the
very men who were sent up to the Persian
king on its account — upon Nicolaus, the son
of Bulis, and Anenstus, the son of Sperthias
(the same who carried off fishermen from
Tiryns, when cruising in a well-manned mer-
chant-ship)— this does seem to me to be plain-
ly a supernatural circumstance. Yet certain it
is that these two men, having been sent to
Asia as ambassadors by the Lacedaemonians,
were betrayed by Sitalces, the son of Teres,
king of Thrace, and Nymphodorus, the son of
Pythes, a native of Abdera, and being made

I34-I41!

prisoners at Bisanthe, upon the Hellespont,
were conveyed to Attica, and there put to
death by the Athenians, at the same time as
Aristeas, the son of Adeimantus, the Corin-
thian. All this happened, however, very many
years after the expedition of Xerxes.

138. To return, however, to my main sub-
ject— the expedition of the Persian king,
though it was in name directed against Athens,
threatened really the whole of Greece. And of
this the Greeks were aware some time before;
but they did not all view the matter in the
same light. Some of them had given the Per-
sian earth and water, and were bold on this
account, deeming themselves thereby secured
against suffering hurt from the barbarian
army; while others, who had refused compli-
ance, were thrown into extreme alarm. For
whereas they considered all the ships in Greece
too few to engage the enemy, it was plain that
the greater number of states would take no
part in the war, but warmly favoured the
Medes.

139. And here I feel constrained to deliver
an opinion, which most men, I know, will mis-
like, but which, as it seems to me to be true, I
am determined not to withhold. Had the
Athenians, from fear of the approaching dan-
ger, quitted their country, or had they with-
out quitting it submitted to the power of Xer-
xes, there would certainly have been no at-
tempt to resist the Persians by sea; in which
case the course of events by land would have
been the following. Though the Peloponnesi-
ans might have carried ever so many breast-
works across the Isthmus, yet their allies would
have fallen off from the Lacedemonians, not
by voluntary desertion, but because town after
town must have been taken by the fleet of the
barbarians; and so the Lacedaemonians would
at last have stood alone, and, standing alone,
would have displayed prodigies of valour and
died nobly. Either they would have done thus,
or else, before it came to that extremity, seeing
one Greek state after another embrace the
cause of the Medes, they would have come to
terms with King Xerxes — and thus, either
way Greece would have been brought under
Persia. For I cannot understand of what pos-
sible use the walls across the Isthmus could
have been, if the king had had the mastery of
the sea. If then a man should now say that the
Athenians were the saviours of Greece, he
would not exceed the truth. For they truly held
the scales; and whichever side they espoused
must have carried the day. They too it was

THE HISTORY

239

who, when they had determined to maintain
the freedom of Greece, roused up that portion
of the Greek nation which had not gone over
to the Medes; and so, next to the gods, they re-
pulsed the invader. Even the terrible oracles
which reached them from Delphi, and struck
fear into their hearts, failed to persuade them
to fly from Greece. They had the courage to
remain faithful to their land, and await the
coming of the foe.

140. When the Athenians, anxious to con-
sult the oracle, sent their messengers to Delphi,
hardly had the envoys completed the custom-
ary rites about the sacred precinct, and taken
their seats inside the sanctuary of the god,
when the Pythoness, Anstonice by name, thus
prophesied —

Wretches, why sit ye here? Fly, fly to the ends of
creation,

Quitting your homes, and the crags which your
ctty crowns with her circlet.

Neither the head, nor the body is firm in its
place, nor at bottom

Firm the feet, nor the hands, nor resteth the
middle unin/ur'd.

All — all ruined and lost. Since fire, and impetu-
ous Ares,

Speeding along in a Syrian chariot, hastes to de-
stroy her.

Not alone shall thou suffer; full many the towers
he will level,

Many the shrines of the gods he will give to a
fiery destruction.

Even now they stand with dark sweat horribly
dripping,

Trembling and quaking for fear, and lo! from
the high roofs tncltfcth

Blac^ bhod, sign prophetic of hard distresses im-
pending.

Get ye away jtom the temple, and brood on the
ills that await ye!

141. When the Athenian messengers heard
this reply, they were filled with the deepest
affliction: whereupon Timon, the son of An-
drobulus, one of the men of most mark among
the Dclphians, seeing how utterly cast down
they were at the gloomy prophecy, advised
them to take an olive-branch, and entering the
sanctuary again, consult the oracle as suppli-
ants. The Athenians followed this advice, and
going in once more, said — "O king! we pray
thee reverence these boughs of supplication
which we bear in our hands, and deliver to us
something more comforting concerning our
country. Else we will not leave thy sanctuary,
but will stay here till we die." Upon this the
priestess gave them a second answer, which
was the following: —

240

HERODOTUS

[BOOK vii

Pallas has not been able to soften the lord of

Olympus,
Though she has often prayed htm, and urged him

with excellent counsel.

Yet once more I address thce in words than ada-
mant firmer.
When the foe shall have ta^en whatever the limit

of Cecrops
Holds within it, and all which divine Cith&on

shelters,
Then far-seeing Jove grants this to the prayers of

Athene,
Safe shall the wooden wall continue for thce and

thy children.
Wait not the tramp o] the horse, nor the footmen

mightily moving
Over the land, but turn your bac\ to the joe, and

retire ye.
Yet shall a day arrive when ye shall meet him in

battle.
Holy Salamis, thou shalt desttoy the offspring of

women,
When men scatter the seed, or when they gather

the harvest.

142. This answer seemed, as indeed it was,
gentler than the former one; so the envoys
wrote it down, and went back with it to Ath-
ens. When, however, upon their arrival, they
produced it before the people, and inquiry be-
gan to be made into its true meaning, many
and various were the interpretations which
men put on it; two, more especially, seemed to
be directly opposed to one another. Certain of
the old men were of opinion that the god
meant to tell them the citadel would escape;
for this was anciently defended by a palisade;
and they supposed that barrier to be the
"wooden wall" of the oracle. Others main-
tained that the fleet was what the god pointed
at; and their advice was that nothing should
be thought of except the ships, which had best
be at once got ready. Still such as said the
"wooden wall" meant the fleet, were perplexed
by the last two lines of the oracle —

Holy Salamis, thou shalt destroy the offspring of

women,
When men scatter the seed, or when they gather

the haivcst.

These words caused great disturbance among
those who took the wooden wall to be the
ships; since the interpreters understood them
to mean that, if they made preparations for a
sea-fight, they would suffer a defeat off Sala-
mis.

143. Now there was at Athens a man who
had lately made his way into the first rank of
citizens: his true name was Themistocles; but
he was known more generally as the son of

Ncocles. This man came forward and said
that the interpreters had not explained the or-
acle altogether aright — "for if," he argued,
"the clause in question had really respected the
Athenians, it would not have been expressed
so mildly; the phrase used would have been
'Luckless Salamis,' rather than 'Holy Salamis/
had those to whom the island belonged been
about to perish in its neighbourhood. Rightly
taken, the response of the god threatened the
enemy, much more than the Athenians." He
therefore counselled his countrymen to make
ready to fight on board their ships, since they
were the wooden wall in which the god told
them to trust. When Themistocles had thus
cleared the matter, the Athenians embraced his
view, preferring it to that of the interpreters.
The advice of these last had been against en-
gaging in a sea-fight; "all the Athenians could
do," they said, "was, without lifting a hand in
their defence, to quit Attica, and make a set-
tlement in some other country."

144. Themistocles had before this given a
counsel which prevailed very seasonably. The
Athenians, having a large sum of money in
their treasury, the produce of the mines at
Laureium, were about to share it among the
full-grown citizens, who would have received
ten drachmas apiece, when Themistocles per-
suaded them to forbear the distribution, and
build with the money two hundred ships, to
help them in their war against the Eginetans.
It was the breaking out of the Egmetan war
which was at this time the saving of Greece;
for hereby were the Athenians forced to be-
come a maritime power. The new ships were
not used for the purpose for which they had
been built, but became a help to Greece in her
hour of need. And the Athenians had not only
these vessels ready before the war, but they
likewise set to work to build more; while they
determined, in a council which was held after
the debate upon the oracle, that, according to
the advice of the god, they would embark their
whole force aboard their ships, and, with such
Greeks as chose to join them, give battle to
the barbarian invader. Such, then, were the
oracles which had been received by the Athen-
ians.

145. The Greeks who were well affected to
the Grecian cause, having assembled in one
place, and there consulted together, and inter-
changed pledges with each other, agreed that,
before any other step was taken, the feuds and
enmities which existed between the different
nations should first of all be appeased. Many

142-149]

THE HISTORY

241

such there were; but one was of more impor-
tance than the rest, namely, the war which was
still going on between the Athenians and the
Eginetans. When this business was concluded,
understanding that Xerxes had reached Sardis
with his army, they resolved to despatch spies
into Asia to take note of the king's affairs. At
the same time they determined to send ambas-
sadors to the Argives, and conclude a league
with them against the Persians; while they
likewise despatched messengers to Gelo, the
son of Deinomenes, in Sicily, to the people of
Corcyra, and to those of Crete, exhorting them
to send help to Greece. Their wish was to
unite, if possible, the entire Greek name in
one, and so to bring all to join in the same
plan of defence, inasmuch as the approaching
dangers threatened all alike. Now the power
of Gelo was said to be very great, far greater
than that of any single Grecian people.

146. So when these resolutions had been
agreed upon, and the quarrels between the
states made up, first of all they sent into Asia
three men as spies. These men reached Sardis,
and took note of the king's forces, but, being
discovered, were examined by order of the
generals who commanded the land army, and,
having been condemned to suffer death, were
led out to execution. Xerxes, however, when
the news reached him, disapproving the sen-
tence of the generals, sent some of his body-
guard with instructions, if they found the spies
still alive, to bring them into his presence. The
messengers found the spies alive, and brought
them before the king, who, when he heard
the purpose for which they had come, gave
orders to his guards to take them round the
camp, and show them all the footmen and all
the horse, letting them gaze at everything to
their hearts' content; then, when they were
satisfied, to send them away unharmed to
whatever country they desired.

147. For these orders Xerxes gave after-
wards the following reasons. "Had the spies
been put to death," he said, "the Greeks would
have continued ignorant of the vastness of his
army, which surpassed the common report of
it; while he would have done them a very
small injury by killing three of their men. On
the other hand, by the return of the spies to
Greece, his power would become known; and
the Greeks," he expected, "would make sur-
render of their freedom before he began his
march, by which means his troops would be
saved all the trouble of an expedition." This
reasoning was like to that which he used upon

another occasion. While he was staying at
Abydos, he saw some corn-ships, which were
passing through the Hellespont from the Eux-
ine, on their way to Egina and the Pelopon-
nese. His attendants, hearing that they were
the enemy's, were ready to capture them, and
looked to see when Xerxes would give the sig-
nal. He, however, merely asked "whither the
ships were bound?" and when they answered,
"For thy foes, master, with corn on board," —
"We too are bound thither," he rejoined, "la-
den, among other things, with corn. What
harm is it, if they carry our provisions for us?"
So the spies, when they had seen everything,
were dismissed, and came back to Europe.

148. The Greeks who had banded them-
selves together against the Persian king, after
despatching the spies into Asia, sent next am-
bassadors to Argos. The account which the
Argives give of their own proceedings is the
following. They say that they had information
from the very first of the preparations which
the barbarians were making against Greece.
So, as they expected that the Greeks would
come upon them for aid against the assailant,
they sent envoys to Delphi to inquire of the
god what it would be best for them to do in
the matter. They had lost, not long before, six
thousand citizens, who had been slain by the
Lacedaemonians under Cleomenes the son of
Anaxandridas; which was the reason why they
now sent to Delphi. When the Pythoness heard
their question, she replied —

Hated of all thy neighbors, beloved of the blessed
Immortals,

Sit thou still, with thy lance drawn inward, pa-
tiently watching,

Wanly guard thine head, and the head will ta\e
care of the body.

This prophecy had been given them some
time before the envoys came; but still, when
they afterwards arrived, it was permitted them
to enter the council-house, and there deliver
their message. And this answer was returned
to their demands — "Argos is ready to do as ye
require, if the Lacedaemonians will first make
a truce for thirty years, and will further divide
with Argos the leadership of the allied army.
Although in strict right the whole command
should be hers, she will be content to have the
leadership divided equally."

149. Such, they say, was the reply made by
the council, in spite of the oracle which for-
bade them to enter into a league with the
Greeks. For, while not without fear of disobey-
ing the oracle, they were greatly desirous of

242

HERODOTUS

[BOOK vii

obtaining a thirty years' truce, to give time for
their sons to grow to man's estate. They re-
flected, that if no such truce were concluded,
and it should be their lot to suffer a second
calamity at the hands of the Persians, it was
likely they would fall hopelessly under the
power of Sparta. But to the demands of the
Argive council the Lacedaemonian envoys
made answer — "They would bring before the
people the question of concluding a truce.
With regard to the leadership, they had re-
ceived orders what to say, and the reply was
that Sparta had two kings, Argos but one — it
was not possible that either of the two Spar-
tans should be stripped of his dignity — but
they did not oppose the Argive king having
one vote like each of them." The Argives say
that they could not brook this arrogance on
the part of Sparta, and rather than yield one
jot to it, they preferred to be under the rule of
the barbarians. So they told the envoys to be
gone, before sunset, from their territory, or
they should be treated as enemies.

150. Such is the account which is given of
these matters by the Argives themselves. There
is another story, which is told generally
through Greece, of a different tenor. Xerxes,
it is said, before he set forth on his expedition
against Greece, sent a herald to Argos, who
on his arrival spoke as follows: —

"Men of Argos, King Xerxes speaks thus to
you. We Persians deem that the Perses from
whom we descend was the child of Perseus the
son of Danae, and of Andromeda the daughter
of Cepheus. Hereby it would seem that we
come of your stock and lineage. So then it
neither befits us to make war upon those from
whom we spring; nor can it be right for you to
fight, on behalf of others, against us. Your
place is to keep quiet and hold yourself aloof.
Only let matters proceed as I wish, and there
is no people whom I shall have in higher es-
teem than you."

This address, says the story, was highly val-
ued by the Argives, who therefore at the first
neither gave a promise to the Greeks nor yet
put forward a demand. Afterwards, however,
when the Greeks called upon them to give
their aid, they made the claim which has been
mentioned, because they knew well that the
Lacedemonians would never yield it, and so
they would have a pretext for taking no part in
the war.

151. Some of the Greeks say that this ac-
count agrees remarkably with what happened
many years afterwards. Callias, the son of Hip-

ponicus, and certain others with him, had gone
up to Susa, the city of Memnon, as ambassa-
dors of the Athenians, upon a business quite
distinct from this. While they were there, it
happened that the Argives likewise sent am-
bassadors to Susa, to ask Artaxerxes, the son
of Xerxes, "if the friendship which they had
formed with his father still continued, or if he
looked upon them as his enemies?" — to which
King Artaxerxes replied, "Most certainly it
continues; and there is no city which I reckon
more my friend than Argos."

152. For my own part I cannot positively
say whether Xerxes did send the herald to Ar-
gos or not; nor whether Argive ambassadors
at Susa did really put this question to Arta-
xerxes about the friendship between them and
him; neither do I deliver any opinion here-
upon other than that of the Argives them-
selves. This, however, I know — that if every
nation were to bring all its evil deeds to a
given place, in order to make an exchange
with some other nation, when they had all
looked carefully at their neighbours' faults,
they would be truly glad to carry their own
back again. So, after all, the conduct of the
Argives was not perhaps more disgraceful than
that of others. For myself, my duty is to re-
port all that is said; but I am not obliged to
believe it all alike — a remark which may be
understood to apply to my whole History.
Some even go so far as to say that the Argives
first invited the Persians to invade Greece,
because of their ill success in the war with
Lacedaemon, since they preferred anything to
the smart of their actual sufferings. Thus
much concerning the Argives.

153. Other ambassadors, among whom was
Syagrus from Lacedaemon, were sent by the
allies into Sicily, with instructions to confer
with Gelo.

The ancestor of this Gelo, who first settled
at Gela, was a native of the isle of Telos, which
lies off Triopium. When Gela was colonised
by Antiphemus and the Lindians of Rhodes,
he likewise took part in the expedition. In
course of time his descendants became the
high-priests of the gods who dwell below — an
office which they held continually, from the
time that Telines, one of Gelo's ancestors, ob-
tained it in the way which I will now men-
tion. Certain citizens of Gela, worsted in a se-
dition, had found a refuge at Mactorium, a
town situated on the heights above Gela. Te-
lines reinstated these men, without any hu-
man help, solely by means of the sacred rites

150-157]

THE HISTORY

243

of these deities. From whom he received them,
or how he himself acquired them, I cannot
say; but certain it is that relying on their pow-
er he brought the exiles back. For this his re-
ward was to be the office of high-priest of
those gods for himself and his seed for ever.
It surprises me especially that such a feat
should have been performed by Telines; for
I have always looked upon acts of this nature
as beyond the abilities of common men, and
only to be achieved by such as are of a bold
and manly spirit; whereas Telines is said by
those who dwell about Sicily to have been a
soft-hearted and womanish person. He how-
ever obtained this office in the manner above
described.

154. Afterwards, on the death of Oleander
the son of Pantares, who was slain by Sabyllus,
a citizen of Gela, after he had held the tyranny
for seven years, Hippocrates, Oleander's broth-
er, mounted the throne. During his reign,
Gelo, a descendant of the high-priest Telines,
served with many others — of whom >Eneside-
mus, son of Pataicus, was one — in the king's
bodyguard. Within a little time his merit
caused him to be raised to the command of all
the horse. For when Hippocrates laid siege to
Callipolis, and afterwards to Naxos, to Zancle,
to Leontmi, and moreover to Syracuse, and
many cities of the barbarians, Gelo in every war
distinguished himself above all the combatants.
Of the various cities above named, there was
none but Syracuse which was not reduced to
slavery. The Syracusans were saved from this
fate, after they had suffered defeat on the river
Elorus, by the Corinthians and Corcyraeans,
who made peace between them and Hippo-
crates, on condition of their ceding Camarina
to him; for that city anciently belonged to Syr-
acuse.

155. When, however, Hippocrates, after a
reign of the same length as that of Oleander
his brother, perished near the city Hybla, as
he was warring with the native Sicilians, then
Gelo, pretending to espouse the cause of the
two sons of Hippocrates, Eucleides and Olean-
der, defeated the citizens who were seeking to
recover their freedom, and having so done, set
aside the children, and himself took the king-
ly power. After this piece of good fortune,
Gelo likewise became master of Syracuse, in
the following manner. The Syracusan land-
holders, as they were called, had been driven
from their city by the common people assisted
by their own slaves, the Cyllyrians, and had
fled to Casmenae. Gelo brought them back to

Syracuse, and so got possession of the town;
for the people surrendered themselves, and
gave up their city on his approach.

156. Being now master of Syracuse, Gelo
cared less to govern Gela, which he therefore
entrusted to his brother Hiero, while he
strengthened the defences of his new city,
which indeed was now all in all to him. And
Syracuse sprang up rapidly to power and be-
came a flourishing place. For Gelo razed Cam-
arina to the ground, and brought all the in-
habitants to Syracuse, and made them citizens;
he also brought thither more than half the
citizens of Gela, and gave them the same
rights as the Camarinaeans. So likewise with
the Megarians of Sicily — after besieging their
town and forcing them to surrender, he took
the rich men, who, having made the war,
looked now for nothing less than death at his
hands, and carrying them to Syracuse, estab-
lished them there as citizens; while the com-
mon people, who, as they had not taken any
share in the struggle, felt secure that no harm
would be done to them, he carried likewise to
Syracuse, where he sold them all as slaves to be
conveyed abroad. He did the like also by the
Euboeans of Sicily, making the same differ-
ence. His conduct towards both nations arose
from his belief that a "people" was a most un-
pleasant companion. In this way Gelo became
a great king.

157. When the Greek envoys reached Syra-
cuse, and were admitted to an audience, they
spoke as follows —

"We have been sent hither by the Lacedae-
monians and Athenians, with their respective
allies, to ask thee to join us against the barbar-
ian. Doubtless thou hast heard of his invasion,
and art aware that a Persian is about to throw
a bridge over the Hellespont, and, bringing
with him out of Asia all the forces of the East,
to carry war into Greece — professing indeed
that he only seeks to attack Athens, but really
bent on bringing all the Greeks into subjection.
Do thou therefore, we beseech thee, aid those
who would maintain the freedom of Greece,
and thyself assist to free her; since the power
which thou wieldest is great, and thy portion
in Greece, as lord of Sicily, is no small one. For
if all Greece join together in one, there will be
a mighty host collected, and we shall be a
match for our assailants; but if some turn trai-
tors, and others refuse their aid, and only a
small part of the whole body remains sound,
then there is reason to fear that all Greece may
perish. For do not thou cherish a hope that

244

HERODOTUS

[BOOK vii

the Persian, when he has conquered our coun-
try, will be content and not advance against
thec. Rather take thy measures beforehand,
and consider that thou defendest thyself when
thou givest aid to us. Wise counsels, be sure,
for the most part have prosperous issues."

158. Thus spake the envoys; and Gelo re-
plied with vehemence: —

"Greeks, ye have had the face to come here
with selfish words, and exhort me to join in
league with you against the barbarian. Yet
when I erewhile asked you to join with me in
fighting barbarians, what time the quarrel
broke out between me and Carthage; and
when I earnestly besought you to revenge on
the men of Egesta their murder of Doricus, the
son of Anaxandridas, promising to assist you
in setting free the trading places from which
you receive great profits and advantages, you
neither came hither to give me succour, nor
yet to revenge Dorieus; but, for any efforts on
your part to hinder it, these countries might at
this time have been entirely under the barbar-
ians. Now, however, that matters have pros-
pered and gone well with me, while the dan-
ger has shifted its ground and at present threat-
ens yourselves, lo! you call Gelo to mind. But
though ye slighted me then, I will not imitate
you now: I am ready to give you aid, and to
furnish as my contribution two hundred tri-
remes, twenty thousand men-at-arms, two
thousand cavalry, and an equal number of
archers, slingers, and light horsemen, together
with corn for the whole Grecian army so long
as the war shall last. These services, however, I
promise on one condition — that ye appoint me
chief captain and commander of the Grecian
forces during the war with the barbarian. Un-
less ye agree to this, I will neither send suc-
cours, nor come myself."

159. Syagrus, when he heard these words,
was unable to contain himself, and ex-
claimed:—

"Surely a groan would burst from Pelops'
son, Agamemnon, did he hear that her leader-
ship was snatched from Sparta by Gelo and
the men of Syracuse. Speak then no more of
any such condition, as that we should yield
thee the chief command; but if thou art mind-
ed to come to the aid of Greece, prepare to
serve under Lacedaemonian generals. Wilt thou
not serve under a leader? — then, prithee, with-
hold thy succours."

1 60. Hereupon Gelo, seeing the indignation
which showed itself in the wolds of Syagrus,
delivered to the envoys his final offer: — "Spar-

tan stranger," he said, "reproaches cast forth
against a man are wont to provoke him to
anger; but the insults which thou hast uttered
in thy speech shall not persuade me to outstep
good breeding in my answer. Surely if you
maintain so stoutly your right to the com-
mand, it is reasonable that I should be still
more stiff in maintaining mine, forasmuch as
I am at the head of a far larger fleet and army.
Since, however, the claim which I have put
forward is so displeasing to you, I will yield,
and be content with less. Take, if it please you,
the command of the land-force, and I will be
admiral of the fleet; or assume, if you prefer
it, the command by sea, and I will be leader
upon the land. Unless you are satisfied with
these terms, you must return home by your-
selves, and lose this great alliance." Such was
the offer which Gelo made.

161. Hereat broke in the Athenian envoy,
before the Spartan could answer, and thus ad-
dressed Gelo —

"King of the Syracusans! Greece sent us
here to thee to ask for an army, and not to ask
for a general. Thou, however, dost not prom-
ise to send us any army at all, if thou art not
made leader of the Greeks; and this command
is what alone thou stickiest for. Now when
thy request was to have the whole command,
we were content to keep silence; for well we
knew that we might trust the Spartan envoy to
make answer for us both. But since, after fail-
ing in thy claim to lead the whole armament,
thou hast now put forward a request to have
the command of the fleet, know that, even
should the Spartan envoy consent to this, we
will not consent. The command by sea, if the
Lacedaemonians do not wish for it, belongs to
us. While they like to keep this command, we
shall raise no dispute; but we will not yield
our right to it in favour of any one else. Where
would be the advantage of our having raised
up a naval force greater than that of any other
Greek people, if nevertheless we should suffer
Syracusans to take the command away from
us? — from us, I say, who are Athenians, the
most ancient nation in Greece, the only Greeks
who have never changed their abode — the peo-
ple who are said by the poet Homer to have
sent to Troy the man best able of all the Greeks
to array and marshal an army — so that we may
be allowed to boast somewhat."

162. Gelo replied — "Athenian stranger, ye
have, it seems, no lack of commanders; but ye
are likely to lack men to receive their orders.
As ye are resolved to yield nothing and claim

158-168]

THE HISTORY

245

everything, ye had best make haste back to
Greece, and say that the spring of her year
is lost to her." The meaning of this expression
was the following: as the spring is manifestly
the finest season of the year, so (he meant to
say) were his troops the finest of the Greek
army — Greece, therefore, deprived of his alli-
ance, would be like a year with the spring tak-
en from it.

163. Then the Greek envoys, without hav-
ing any further dealings with Gelo, sailed
away home. And Gelo, who feared that the
Greeks would be too weak to withstand the
barbarians, and yet could not any how bring
himself to go to the Peloponnese, and there,
though king of Sicily, serve under the Lacedae-
monians, left off altogether to contemplate that
course of action, and betook himselt to quite
a different plan. As soon as ever tidings
reached him of the passage of the Hellespont
by the Persians, he sent off three penteconters,
under the command of Cadmus, the son of
Scythas, a native of Cos, who was to go to Del-
phi, taking with him a large sum of money
and a stock of friendly words: there he was to
watch the war, and see what turn it would
take: if the barbarians prevailed, he was to
give Xerxes the treasure, and with it earth and
water for the lands which Gelo ruled — if the
Greeks won the day, he was to convey the
treasure back.

164. This Cadmus had at an earlier time re-
ceived from his father the kingly power at Cos
in a right good condition, and had of his own
free will and without the approach of any dan-
ger, from pure love of justice, given up his
power into the hands of the people at large,
and departed to Sicily; where he assisted in
the Samian seizure and settlement of Zancle,
or Messana, as it was afterwards called. Upon
this occasion Gelo chose him to send into
Greece, because he was acquainted with the
proofs of honesty which he had given. And
now he added to his former honourable deeds
an action which is not the least of his merits.
With a vast sum entrusted to him and com-
pletely in his power, so that he might have
kept it for his own use if he had liked, he did
not touch it; but when the Greeks gained the
sea-fight and Xerxes fled away with his army,
he brought the whole treasure back with him
to Sicily.

165. They, however, who dwell in Sicily,
say that Gelo, though he knew that he must
serve under the Lacedaemonians, would never-
theless have come to the aid of the Greeks, had

not it been for Terillus, the son of Crinippus,
king of Himera; who, driven from his city by
Thero, the son of ^Enesidemus, king of Agri-
gentum, brought into Sicily at this very time
an army of three hundred thousand men, Phoe-
nicians, Libyans, Iberians, Ligurians, Helisy-
cians, Sardinians, and Corsicans, under the
command of Hamilcar the son of Han no, king
of the Carthaginians. Terillus prevailed upon
Hamilcar, partly as his sworn friend, but more
through the zealous aid of Anaxilaiis the son
of Cretines, king of Rhegium; who, by giving
his own sons to Hamilcar as hostages, induced
him to make the expedition. Anaxilaiis herein
served his own father-in-law; for he was mar-
ried to a daughter of Tenllus, by name Cydip-
pe. So, as Gelo could not give the Greeks any
aid, he sent (they say) the sum of money to
Delphi.

1 66. They say too, that the victory of Gelo
and Thero in Sicily over Hamilcar the Car-
thaginian fell out upon the very day that the
Greeks defeated the Persians at Salamis. Ham-
ilcar, who was a Carthaginian on his father's
side only, but on his mother's a Syracusan, and
who had been raised by his merit to the throne
of Carthage, after the battle and the ,defeat, as
I am informed, disappeared from sight: Gelo
made the strictest search for him, but he could
not be-found anywhere, either dead or alive.

167. The Carthaginians, who take proba-
bility for their guide, give the following ac-
count of this matter: — Hamilcar, they say,
during all the time that the battle raged be-
tween the Greeks and the barbarians, which
was from early dawn till evening, remained in
the camp, sacrificing and seeking favourable
omens, while he burned on a huge pyre the
entire bodies of the victims which he offered.
Here, as he poured libations upon the sacri-
fices, he saw the rout of his army; whereupon
he cast himself headlong into the flames, and
so was consumed and disappeared. But wheth-
er Hamilcar's disappearance happened, as the
Phoenicians tell us, in this way, or, as the Syra-
cusans maintain, in some other, certain it is
that the Carthaginians offer him sacrifice, and
in all their colonies have monuments erected
to his honour, as well as one, which is the
grandest of all, at Carthage. Thus much con-
cerning the affairs of Sicily.

1 68. As for the Corcyraeans, whom the en-
voys that visited Sicily took in their way, and
to whom they delivered the same message as
to Gelo — their answers and actions were the
following. With great readiness they promised

246

HERODOTUS

[BOOK vn

to come and give their help to the Greeks; de-
claring that "the ruin of Greece was a thing
which they could not tamely stand by to see;
for should she fall, they must the very next day
submit to slavery; so that they were bound to
assist her to the very uttermost of their power."
But notwithstanding that they answered so
smoothly, yet when the time came for the suc-
cours to be sent, they were of quite a different
mind; and though they manned sixty ships,
it was long ere they put to sea with them; and
when they had so done, they went no further
than the Peloponnese, where they lay to with
their fleet, off the Lacedaemonian coast, about
Pylos and Tamarum — like Gelo, watching to
see what turn the war would take. For they
despaired altogether of the Greeks gaining the
day, and expected that the Persian would win
a great battle, and then be master of the whole
of Greece. They therefore acted as I have said,
in order that they might be able to address
Xerxes in words like these: "O king! though
the Greeks sought to obtain our aid in their
war with thee, and though we had a force of
no small size, and could have furnished a
greater number of ships than any Greek state
except Athens, yet we refused, since we would
not fight against thee, nor do aught to cause
thee annoyance." The Corcyraeans hoped that
a speech like this would gain them better treat-
ment from the Persians than the rest of the
Greeks; and it would have done so, in my
judgment. At the same time, they had an ex-
cuse ready to give their countrymen, which
they used when the time came. Reproached by
them for sending no succours, they replied
"that they had fitted out a fleet of sixty tri-
remes, but that the Etesian winds did not al-
low them to double Cape Malea, and this hin-
dered them from reaching Salamis — it was not
from any bad motive that they had missed the
sea-fight." In this way the Corcyrxans eluded
the reproaches of the Greeks.

169. The Cretans, when the envoys sent to
ask aid from them came and made their re-
quest, acted as follows. They despatched mes-
sengers in the name of their state to Delphi,
and asked the god, whether it would make for
their welfare if they should lend succour to
Greece. "Fools!" replied the Pythoness, "do
ye not still complain of the woes which the
assisting of Menelaiis cost you at the hands of
angry Minos? How wroth was he, when, in
spite of their having lent you no aid towards
avenging his death at Camicus, you helped
them to avenge the carrying off by a barbarian

of a woman from Sparta !" When this answer
was brought from Delphi to the Cretans, they
thought no more of assisting the Greeks.

170. Minos, according to tradition, went to
Sicania, or Sicily, as it is now called, in search
of Daedalus, and there perished by a violent
death. After a while the Cretans, warned by
some god or other, made a great expedition
into Sicania, all except the Polichnites and the
Pnesians, and besieged Camicus (which in my
time belonged to Agrigentum) by the space of
five years. At last, however, failing in their
efforts to take the place, and unable to carry
on the siege any longer from the pressure of
hunger, they departed and went their way.
Voyaging homewards they had reached lapy-
gia, when a furious storm arose and threw
them upon the coast. All their vessels were
broken in pieces; and so, as they saw no means
of returning to Crete, they founded the town
of Hyria, where they took up their abode,
changing their name from Cretans to Messa-
pian lapygians, and at the same time becoming
inhabitants of the mainland instead of island-
ers. From Hyria they afterwards founded
those other towns which the Tarentines at a
much later period endeavoured to take, but
could not, being defeated signally. Indeed so
dreadful a slaughter of Greeks never hap-
pened at any other time, so far as my knowl-
edge extends: nor was it only the Tarentines
who suffered; but the men of Rhcgium too,
who had been forced to go to the aid of the
Tarentines by Micythus the son of Chcerus,
lost here three thousand of their citizens; while
the number of the Tarentines who fell was be-
yond all count. This Micythus had been a
household slave of Anaxilaiis, and was by him
left in charge of Rhegium: he is the same man
who was afterwards forced to leave Rhegium,
when he settled at Tegea in Arcadia, from
which place he made his many offerings of
statues to the shrine at Olympia.

171. This account of the Rhegians and the
Tarentines is a digression from the story
which I was relating. To return — the Prsesians
say that men of various nations now flocked to
Crete, which was stript of its inhabitants; but
none came in such numbers as the Grecians.
Three generations after the death of Minos the
Trojan war took place; and the Cretans were
not the least distinguished among the helpers
of Menelaiis. But on this account, when they
came back from Troy, famine and pestilence
fell upon them, and destroyed both the men
and the cattle. Crete was a second time stript

169-176]

THE HISTORY

247

of its inhabitants, a remnant only being left;
who form, together with fresh settlers, the
third "Cretan" people by whom the island has
been inhabited. These were the events of
which the Pythoness now reminded the men
of Crete; and thereby she prevented them from
giving the Greeks aid, though they wished to
have gone to their assistance.

172. The Thessalians did not embrace the
cause of the Medes until they were forced to
do so; for they gave plain proof that the in-
trigues of the Aleuada: were not at all to their
liking. No sooner did they hear that the Per-
sian was about to cross over into Europe than
they despatched envoys to the Greeks who
were met to consult together at the Isthmus,
whither all the states which were well inclined
to the Grecian cause had sent their delegates.
These envoys on their arrival thus addressed
their countrymen: —

"Men of Greece, it behoves you to guard the
pass of Olympus; for thus will Thessaly be
placed in safety, as well as the rest of Greece.
We for our parts are quite ready to take our
share in this work; but you must likewise send
us a strong force: otherwise we give you fair
warning that we shall make terms with the
Persians. For we ought not to be left, exposed
as we are in front of all the rest of Greece, to
die in your defence alone and unassisted. If
however you do not choose to send us aid, you
cannot force us to resist the enemy; for there
is no force so strong as inability. We shall
therefore do our best to secure our own safety."

Such was the declaration of the Thessalians.

173. Hereupon the Greeks determined to
send a body of foot to Thessaly by sea, which
should defend the pass of Olympus. Accord-
ingly a force was collected, which passed up the
Eunpus, and disembarking at Alus, on the
coast of Achaea, left the ships there, and
marched by land into Thessaly. Here they oc-
cupied the defile of Tempe; which leads from
Lower Macedonia into Thessaly along the
course of the Peneus, having the range of
Olympus on the one hand and Ossa upon the
other. In this place the Greek force that had
been collected, amounting to about 10,000
heavy-armed men, pitched their camp; and
here they were joined by the Thessalian caval-
ry. The commanders were, on the part of the
Lacedaemonians, Evaenetus, the son of Care-
nus, who had been chosen out of the Pole-
marchs, but did not belong to the blood royal;
and on the part of the Athenians, Themis-
tocles, the son of Neocles. They did not how-

ever maintain their station for more than a few
days; since envoys came from Alexander, the
son of Amyntas, the Macedonian, and coun-
selled them to decamp from Tempe, telling
them that if they remained in the pass they
would be trodden under foot by the invading
army, whose numbers they recounted, and
likewise the multitude of their ships. So when
the envoys thus counselled them, and the coun-
sel seemed to be good, and the Macedonian
who sent it friendly, they did even as he ad-
vised. In my opinion what chiefly wrought on
them was the fear that the Persians might en-
ter by another pass, whereof they now heard,
which led from Upper Macedonia into Thessa-
ly through the territory of the Perrhacbi, and
by the town of Gonnus — the pass by which
soon afterwards the army of Xerxes actually
made its entrance. The Greeks therefore went
back to their ships and sailed away to the
Isthmus.

174. Such were the circumstances of the ex-
pedition into Thessaly; they took place when
the king was at Abydos, preparing to pass from
Asia into Europe. The Thessalians, when their
allies forsook them, no longer wavered, but
warmly espoused the side of the Medes; and
afterwards, in the course of the war, they were
of the very greatest service to Xerxes.

175. The Greeks, on their return to the Isth-
mus, took counsel together concerning the
words of Alexander, and considered where
they should fix the war, and what places they
should occupy. The opinion which prevailed
was that they should guard the pass of Ther-
mopylae, since it was narrower than the Thes-
salian defile, and at the same time nearer to
them. Of the pathway, by which the Greeks
who fell at Thermopylae were intercepted, they

„ had no knowledge, until, on their arrival at
Thermopylae, it was discovered to them by the
Trachinians. This pass then it was determined
that they should guard, in order to prevent the
barbarians from penetrating into Greece
through it; and at the same time it was resolved
that the fleet should proceed to Artemisium, in
the region of Histiaeotis, for, as those places are
near to one another, it would be easy for the
fleet and army to hold communication. The
two places may be thus described.

176. Artemisium is where the sea of Tnrace
contracts into a narrow channel, running be-
tween the isle of Sciathus and the mainland
of Magnesia. When this narrow strait is passed
you come to the line of coast called Artemisi-
um; which is a portion of Eubcea, and contains

248

HERODOTUS

[BOOK vn

a temple of Artemis (Diana). As for the en-
trance into Greece by Trachis, it is, at its nar-
rowest point, about fifty feet wide. This how-
ever is not the place where the passage is most
contracted; for it is still narrower a little above
and a little below Thermopylae. At Alpeni,
which is lower down than that place, it is only
wide enough for a single carnage; and up
above, at the river Phoenix, near the town
called Anthela, it is the same. West of Ther-
mopylae rises a lofty and precipitous hill, impos-
sible to climb, which runs up into the chain of
CEta; while to the east the road is shut in by
the sea and by marshes. In this place are the
warm springs, which the natives call "The
Cauldrons*'; and above them stands an altar
sacred to Hercules. A wall had once been car-
ried across the opening; and in this there had
of old times been a gateway. These works were
made by the Phocians, through fear of the
Thessalians, at the time when the latter came
from Thespr6tia to establish themselves in the
land of ^Rolis, which they still occupy. As the
Thessalians strove to reduce Phocis, the Pho-
cians raised the wall to protect themselves, and
likewise turned the hot springs upon the pass,
that so the ground might be broken up by
watercourses, using thus all possible means to
hinder the Thessalians from invading their
country. The old wall had been built in very
remote times; and the greater part of it had
gone to decay through age. Now however the
Greeks resolved to repair its breaches, and here
make their stand against the barbarian. At this
point there is a village very nigh the road, Al-
peni by name, from which the Greeks reck-
oned on getting corn for their troops.

177. These places, therefore, seemed to the
Greeks fit for their purpose. Weighing well all
that was likely to happen, and considering that
in this region the barbarians could make no
use of their vast numbers, nor of their cavalry,
they resolved to await here the invader of
Greece. And when news reached them of the
Persians being in Pieria, straightway they
broke up from the Isthmus, and proceeded,
some on foot to Thermopylae, others by sea to
Artemisium.

178. The Greeks now made all speed to
reacty the two stations; and about the same
time the Delphians, alarmed both for them-
selves and for their country, consulted the god,
and received for answer a command to "pray
to the winds, for the winds would do Greece
good service." So when this answer was given
them, forthwith the Delphians sent word of

the prophecy to those Greeks who were zeal-
ous for freedom, and, cheering them thereby
amid the fears which they entertained with re-
spect to the barbarian, earned their everlasting
gratitude. This done, they raised an altar to
the winds at Thyia (where Thyia, the daugh-
ter of Cephissus, from whom the region takes
its name, has a precinct), and worshipped
them with sacrifices. And even to the present
day the Delphians sacrifice to the winds, be-
cause of this oracle.

179. The fleet of Xerxes now departed from
Therma; and ten of the swiftest sailing ships
ventured to stretch across direct for Sciathus,
at which place there were upon the look-out
three vessels belonging to the Greeks, one a
ship of Trcezen, another of Egina, and the
third from Athens. These vessels no sooner
saw from a distance the barbarians approach-
ing than they all hurriedly took to flight.

1 80. The barbarians at once pursued, and
the Trcczenian ship, which was commanded
by Prexinus, fell into their hands. Hereupon
the Persians took the handsomest of the men-
at-arms, and drew him to the prow of the ves-
sel, where they sacrificed him; for they thought
the man a good omen to their cause, seeing
that he was at once so beautiful, and likewise
the first captive they had made. The man who
was slain in this way was called Leo; and it
may be that the name he bore helped him to
his fate in some measure.

181. The Eginetan trireme, under its cap-
tain, Asonides, gave the Persians no little
trouble, one of the men-at-arms, Pythes, the
son of Ischenoiis, distinguishing himself be-
yond all the others who fought on that day.
After the ship was taken this man continued
to resist, and did not cease fighting till he fell
quite covered with wounds. The Persians who
served as men-at-arms in the squadron, find-
ing that he was not dead, but still breathed,
and being very anxious to save his life, since
he had behaved so valiantly, dressed his
wounds with myrrh, and bound them up with
bandages of cotton. Then, when they were re-
turned to their own station, they displayed
their prisoner admiringly to the whole host,
and behaved towards him with much kind-
ness; but all the rest of the ship's crew were
treated merely as slaves.

182. Thus did the Persians succeed in tak-
ing two of the vessels. The third, a trireme
commanded by Phormus of Athens, took to
flight and ran aground at the mouth of the
river Peneus. The barbarians got possession of

177-187]

the barky but not of the men. For the Atheni-
ans had no sooner run their vessel aground
than they leapt out, and made their way
through Thessaly back to Athens.

When the Greeks stationed at Artemisium
learnt what had happened by fire-signals from
Sciathus, so terrified were they, that, quitting
their anchorage-ground at Artemisium, and
leaving scouts to watch the foe on the high-
lands of Euboea, they removed to Chalcis, in-
tending to guard the Euripus.

183. Meantime three of the ten vessels sent
forward by the barbarians advanced as far as
the sunken rock between Sciathus and Mag-
nesia, which is called "The Ant," and there set
up a stone pillar which they had brought with
them for that purpose. After this, their course
being now clear, the barbarians set sail with all
their ships from Therma, eleven days from the
time that the king quitted the town. The rock,
which lay directly in their course, had been
made known to them by Pammon of Scyros. A
day's voyage without a stop brought them to
Sepias in Magnesia, and to the strip of coast
which lies between the town of Casthanaea and
the promontory of Sepias.

184. As far as this point then, and on land,
as far as Thermopylae, the armament of Xerxes
had been free from mischance; and the num-
bers were still, according to my reckoning, of
the following amount. First there was the an-
cient complement of the twelve hundred and
seven vessels which came with the king from
Asia — the contingents of the nations severally
— amounting, if we allow to each ship a crew
of two hundred men, to 241,400. Each of these
vessels had on board, besides native soldiers,
thirty fighting men, who were either Persians,
Medes, or Sacans; which gives an addition of
36,210. To these two numbers I shall further
add the crews of the penteconters; which may
be reckoned, one with another, at fourscore
men each. Of such vessels there were (as I
said before) three thousand; and the men on
board them accordingly would be 240,000.
This was the sea force brought by the king
from Asia; and it amounted in all to 517,610
men. The number of the foot soldiers was
1,700,000; that of the horsemen 80,000; to
which must be added the Arabs who rode on
camels, and the Libyans who fought in chari-
ots, whom I reckon at 20,000. The whole num-
ber, therefore, of the land and sea forces added
together amounts to 2,317,610 men. Such was
the force brought from Asia, without includ-
ing the camp followers, or taking any account

THE HISTORY

249

of the provision-ships and the men whom they
had on board.

185. To the amount thus reached we have
still to add the forces gathered in Europe, con-
cerning which I can only speak from conjec-
ture. The Greeks dwelling in Thrace, and in
the islands off the coast of Thrace, furnished
to the fleet one hundred and twenty ships; the
crews of which would amount to 24,000 men.
Besides these, footmen were furnished by the
Thracians, the Paeonians, the Eordians, the
Bottiaeans, by the Chalcidean tribes, by the
Brygians, the Pierians, the Macedonians, the
Perrhaebians, the Enianians, the Dolopians, the
Magnesians, the Achseans, and by all the dwell-
ers upon the Thracian sea-board; and the for-
ces of these nations amounted, I believe, to
three hundred thousand men. These numbers,
added to those of the force which came out
of Asia, make the sum of the fighting men
2,641,610.

1 86. Such then being the number of the
fighting men, it is my belief that the attendants
who followed the camp, together with the
crews of the corn-barks, and of the other craft
accompanying the army, made up an amount
rather above than below that of the fighting
men. However I will not reckon them as either
fewer or more, but take them at an equal
number. We have therefore to add to the sum
already reached an exactly equal amount. This
will give 5,283,220 as the whole number of
men brought by Xerxes, the son of Darius, as
far as Sepias and Thermopylae.

187. Such then was the amount of the en-
tire host of Xerxes. As for the number of the
women who ground the corn, of the concu-
bines, and the eunuchs, no one can give any
sure account of it; nor can the baggage-horses
and other sumpter-beasts, nor the Indian
hounds which followed the army, be calcu-
lated, by reason of their multitude. Hence I am
not at all surprised that the water of the rivers
was found too scant for the army in some in-
stances; rather it is a marvel to me how the
provisions did not fail, when the numbers
were so great. For I find on calculation that if
each man consumed no more than a chcenix
of corn a day, there must have been used daily
by the army 110,340 medimni, and this with-
out counting what was eaten by the women,
the eunuchs, the sumpter-beasts, and the
hounds. Among all this multitude of men there
was not one who, for beauty and stature, de-
served more than Xerxes himself to wield so
vast a power.

250

HERODOTUS

[ BOOK vii

1 88. The fleet then, as I said, on leaving
Therma, sailed to the Magnesian territory, and
there occupied the strip of coast between the
city of Casthanaea and Cape Sepias. The ships
of the first row were moored to the land, while
the remainder swung at anchor further off.
The beach extended but a very little way, so
that they had to anchor off the shore, row upon
row, eight deep. In this manner they passed
the night. But at dawn of day calm and still-
ness gave place to a raging sea, and a violent
storm, which fell upon them with a strong
gale from the east — a wind which the people
in those parts call Hellespontias. Such of them
as perceived the wind rising, and were so
moored as to allow of it, forestalled the temp-
est by dragging their ships up on the beach,
and in this way saved both themselves and
their vessels. But the ships which the storm
caught out at sea were driven ashore, some of
them near the place called Ipni, or "The Ov-
ens," at the foot of Pelion; others on the strand
itself; others again about Cape Sepias; while
a portion were dashed to pieces near the cities
of Melibcea and Casthamca. There was no re-
sisting the tempest.

189. It is said that the Athenians had called
upon Boreas to aid the Greeks, on account of
a fresh oracle which had reached them, com-
manding them to "seek help from their son-
in-law." For Boreas, according to the tradition
of the Greeks, took to wife a woman of Attica,
viz., Orithyia, the daughter of Erechtheus. So
the Athenians, as the tale goes, considering
that this marriage made Boreas their son-in-
law, and perceiving, while they lay with their
ships at Chalcis of Euboea, that the wind was
rising, or, it may be, even before it freshened,
offered sacrifice both to Boreas and likewise to
Orithyia, entreating them to come to their aid
and to destroy the ships of the barbarians, as
they did once before off Mount Athos. Wheth-
er it was owing to this that Boreas fell with
violence on the barbarians at their anchorage
I cannot say; but the Athenians declare that
they had received aid from Boreas before, and
that it was he who now caused all these disas-
ters. They therefore, on their return home,
built a temple to this god on the banks of the
Ilissus.

190. Such as put the loss of the Persian fleet
in this storm at the lowest say that four hun-
dred of their ships were destroyed, that a
countless multitude of men were slain, and a
vast treasure engulfed. Ameinocles, the son of
Cretines, a Magnesian, who farmed land near

Cape Sepias, found the wreck of these vessels
a source of great gain to him; many were the
gold and silver drinking-cups, cast up long
afterwards by the surf, which he gathered;
while treasure-boxes too which had belonged
to the Persians, and golden articles of all kinds
and beyond count, came into his possession.
Ameinocles grew to be a man of great wealth
in this way; but in other respects things did
not go over well with him: he too, like other
men, had his own grief — the calamity of losing
his offspring.

191. As for the number of the provision
craft and other merchant ships which perished,
it was beyond count. Indeed, such was the
loss, that the commanders of the sea force, fear-
ing lest in their shattered condition the Thes-
salians should venture on an attack, raised a
lofty barricade around their station out of the
wreck of the vessels cast ashore. The storm
lasted three days. At length the Magians, by
offering victims to the Winds, and charming
them with the help of conjurers, while at the
same time they sacrificed to Thetis and the
Nereids, succeeded in laying the storm four
days after it first began; or perhaps it ceased of
itself. The reason of their offering sacrifice to
Thetis was this: they were told by the lonians
that here was the place whence Peleus carried
her off, and that the whole promontory was
sacred to her and to her sister Nereids. So the
storm lulled upon the fourth day.

192. The scouts left by the Greeks about the
highlands of Euboea hastened down from their
stations on the day following that whereon the
storm began, and acquainted their countrymen
with all that had befallen the Persian fleet.
These no sooner heard what had happened
than straightway they returned thanks to Nep-
tune the Saviour, and poured libations in his
honour; after which they hastened back with
all speed to Artemisium, expecting to find a
very few ships left to oppose them, and arriv-
ing there for the second time, took up their
station on that strip of coast: nor from that day
to the present have they ceased to address Nep-
tune by the name then given him, of "Sav-
iour."

193. The barbarians, when the wind lulled
and the sea grew smooth, drew their ships
down to the water, and proceeded to coast
along the mainland. Having then rounded the
extreme point of Magnesia, they sailed straight
into the bay that runs up to Pagasae. There is a
place in this bay, belonging to Magnesia,
where Hercules is said to have been put ashore

188-198 ]

to fetch water by Jason and his companions;
who then deserted him and went on their way
to ^Ea in Colchis, on board the ship Argo, in
quest of the golden fleece. From the circum-
stance that they intended, after watering their
vessel at this place, to quit the shore and
launch forth into the deep, it received the
name of Aphetx. Here then it was that the
fleet of Xerxes came to an anchor.

194. Fifteen ships, which had lagged great-
ly behind the rest, happening to catch sight of
the Greek fleet at Artemisium, mistook it for
their own, and sailing down into the midst of
it, fell into the hands of the enemy. The com-
mander of this squadron was Sandoces, the
son of Thamasius, governor of Cyme, in ALo-
lis. He was of the number of the royal judges,
and had been crucified by Darius some time
before, on the charge of taking a bribe to de-
termine a cause wrongly; but while he yet
hung on the cross, Darius bethought him that
the good deeds of Sandoces towards the king's
house were more numerous than his evil deeds;
and so, confessing that he had acted with more
haste than wisdom, he ordered him to be taken
down and set at large. Thus Sandoces escaped
destruction at the hands of Darius, and was
alive at this time; but he was not fated to come
off so cheaply from his second peril; for as soon
as the Greeks saw the ships making towards
them, they guessed their mistake, and put-
ting to sea, took them without difficulty.

195. Aridohs, tyrant of Alabanda in Caria,
was on board one of the ships, and was made
prisoner; as also was the Paphian general, Pen-
thylus, the son of Demonous, who was on
board another. This person had brought with
him twelve ships from Paphos, and, after los-
ing eleven in the storm off Sepias, was taken
in the remaining one as he sailed towards Ar-
temisium. The Greeks, after questioning their
prisoners as much as they wished concerning
the forces of Xerxes, sent them away in chains
to the Isthmus of Corinth.

196. The sea force of the barbarians, with
the exception of the fifteen ships commanded
(as I said) by Sandoces, came safe to Aphetae.
Xerxes meanwhile, with the land army, had
proceeded through Thessaly and Achaea, and
three days earlier, had entered the territory of
the Malians. In Thessaly, he matched his own
horses against the Thessalian, which he heard
were the best in Greece, but the Greek coursers
were left far behind in the race. All the rivers
in this region had water enough to supply his
army, except only the Onochonus; but in Ach-

THE HISTORY 251

sea, the largest of the streams, the Apidanus,
barely held out.

197. On his arrival at Alus in Achaea, his
guides, wishing to inform him of everything,
told him the tale known to the dwellers in those
parts concerning the temple of the Laphystian
Jupiter — how that Athamas the son of ^feolus
took counsel with Ino and plotted the death of
Phrixus; and how that afterwards the Achae-
ans, warned by an oracle, laid a forfeit upon
his posterity, forbidding the eldest of the race
ever to enter into the court-house (which they
call the people's house), and keeping watch
themselves to see the law obeyed. If one comes
within the doors, he can never go out again
except to be sacrificed. Further, they told him
how that many persons, when on the point of
being slain, are seized with such fear that they
flee away and take refuge in some other coun-
try; and that these, if they come back long af-
terwards, and are found to be the persons who
entered the court-house, are led forth covered
with chaplets, and in a grand procession, and
are sacrificed. This forfeit is paid by the de-
scendants of Cytissorus the son of Phrixus, be-
cause, when the Achaeans, in obedience to an
oracle, made Athamas the son of ^olus their
sin-oflenng, and were about to slay him, Cytis-
sorus came from >Ea in Colchis and rescued
Athamus; by which deed he brought the anger
of the god upon his own posterity. Xerxes,
therefore, having heard this story, when he
reached the grove of the god, avoided it, and
commanded his army to do the like. He also
paid the same respect to the house and pre-
cinct of the descendants of Athamas.

198. Such were the doing of Xerxes in Thes-
saly and in Achaea. From hence he passed on
into Malis, along the shores of a bay, in which
there is an ebb and flow of the tide daily. By
the side of this bay lies a piece of flat land, in
one part broad, but in another very narrow in-
deed, around which runs a range of lofty hills,
impossible to climb, enclosing all Malis within
them, and called the Trachinian cliffs. The
first city upon the bay, as you come from
Ach.ta, is Anticyra, near which the river Sper-
cheius, flowing down from the country of the
Enianians, empties itself into the sea. About
twenty furlongs from this stream there is a
second river, called the Dyras, which is said to
have appeared first to help Hercules when he
was burning. Again, at the distance of twenty
furlongs, there is a stream called the Melas,
near which, within about five furlongs, stands
the city of Trachis.

252

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i BOOK vn

199. At the point where this city is built, the
plain between the hills and the sea is broader
than at any other, for it there measures 22,000
plethra.1 South of Trachis there is a cleft in
the mountain-range which shuts in the terri-
tory of Trachinia; and the river Asopus issu-
ing from this cleft flows for a while along the
foot of the hills.

200. Further to the south, another river,
called the Phoenix, which has no great body of
water, flows from the same hills, and falls into
the Asopus. Here is the narrowest place of all;
for in this part there is only a causeway wide
enough for a single carriage. From the river
Pho?nix to Thermopylae is a distance of fifteen
furlongs; and in this space is situate the village
called Anthela, which the river Asopus passes
ere it reaches the sea. The space about Anthela
is of some width, and contains a temple of Am-
phictyonian Ceres, as well as the scats of the
Amphictyonic deputies, and a temple of Am-
phictyon himself.

201. King Xerxes pitched his camp in the
region of Malis called Trachinia, while on
their side the Greeks occupied the straits.
These straits the Greeks in general call Ther-
mopyla! (the Hot Gates); but the natives, and
those who dwell in the neighbourhood, call
them Pylae (the Gates). Here then the two ar-
mies took their stand; the one master of all the
region lying north of Trachis, the other of the
country extending southward of that place to
the verge of the continent.

202. The Greeks who at this spot awaited
the coming of Xerxes were the following: —
From Sparta, three hundred men-at-arms;
from Arcadia, a thousand Tegeans and Man-
tineans, five hundred of each people; a hun-
dred and twenty Orchomenians, from the Ar-
cadian Orchomenus; and a thousand from
other cities: from Corinth, four hundred men;
from Phhus, two hundred; and from Mycenae
eighty. Such was the number from the Pelo-
ponnese. There were also present, from Bceo-
tia, seven hundred Thespians and four hun-
dred Thebans.

203. Besides these troops, the Locrians of
Opus and the Phocians had obeyed the call of
their countrymen, and sent, the former all the
force they had, the latter a thousand men. For
envoys had gone from the Greeks at Ther-
mopylae among the Locrians and Phocians, to
call on them for assistance, and to say — "They

'Herodotus is probably using the plethron as a
square measure, making here a total of about
5,000 acres.

were themselves but the vanguard of the host,
sent to precede the main body, which might
every day be expected to follow them. The sea
was in good keeping, watched by the Atheni-
ans, the Eginetans, and the rest of the fleet.
There was no cause why they should fear; for
after all the invader was not a god but a man;
and there never had been, and never would be,
a man who was not liable to misfortunes from
the very day of his birth, and those misfortunes
greater in proportion to his own greatness. The
assailant therefore, being only a mortal, must
needs fall from his glory." Thus urged, the
Locrians and the Phocians had come with their
troops to Trachis.

204. The various nations had each captains
of their own under whom they served; but the
one to whom all especially looked up, and who
had the command of the entire force, was the
Lacedaemonian, Leonidas. Now Leonidas was
the son of Anaxandridas, who was the son of
Leo, who was the son of Eurycratidas, who
was the son of Anaxander, who was the son
of Eurycrates, who was the son of Polydorus,
who was the son of Alcamenes, who was the
son of Telecles, who was the son of Archelaiis,
who was the son of Agesilaiis, who was the
son of Doryssus, who was the son of Labotas,
who was the son of Echestratus, who was the
son of Agis, who was the son of Eurysthenes,
who was the son of Aristodemus, who was the
son of Aristomachus, who was the son of Cleo-
daeus, who was the son of Hyllus, who was the
son of Hercules.

Leonidas had come to be king of Sparta
quite unexpectedly.

205. Having two elder brothers, Cleomenes
and Dorieus, he had no thought of ever
mounting the throne. However, when Cleo-
menes died without male offspring, as Dorieus
was likewise deceased, having perished in Sic-
ily, the crown fell to Leonidas, who was older
than Cleombrotus, the youngest of the sons of
Anaxandridas, and, moreover, was married to
the daughter of Cleomenes. He had now come
to Thermopylae, accompanied by the three
hundred men which the law assigned him,
whom he had himself chosen from among the
citizens, and who were all of them fathers with
sons living. On his way he had taken the
troops from Thebes, whose number I have al-
ready mentioned, and who were under the
command of Leontiades the son of Eurymach-
us. The reason why he made a point of taking
troops from Thebes, and Thebes only, was
that the Thebans were strongly suspected of

199-210 J

being well inclined to the Medes. Leonidas
therefore called on them to come with him to
the war, wishing to see whether they would
comply with his demand, or openly refuse, and
disclaim the Greek alliance. They, however,
though their wishes leant the other way, nev-
ertheless sent the men.

206. The force with Leonidas was sent for-
ward by the Spartans in advance of their main
body, that the sight of them might encourage
the allies to fight, and hinder them from going
over to the Medes, as it was likely they might
have done had they seen that Sparta was back-
ward. They intended presently, when they had
celebrated the Carneian festival, which was
what now kept them at home, to leave a garri-
son in Sparta, and hasten in full force to join
the army. The rest of the allies also intended
to act similarly; for it happened that the Olym-
pic festival fell exactly at this same period.
None of them looked to see the contest at
Thermopylae decided so speedily; wherefore
they were content to send forward a mere ad-
vanced guard. Such accordingly were the in-
tentions of the allies.

207. The Greek forces at Thermopylae,
when the Persian army drew near to the en-
trance of the pass, were seized with fear; and
a council was held to consider about a retreat.
It was the wish of the Peloponnesians general-
ly that the army should fall back upon the
Peloponncse, and there guard the Isthmus. But
Leonidas, who saw with what indignation the
Phocians and Locrians heard of this plan,
gave his voice for remaining where they were,
while they sent envoys to the several cities
to ask for help, since they were too few to
make a stand against an army like that of the
Medes.

208. While this debate was going on, Xer-
xes sent a mounted spy to observe the Greeks,
and note how many they were, and see what
they were doing. He had heard, before he
came out of Thessaly, that a few men were as-
sembled at this place, and that at their head
were certain Lacedaemonians, under Leonidas,
a descendant of Hercules. The horseman rode
up to the camp, and looked about him, but did
not see the whole army; for such as were on
the further side of the wall (which had been
rebuilt and was now carefully guarded) it was
not possible for him to behold; but he observed
those on the outside, who were encamped in
front of the rampart. It chanced that at this
time the Lacedaemonians held the outer guard,
and were seen by the spy, some of them en-

THE HISTORY

253

gaged in gymnastic exercises, others combing
their long hair. At this the spy greatly mar-
velled, but he counted their number, and when
he had taken accurate note of everything, he
rode back quietly; for no one pursued after
him, nor paid any heed to his visit. So he re-
turned, and told Xerxes all that he had seen.

209. Upon this, Xerxes, who had no means
of surmising the truth — namely, that the Spar-
tans were preparing to do or die manfully —
but thought it laughable that they should be
engaged in such employments, sent and called
to his presence Demaratus the son of Ariston,
who still remained with the army. When he
appeared, Xerxes told him all that he had
heard, and questioned him concerning the
news, since he was anxious to understand the
meaning of such behaviour on the part of the
Spartans. Then Demaratus said —

"I spake to thee, O king! concerning these
men long since, when we had but just begun
our march upon Greece; thou, however, didst
only laugh at my words, when I told thee of
all this, which I saw would come to pass. Earn-
estly do I struggle at all times to speak truth
to thee, sire; and now listen to it once more.
These men have come to dispute the pass with
us; and it is for this that they are now making
ready. Tis their custom, when they are about
to hazard their lives, to adorn their heads with
care. Be assured, however, that if thou canst
subdue the men who are here and the Lacedae-
monians who remain in Sparta, there is no
other nation in all the world which will ven-
ture to lift a hand in their defence. Thou hast
now to deal with the first kingdom and town
in Greece, and with the bravest men."

Then Xerxes, to whom what Demaratus
said seemed altogether to surpass belief, asked
further "how it was possible for so small an
army to contend with his?"

"O king!" Demaratus answered, "let me be
treated as a liar, if matters fall not out as I say."

210. But Xerxes was not persuaded any the
more. Four whole days he suffered to go by,
expecting that the Greeks would run away.
When, however, he found on the fifth that
they were not gone, thinking that their firm
stand was mere impudence and recklessness,
he grew wroth, and sent against them the
Medes and Cissians, with orders to take them
alive and bring them into his presence. Then
the Medes rushed forward and charged the
Greeks, but fell in vast numbers: others how-
ever took the places of the slain, and would
not be beaten off, though they suffered terrible

254

HERODOTUS

[BOOK vii

losses. In this way it became clear to all, and
especially to the king, that though he had plen-
ty of combatants, he had but very few warri-
ors. The struggle, however, continued during
the whole day.

211. Then the Medes, having met so rough
a reception, withdrew from the fight; and their
place was taken by the band of Persians under
Hydarnes, whom the king called his "Im-
mortals": they, it was thought, would soon
finish the business. But when they joined bat-
tle with the Greeks, 'twas with no better suc-
cess than the Median detachment — things
went much as before — the two armies fighting
in a narrow space, and the barbarians using
shorter spears than the Greeks, and having no
advantage from their numbers. The Lacedae-
monians fought in a way worthy of note, and
showed themselves far more skilful in fight
than their adversaries, often turning their
backs, and making as though they were all
flying away, on which the barbarians would
rush after them with much noise and shouting,
when the Spartans at their approach would
wheel round and face their pursuers, in this
way destroying vast numbers of the enemy.
Some Spartans likewise fell in these encoun-
ters, but only a very few. At last the Persians,
finding that all their efforts to gain the pass
availed nothing, and that, whether they at-
tacked by divisions or in any other way, it was
to no purpose, withdrew to their own quarters.

212. During these assaults, it is said that
Xerxes, who was watching the battle, thrice
leaped from the throne on which he sate, in
terror for his army.

Next day the combat was renewed, but with
no better success on the part of the barbarians.
The Greeks were so few that the barbarians
hoped to find them disabled, by reason of their
wounds, from offering any further resistance;
and so they once more attacked them. But the
Greeks were drawn up in detachments accord-
ing to their cities, and bore the brunt of the
battle in turns — all except the Phocians, who
had been stationed on the mountain to guard
the pathway. So, when the Persians found no
difference between that day and the preced-
ing, they again retired to their quarters.

213. Now, as the king was in great strait,
and knew not how he should deal with the
emergency, Ephialtes, the son of Eurydemus,
a man of Malis, came to him and was admitted
to a conference. Stirred by the hope of receiv-
ing a rich reward at the king's hands, he had
come to tell him of the pathway which led

across the mountain to Thermopylae; by which
disclosure he brought destruction on the band
of Greeks who had there withstood the bar-
barians. This Ephialtes afterwards, from fear
of the Lacedaemonians, fled into Thessaly; and
during his exile, in an assembly of the Am-
phictyons held at Pylae, a price was set upon
his head by the Pylagorae. When some time
had gone by, he returned from exile, and went
to Anticyra, where he was slain by Athenades,
a native of Trachis. Athenades did not slay
him for his treachery, but for another reason,
which I shall mention in a later part of my his-
tory: yet still the Lacedaemonians honoured
him none the less. Thus then did Ephialtes
perish a long time afterwards.

214. Besides this there is another story told,
which I do not at all believe — to wit, that Onc-
tas the son of Phanagoras, a native of Carystus,
and Corydallus, a man of Anticyra, were the
persons who spoke on this matter to the king,
and took the Persians across the mountain.
One may guess which story is true, from the
fact that the deputies of the Greeks, the Pyla-
gorae, who must have had the best means of
ascertaining the truth, did not offer the reward
for the heads of Onctas and Corydallus, but
for that of Ephialtes of Trachis; and again
from the flight of Ephialtes, which we know
to have been on this account. Onetas, I allow,
although he was not a Malian, might have
been acquainted with the path, if he had lived
much in that part of the country; but as Ephi-
altes was the person who actually led the Per-
sians round the mountain by the pathway, I
leave his name on record as that of the man
who did the deed.

215. Great was the joy of Xerxes on this oc-
casion; and as he approved highly of the en-
terprise which Ephialtes undertook to accom-
plish, he forthwith sent upon the errand Hy-
darnes, and the Persians under him. The
troops left the camp about the time of the
lighting of the lamps. The pathway along
which they went was first discovered by the
Malians of these parts, who soon afterwards
led the Thessalians by it to attack the Phocians,
at the time when the Phocians fortified the
pass with a wall, and so put themselves under
covert from danger. And ever since, the path
has always been put to an ill use by the
Malians.

216. The course which it takes is the follow-
ing:— Beginning at the Asopus, where that
stream flows through the cleft in the hills, it
runs along the ridge of the mountain (which

2II-22I ]

is called, like the pathway over it, Anopaca),
and ends at the city of Alpenus — the first Lo-
crian town as you come from Malis — by the
stone called Melampygus and the seats of the
Cercopians. Here it is as narrow as at any other
point.

217. The Persians took this path, and, cross-
ing the Asopus, continued their march
through the whole of the night, having the
mountains of CEta on their right hand, and on
their left those of Trachis. At dawn of day
they found themselves close to the summit.
Now the hill was guarded, as I have already
said, by a thousand Phocian men-at-arms, who
were placed there to defend the pathway, and
at the same time to secure their own country.
They had been given the guard of the moun-
tain path, while the other Greeks defended the
pass below, because they had volunteered for
the service, and had pledged themselves to Le-
onidas to maintain the post.

218. The ascent of the Persians became
known to the Phocians in the following man-
ner:— During all the time that they were
making their way up, the Greeks remained un-
conscious of it, inasmuch as the whole moun-
tain was covered with groves of oak; but it
happened that the air was very still, and the
leaves which the Persians stirred with their
feet made, as it was likely they would, a loud
rustling, whereupon the Phocians jumped up
and flew to seize their arms. In a moment the
barbarians came in sight, and, perceiving men
arming themselves, were greatly amazed; for
they had fallen in with an enemy when they
expected no opposition. Hydarnes, alarmed at
the sight, and fearing lest the Phocians might
be Lacedaemonians, inquired of Rphialtes to
what nation these troops belonged. Ephialtes
told him the exact truth, whereupon he ar-
rayed his Persians for battle. The Phocians,
galled by the showers of arrows to which they
were exposed, and imagining themselves the
special object of the Persian attack, fled hastily
to the crest of the mountain, and there made
ready to meet death; but while their mistake
continued, the Persians, with Ephialtes and
Hydarnes, not thinking it worth their while
to delay on account of Phocians, passed on and
descended the mountain with all possible
speed.

219. The Greeks at Thermopylae received
the first warning of the destruction which the
dawn would bring on them from the seer
Megistias, who read their fate in the victims
as he was sacrificing. After this deserters came

THE HISTORY

255

in, and brought the news that the Persians
were marching round by the hills: it was still
night when these men arrived. Last of all, the
scouts came running down from the heights,
and brought in the same accounts, when the
day was just beginning to break. Then the
Greeks held a council to consider what they
should do, and here opinions were divided:
some were strong against quitting their post,
while others contended to the contrary. So
when the council had broken up, part of the
troops departed and went their ways home-
ward to their several states; part however re-
solved to remain, and to stand by Leonidas to
the last.

220. It is said that Leonidas himself sent
away the troops who departed, because he ten-
dered their safety, but thought it unseemly
that either he or his Spartans should quit the
post which they had been especially sent to
guard. For my own part, I incline to think that
Leonidas gave the order, because he perceived
the allies to be out of heart and unwilling to
encounter the danger to which his own mind
was made up. He therefore commanded them
to retreat, but said that he himself could not
draw back with honour; knowing that, if he
stayed, glory awaited him, and that Sparta in
that case would not lose her prosperity. For
when the Spartans, at the very beginning ol
the war, sent to consult the oracle concerning
it, the answer which they received from the
Pythoness was "that either Sparta must be ov-
erthrown by the barbarians, or one of her
kings must perish." The prophecy was deliv-
ered in hexameter verse, and ran thus: —

O ye men who dwell in the streets of broad IMCC-

d cent on!
Either your glorious town shall be sacked by the

children of I'erseus,
Or, in exchange, must all through the whole Lac-

ontan country
Mourn for the loss of a fang, descendant of gyeat

Heracles.
He cannot be withstood by the courage of bulls

nor of lions,
Strive as they may; he is mighty as Jove; there is

nought that shall stay him,
Till he have got for his prey your king, or your

glorious city.

The remembrance of this answer, I think, and
the wish to secure the whole glory for the
Spartans, caused Leonidas to send the allies
away. This is more likely than that they quar-
relled with him, and took their departure in
such unruly fashion.

221. To me it seems no small argument in

256

HERODOTUS

[BooK vii

favour of this view, that the seer also who ac-
companied the army, Megistias, the Acarnani-
an — said to have been of the blood of Melam-
pus, and the same who was led by the appear-
ance of the victims to warn the Greeks of the
danger which threatened them — received or-
ders to retire (as it is certain he did) from
Leonidas, that he might escape the coming de-
struction. Megistias, however, though bidden
to depart, refused, and stayed with the army;
but he had an only son present with the ex-
pedition, whom he now sent away.

222. So the allies, when Leonidas ordered
them to retire, obeyed him and forthwith de-
parted. Only the Thespians and the Thebans
remained with the Spartans; and of these the
Thebans were kept back by Leonidas as hos-
tages, very much against their will. The Thes-
pians, on the contrary, stayed entirely of their
own accord, refusing to retreat, and declaring
that they would not forsake Leonidas and his
followers. So they abode with the Spartans,
and died with them. Their leader was De-
mophilus, the son of Diadromes.

223. At sunrise Xerxes made libations, after
which he waited until the time when the forum
is wont to fill, and then began his advance.
Ephialtes had instructed him thus, as the de-
scent of the mountain is much quicker, and
the distance much shorter, than the way round
the hills, and the ascent. So the barbarians
under Xerxes began to draw nigh; and the
Greeks under Leonidas, as they now went
forth determined to die, advanced much fur-
ther than on previous days, until they reached
the more open portion of the pass. Hitherto
they had held their station within the wall, and
from this had gone forth to fight at the point
where the pass was the narrowest. Now they
joined battle beyond the defile, and carried
slaughter among the barbarians, who fell in
heaps. Behind them the captains of the squad-
rons, armed with whips, urged their men for-
ward with continual blows. Many were thrust
into the sea, and there perished; a still greater
number were trampled to death by their own
soldiers; no one heeded the dying. For the
Greeks, reckless of their own safety and des-
perate, since they knew that, as the mountain
had been crossed, their destruction was nigh
at hand, exerted themselves with the most furi-
ous valour against the barbarians.

224. By this time the spears of the greater
number were all shivered, and with their
swords they hewed clown the ranks of the Per-
sians; and here, as they strove, Leonidas fell

fighting bravely, together with many other
famous Spartans, whose names I have taken
care to learn on account of their great worthi-
ness, as indeed I have those of all the three hun-
dred. There fell too at the same time very
many famous Persians: among them, two sons
of Darius, Abrocomes and Hyperanthes, his
children by Phratagune, the daughter of Ar-
tanes. Artanes was brother of King Darius, be-
ing a son of Hystaspes, the son of Arsamcs;
and when he gave his daughter to the king,
he made him heir likewise of all his substance;
for she was his only child.

225. Thus two brothers of Xerxes here
fought and fell. And now there arose a fierce
struggle between the Persians and the Lacedae-
monians over the body of Leonidas, in which
the Greeks four times drove back the enemy,
and at last by their great bravery succeeded in
bearing off the body. This combat was scarcely
ended when the Persians with Ephialtes ap-
proached; and the Greeks, informed that they
drew nigh, made a change in the manner of
their fighting. Drawing back into the narrow-
est part of the pass, and retreating even behind
the cross wall, they posted themselves upon a
hillock, where they stood all drawn up together
in one close body, except only the Thebans.
The hillock whereof I speak is at the entrance
of the straits, where the stone lion stands
which was set up in honour of Leonidas. Here
they defended themselves to the last, such as
still had swords using them, and the others re-
sisting with their hands and teeth; till the bar-
barians, who in part had pulled down the wall
and attacked them in front, in part had gone
round and now encircled them upon every side,
overwhelmed and buried the remnant which
was left beneath showers of missile weapons.

226. Thus nobly did the whole body of
Lacedaemonians and Thespians behave; but
nevertheless one man is said to have distin-
guished himself above all the rest, to wit, Di-
cneces the Spartan. A speech which he made
before the Greeks engaged the Medes, remains
on record. One of the Trachinians told him,
"Such was the number of the barbarians, that
when they shot forth their arrows the sun
would be darkened by their multitude." Di-
eneces, not at all frightened at these words, but
making light of the Median numbers, an-
swered, "Our Trachinian friend brings us ex-
cellent tidings. If the Medes darken the sun,
we shall have our fight in the shade." Other
sayings too of a like nature are reported to
have been left on record by this same person.

222-234]

THE HISTORY

257

227. Next to him two brothers, Lacedae-
monians, are reputed to have made themselves
conspicuous: they were named Alpheus and
Maro, and were the sons of Orsiphantus.
There was also a Thespian who gained greater
glory than any of his countrymen: he was a
man called Dithyrambus, the son of Harma-
tidas.

228. The slain were buried where they fell;
and in their honour, nor less in honour of
those who died before Leonidas sent the allies
away, an inscription was set up, which said: —

Here did four thousand men from Pelops9 land
Against three hundred myriads bravely stand.

This was in honour of all. Another was for the
Spartans alone: —

Go, stranger, and to Lacedccmon tell
That here, obeying her behests, we jell.
This was for the Lacedaemonians. The seer had
the following: —

The great Megtstias* tomb you here may view,
Whom slew the Medes, fresh from Spercheius9

fords.

Well the wise seer the coming death foreknew,
Yet scorned he to forsake his Spartan lords.

These inscriptions, and the pillars likewise,
were all set up by the Amphictyons, except that
in honour of Megistias, which was inscribed
to him (on account of their sworn friendship)
by Simonides, the son of Leoprepes.

229. Two of the three hundred, it is said,
Aristodemus and Eurytus, having been at-
tacked by a disease of the eyes, had received
orders from Leonidas to quit the camp; and
both lay at Alpem in the worst stage of the
malady. These two men might, had they been
so minded, have agreed together to return
alive to Sparta; or if they did not like to re-
turn, they might have gone both to the field
and fallen with their countrymen. But at this
time, when either way was open to them, un-
happily they could not agree, but took con-
trary courses. Eurytus no sooner heard that the
Persians had come round the mountain than
straightway he called for his armour, and hav-
ing buckled it on, bade his helot lead him to
the place where his friends were fighting. The
helot did so, and then turned and fled; but
Eurytus plunged into the thick of the battle,
and so perished. Aristodemus, on the other
hand, was faint of heart, and remained at Al-
peni. It is my belief that if Aristodemus only
had been sick and returned, or if both had
come back together, the Spartans would have
been content and felt no anger; but when there

were two men with the very same excuse, and
one of them was chary of his life, while the
other freely gave it, they could not but be very
wroth with the former.

230. This is the account which some give
of the escape of Aristodemus. Others say that
he, with another, had been sent on a message
from the army, and, having it in his power to
return in time for the battle, purposely loitered
on the road, and so survived his comrades;
while his fellow-messenger came back in time,
and fell in the battle.

231. When Aristodemus returned to Lace-
daemon, reproach and disgrace awaited him;
disgrace, inasmuch as no Spartan would give
him a light to kindle his fire, or so much as ad-
dress a word to him; and reproach, since all
spoke of him as "the craven." However he
wiped away all his shame afterwards at the
battle of Plataea.

232. Another of the three hundred is like-
wise said to have survived the battle, a man
named Pantites, whom Leonidas had sent on
an embassy into Thessaly. He, they say, on his
return to Sparta, found himself in such dises-
teem that he hanged himself.

233. The Thebans under the command of
Leontiades remained with the Greeks, and
fought against the barbarians, only so long as
necessity compelled them. No sooner did they
see victory inclining to the Persians, and the
Greeks under Leonidas hurrying with all
speed towards the hillock, than they moved
away from their companions, and with hands
upraised advanced towards the barbarians, ex-
claiming, as was indeed most true — "that they
for their part wished well to the Medes, and
had been among the first to give earth and
water to the king; force alone had brought
them to Thermopylae; and so they must not be
blamed for the slaughter which had befallen
the king's army." These words, the truth of
which was attested by the Thessalians, sufficed
to obtain the Thebans the grant of their lives.
However, their good fortune was not without
some drawback; for several of them were slain
by the barbarians on their first approach; and
the rest, who were the greater number, had
the royal mark branded upon their bodies by
the command of Xerxes — Leontiades, their
captain, being the first to suffer. (This man's
son, Eurymachus, was afterwards slain by the
Plataeans, when he came with a band of 400
Thebans, and seized their city.)

234. Thus fought the Greeks at Thermopy-
lae. And Xerxes, after the fight was over, called

258

HERODOTUS

[BOOK vii

for Dcmaratus to question him; and began as
follows: —

"Demaratus, thou art a worthy man; thy
true-speaking proves it. All has happened as
thou didst forewarn. Now then, tell me, how
many Lacedaemonians are there left, and of
those left how many are such brave warriors
as these? Or are they all alike?"

"O king!" replied the other, "the whole
number of the Lacedaemonians is very great;
and many are the cities which they inhabit.
But I will tell thee what thou really wishest to
learn. There is a town of Lacedaemon called
Sparta, which contains within it about eight
thousand full-grown men. They are, one and
all, equal to those who have fought here. The
other Lacedaemonians are brave men, but not
such warriors as these."

"Tell me now, Demaratus," rejoined Xer-
xes, "how we may with least trouble subdue
these men. Thou must know all the paths of
their counsels, as thou wert once their king."

235. Then Demaratus answered — "O king!
since thou askest my advice so earnestly, it is
fitting that I should inform thee what I con-
sider to be the best course. Detach three hun-
dred vessels from the body of thy fleet, and
send them to attack the shores of Laconia.
There is an island called Cythera in those
parts, not far from the coast, concerning which
Chilon, one of our wisest men, made the re-
mark that Sparta would gain if it were sunk to
the bottom of the sea — so constantly did he ex-
pect that it would give occasion to some proj-
ect like that which I now recommend to thee.
I mean not to say that he had a foreknowledge
of thy attack upon Greece; but in truth he
feared all armaments. Send thy ships then to
this island, and thence affright the Spartans.
If once they have a war of their own close to
their doors, fear not their giving any help to
the rest of the Greeks while thy land force is
engaged in conquering them. In this way may
all Greece be subdued; and then Sparta, left
to herself, will be powerless. But if thou wilt
not take this advice, I will tell thee what thou
mayest look to see. When thou comest to the
Pcloponnesc, thou wilt find a narrow neck of
land, where all the Peloponnesians who are
leagued against thee will be gathered together;
and there thou wilt have to fight bloodier bat-
tles than any which thou hast yet witnessed. If,
however, thou wilt follow my plan, the Isth-
mus and the cities of Peloponnese will yield to
thee without a battle."

236. Achaemenes, who was present, now

took the word, and spoke — he was brother to
Xerxes, and, having the command of the fleet,
feared lest Xerxes might be prevailed upon to
do as Demaratus advised —

"I perceive, O king" (he said), "that thou
art listening to the words of a man who is en-
vious of thy good fortune, and seeks to betray
thy cause. This is indeed the common temper
of the Grecian people — they envy good for-
tune, and hate power greater than their own.
If in this posture of our affairs, after we have
lost four hundred vessels by shipwreck, three
hundred more be sent away to make a voyage
round the Peloponnese, our enemies will be-
come a match for us. But let us keep our whole
fleet in one body, and it will be dangerous for
them to venture on an attack, as they will cer-
tainly be no match for us then. Besides, while
our sea and land forces advance together, the
fleet and army can each help the other; but if
they be parted, no aid will come either from
thee to the fleet, or from the fleet to thee. Only
order thy own matters well, and trouble not
thyself to inquire concerning the enemy —
where they will fight, or what they will do, or
how many they are. Surely they can manage
their own concerns without us, as we can ours
without them. If the Lacedaemonians come
out against the Persians to battle, they will
scarce repair the disaster which has befallen
them now."

237. Xerxes replied — "Achaemenes, thy
counsel pleases me well, and I will do as thou
sayest. But Demaratus advised what he
thought best — only his judgment was not so
good as thine. Never will I believe that he does
not wish well to my cause; for that is dis-
proved both by his former counsels, and also
by the circumstances of the case. A citizen does
indeed envy any fellow-citizen who is more
lucky than himself, and often hates him se-
cretly; if such a man be called on for counsel,
he will not give his best thoughts, unless in-
deed he be a man of very exalted virtue; and
such are but rarely found. But a friend of an-
other country delights in the good fortune of
his foreign bond-friend, and will give him,
when asked, the best advice in his power.
Therefore I warn all men to abstain henceforth
from speaking ill of Demaratus, who is my
bond-friend."

238. When Xerxes had thus spoken, he pro-
ceeded to pass through the slain; and finding
the body of Leonidas, whom he knew to have
been the Lacedaemonian king and captain, he
ordered that the head should be struck off,

235-239]

THE HISTORY

259

and the trunk fastened to a cross. This proves
to me most clearly, what is plain also in many
other ways — namely, that King Xerxes was
more angry with Leonidas, while he was still
in life, than with any other mortal. Certes, he
would not else have used his body so shame-
fully. For the Persians are wont to honour
those who show themselves valiant in fight
more highly than any nation that I know.
They, however, to whom the orders were giv-
en, did according to the commands of the
king.

239. I return now to a point in my History,
which at the time I left incomplete. The La-
cedaemonians were the first of the Greeks to
hear of the king's design against their country;
and it was at this time that they sent to con-
sult the Delphic oracle, and received the an-
swer of which I spoke a while ago. The dis-
covery was made to them in a very strange
way. Demaratus, the son of Ariston, after he
took refuge with the Medes, was not, in my
judgment, which is supported by probability,
a well-wisher to the Lacedaemonians. It may
be questioned, therefore, whether he did what
I am about to mention from good-will or from
insolent triumph. It happened that he was at

Susa at the time when Xerxes determined to
lead his army into Greece; and in this way
becoming acquainted with his design, he re-
solved to send tidings of it to Sparta. So as
there was no other way of effecting his pur-
pose, since the danger of being discovered was
great, Demaratus framed the following con-
trivance. He took a pair of tablets, and, clear-
ing the wax away from them, wrote what the
king was purposing to do upon the wood
whereof the tablets were made; having done
this, he spread the wax once more over the
writing, and so sent it. By these means, the
guards placed to watch the roads, observing
nothing but a blank tablet, were sure to give
no trouble to the bearer. When the tablet
reached Lacedaemon, there was no one, I un-
derstand, who could find out the secret, till
Gorgo, the daughter of Cleomenes and wife of
Leonidas, discovered it, and told the others,
"If they would scrape the wax off the tablet,"
she said, "they would be sure to find the writ-
ing upon the wood." The Lacedemonians took
her advice, found the writing, and read it; after
which they sent it round to the other Greeks.
Such then is the account which is given of this
matter.

The Eighth Book, Entitled
URANIA

•>» •>» •>» •») •>» '

•>» •>» •>» •>» •>» •») (CO C<0 «0«fr«g»<C<» («• «C- «C- «<• «C- «C-

I. THE Greeks engaged in the sea-service were
the following. The Athenians furnished a hun-
dred and twenty-seven vessels to the fleet,
which were manned in part by the Plataeans,
who, though unskilled in such matters, were
led by their active and daring spirit to under-
take this duty; the Corinthians furnished a
contingent of forty vessels; the Megarians sent
twenty; the Chalcideans also manned twenty,
which had been furnished to them by the
Athenians; the Eginetans came with eighteen;
the Sicyomans with twelve; the Lacedaemoni-
ans with ten; the Epidaunans with eight; the
Eretrians with seven; the Troczcmans with
five; the Styreans with two; and the Ceans
with two triremes and two penteconters. Last
of all, the Locrians of Opus came in aid with a
squadron of seven penteconters.

2. Such were the nations which furnished
vessels to the fleet now at Artcmisium; and in
mentioning them I have given the number of
ships furnished by each. The total number of
the ships thus brought together, without count-
ing the penteconters, was two hundred and
seventy-one; and the captain, who had the
chief command over the whole fleet, was Eury-
biades the son of Euryclcides. He was fur-
nished by Sparta, since the allies had said that
"if a Lacedaemonian did not take the com-
mand, they would break up the fleet, for never
would they serve under the Athenians."

3. From the first, even earlier than the time
when the embassy went to Sicily to solicit alli-
ance, there had been a talk of intrusting the
Athenians with the command at sea; but the
allies were averse to the plan, wherefore the
Athenians did not press it; for there was noth-
ing they had so much at heart as the salvation
of Greece, and they knew that, if they quar-
relled among themselves about the command,
Greece would be brought to ruin. Herein they
judged rightly; for internal strife is a thing as

much worse than war carried on by a united
people, as war itself is worse than peace. The
Athenians therefore, being so persuaded, did
not push their claims, but waived them, so
long as they were in such great need of aid
from the other Greeks. And they afterwards
showed their motive; for at the time when the
Persians had been driven from Greece, and
were now threatened by the Greeks in their
own country, they took occasion of the inso-
lence of Pausamas to deprive the Lacedae-
monians of their leadership. This, however,
happened afterwards.

4. At the present time the Greeks, on their
arrival at Artemisium, when they saw the
number of the ships which lay at anchor near
AphctcT, and the abundance of troops every-
where, feeling disappointed that matters had
gone with the barbarians so far otherwise than
they had expected, and full of alarm at what
they saw, began to speak of drawing back
from Artemisium towards the inner parts of
their country. So when the Eubceans heard
what was in debate, they went to Eurybiades,
and besought him to wait a few days, while
they removed their children and their slaves
to a place of safety. But, as they found that
they prevailed nothing, they left him and went
to Themistocles, the Athenian commander, to
whom they gave a bribe of thirty talents, on
his promise that the fleet should remain and
risk a battle in defence of Eubcea.

5. And Themistocles succeeded in detaining
the fleet in the way which I will now relate.
He made over to Eurybiades five talents out of
the thirty paid him, which he gave as if they
came from himself; and having in this way
gained over the admiral, he addressed himself
to Adeimantus, the son of Ocytus, the Corin-
thian leader, who was the only remonstrant
now, and who still threatened to sail away
from Artemisium and not wait for the other

260

THE HISTORY

261

captains. Addressing himself to this man, The-
mistocles said with an oath — "Thou forsake
us? By no means! I will pay thee better for re-
maining than the Mede would for leaving thy
friends" — and straightway he sent on board
the ship of Adeimantus a present of three tal-
ents of silver. So these two captains were won
by gifts, and came over to the views of Themis-
tocles, who was thereby enabled to gratify the
wishes of the Eubceans. He likewise made his
own gain on the occasion; for he kept the rest
of the money, and no one knew of it. The
commanders who took the gifts thought that
the sums were furnished by Athens, and had
been sent to be used in this way.

6. Thus it came to pass that the Greeks
stayed at Eubo?a and there gave battle to the
enemy.

Now the battle was on this wise. The bar-
barians reached Aphetae early in the afternoon,
and then saw (as they had previously heard
reported) that a fleet of Greek ships, weak in
number, lay at Artemisium. At once they were
eager to engage, fearing that the Greeks would
fly, and hoping to capture them before they
should get away. They did not however think
it wise to make straight for the Greek station,
lest the enemy should see them as they bore
down, and betake themselves to flight immedi-
ately; in which case night might close in be-
fore they came up with the fugitives, and so
they might get clean off and make their escape
from them; whereas the Persians were minded
not to let a single soul slip through their hands.

7. They therefore contrived a plan, which
was the following: — They detached two hun-
dred of their ships from the rest, and — to pre-
vent the enemy from seeing them start — sent
them round outside the island of Sciathos, to
make the circuit of Eubosa by Caphareus and
Geracstus, and so to reach the Euripus. By this
plan they thought to enclose the Greeks on
every side; for the ships detached would block
up the only way by which they could retreat,
while the others would press upon them in
front. With these designs therefore they dis-
patched the two hundred ships, while they
themselves waited — since they did not mean
to attack the Greeks upon that day, or until
they knew, by signal, of the arrival of the de-
tachment which had been ordered to sail round
Eubcea. Meanwhile they made a muster of the
other ships at Aphetae.

8. Now the Persians had with them a man
named Scyllias, a native of Scione, who was the
most expert diver of his day. At the time of

the shipwreck off Mount Pelion he had recov-
ered for the Persians a great part of what they
lost; and at the same time he had taken care
to obtain for himself a good share of the trea-
sure. He had for some time been wishing to
go over to the Greeks; but no good opportu-
nity had offered till now, when the Persians
were making the muster of their ships. In what
way he contrived to reach the Greeks I am not
able to say for certain: I marvel much if the
tale that is commonly told be true. 'Tis said he
dived into the sea at Aphetz, and did not once
come to the surface till he reached Artemisium,
a distance of nearly eighty furlongs. Now
many things are related of this man which are
plainly false; but some of the stories seem to
be true. My own opinion is that on this occa-
sion he made the passage to Artemisium in a
boat.

However this might be, Scyllias no sooner
reached Artemisium than he gave the Greek
captains a full account of the damage done by
the storm, and likewise told them of the ships
sent to make the circuit of Euboea.

9. So the Greeks on receiving these tidings
held a council, whereat, after much debate, it
was resolved that they should stay quiet for
the present where they were, and remain at
their moorings, but that after midnight they
should put out to sea, and encounter the ships
which were on their way round the island.
Later in the day, when they found that no one
meddled with them, they formed a new plan,
which was to wait till near evening, and then
sail out against the main body of the barbari-
ans, for the purpose of trying their mode of
fight and skill in manoeuvring.

10. When the Persian commanders and
crews saw the Greeks thus boldly sailing to-
wards them with their few ships, they thought
them possessed with madness, and went out to
meet them, expecting (as indeed seemed likely
enough) that they would take all their vessels
with the greatest ease. The Greek ships were
so few, and their own so far outnumbered
them, and sailed so much better, that they re-
solved, seeing their advantage, to encompass
their foe on every side. And now such of the
lonians as wished well to the Grecian cause
and served in the Persian fleet unwillingly, see-
ing their countrymen surrounded, were sorely
distressed; for they felt sure that not one of
them would ever make his escape, so poor an
opinion had they of the strength of the Greeks.
On the other hand, such as saw with pleasure
the attack on Greece, now vied eagerly with

262

HERODOTUS

[BooK vin

each other which should be the first to make
prize of an Athenian ship, and thereby to se-
cure hjmself a rich reward from the king. For
through both the hosts none were so much ac-
counted of as the Athenians.

11. The Greeks, at a signal, brought the
sterns of their ships together into a small com-
pass, and turned their prows on every side to-
wards the barbarians; after which, at a second
signal, although inclosed within a narrow
space, and closely pressed upon by the foe, yet
they fell bravely to work, and captured thirty
ships of the barbarians, at the same time tak-
ing prisoner Philaon, the son of Chersis, and
brother of Gorgus king of Salamis, a man of
much repute in the fleet. The first who made
prize of a ship of the enemy was Lycomcdes
the son of ^Rschreas, an Athenian, who was
afterwards adjudged the meed of valour. Vic-
tory however was still doubtful when night
came on, and put a stop to the combat. The
Greeks sailed back to Artemisium; and the
barbarians returned to Aphctac, much sur-
prised at the result, which was far other than
they had looked for. In this battle only one of
the Greeks who fought on the side of the king
deserted and joined his countrymen. This was
Antidoriis of Lcmnos, whom the Athenians re-
warded for his desertion by the present of a
piece of land in Salamis.

12. Evening had barely closed in when a
heavy rain — it was about midsummer — began
to fall, which continued the whole night, with
terrible thundenngs and lightnings from
Mount Pelion: the bodies of the slain and the
broken pieces of the damaged ships were drift-
ed in the direction of Aphctie, and floated
about the prows of the vessels there, disturbing
the action of the oars. The barbarians, hearing
the storm, were greatly dismayed, expecting
certainly to perish, as they had fallen into such
a multitude of misfortunes. For before they
were well recovered from the tempest and the
wreck of their vessels off Mount Pelion, they
had been surprised by a sea-fight which had
taxed all their strength, and now the sea-fight
was scarcely over when they were exposed to
floods of ram, and the rush of swollen streams
into the sea, and violent thunderings.

13. If, however, they who lay at Aphetae
passed a comfortless night, far worse were the
sufferings of those who had been sent to make
the circuit of Euboea; inasmuch as the storm
fell on them out at sea, whereby the issue was
indeed calamitous. They were sailing along
near the Hollows of Eubcea, when the wind

began to rise and the rain to pour: overpow-
ered by the force of the gale, and driven they
knew not whither, at the last they fell upon
rocks — Heaven so contriving, in order that
the Persian fleet might not greatly exceed the
Greek, but be brought nearly to its level. This
squadron, therefore, was entirely lost about
the Hollows of Euboea.

14. The barbarians at Aphetae were glad
when day dawned, and remained in quiet at
their station, content if they might enjoy a lit-
tle peace after so many sufferings. Meanwhile
there came to the aid of the Greeks a reinforce-
ment of fifty-three ships from Attica. Their
arrival, and the news (which reached Artemi-
sium about the same time) of the complete
destruction by the storm of the ships sent to
sail round Euboea, greatly cheered the spirits
of the Greek sailors. So they waited again till
the same hour as the day before, and, once
more putting out to sea, attacked the enemy.
This time they fell in with some Cilician ves-
sels, which they sank; when night came on,
they withdrew to Artemisium.

15. The third day was now come, and the
captains of the barbarians, ashamed that so
small a number of ships should harass their
fleet, and afraid of the anger of Xerxes, instead
of waiting for the others to begin the battle,
weighed anchor themselves, and advanced
against the Greeks about the hour of noon,
with shouts encouraging one another. Now it
happened that these sea-fights took place on
the very same days with the combats at Therm-
opylae; and as the aim of the struggle was in
the one case to maintain the pass, so in the
other it was to defend the Euripus. While the
Greeks, therefore, exhorted one another not to
let the barbarians burst in upon Greece, these
latter shouted to their fellows to destroy the
Grecian fleet, and get possession of the channel.

1 6. And now the fleet of Xerxes advanced
in good order to the attack, while the Greeks
on their side remained quite motionless at
Artemisium. The Persians therefore spread
themselves, and came forward in a half-moon,
seeking to encircle the Greeks on all sides, and
thereby prevent them from escaping. The
Greeks, when they saw this, sailed out to meet
their assailants; and the battle forthwith began.
In this engagement the two fleets contended
with no clear advantage to either — for the
armament of Xerxes injured itself by its own
greatness, the vessels falling into disorder, and
oft-times running foul of one another; yet still
they did not give way, but made a stout fight,

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263

since the crews felt it would indeed be a dis-
grace to turn and fly from a fleet so inferior in
number. The Greeks therefore suffered much,
both in ships and men; but the barbarians ex-
perienced a far larger loss of each. So the fleets
separated after such a combat as I have de-
scribed.

17. On the side of Xerxes the Egyptians
distinguished themselves above all the combat-
ants; for besides performing many other noble
deeds, they took five vessels from the Greeks
with their crews on board. On the side of the
Greeks the Athenians bore off the meed of
valour; and among them the most distin-
guished was Clinias, the son of Alcibiades,
who served at his own charge with two hun-
dred men, on board a vessel which he had
himself furnished.

1 8. The two fleets, on separating, hastened
very gladly to their anchorage-grounds. The
Greeks, indeed, when the battle was over, be-
came masters of the bodies of the slain and the
wrecks of the vessels; but they had been so
roughly handled, especially the Athenians, one-
half of whose vessels had suffered damage,
that they determined to break up from their
station, and withdraw to the inner parts of
their country.

19. Then Themistocles, who thought that
if the Ionian and Carian ships could be de-
tached from the barbarian fleet, the Greeks
might be well able to defeat the rest, called the
captains together. They met upon the sea-
shore, where the Eubceans were now assemb-
ling their flocks and herds; and here Themis-
tocles told them he thought that he knew of a
plan whereby he could detach from the king
those who were of most worth among his
allies. This was all that he disclosed to them of
his plan at that time. Meanwhile, looking to
the circumstances in which they were, he ad-
vised them to slaughter as many of the Eu-
bcean cattle as they liked — for it was better (he
said) that their own troops should enjoy them
than the enemy — and to give orders to their
men to kindle the fires as usual. With regard
to the retreat, he said that he would take upon
himself to watch the proper moment, and
would manage matters so that they should re-
turn to Greece without loss. These words
pleased the captains; so they had the fires
lighted, and began the slaughter of the cattle.

20. The Euboeans, until now, had made
light of the oracle of Bacis, as though it had
been void of all significancy, and had neither
removed their goods from the island, nor yet

taken them into their strong places; as they
would most certainly have done if they had
believed that war was approaching. By this
neglect they had brought their affairs into the
very greatest danger. Now the oracle of which
I speak ran as follows: —
When o'er the main shall be thrown a byblus yo\c

by a stranger,
Be thou ware, and drive from Euboea the goats9

loud-bleattng.

So, as the Euboeans had paid no regard to this
oracle when the evils approached and im-
pended, now that they had arrived, the worst
was likely to befall them.

21. While the Greeks were employed in the
way described above, the scout who had been
on the watch at Trachis arrived at Artemisium.
For the Greeks had employed two watchers:
— Polyas, a native of Anticyra, had been sta-
tioned off Artemisium, with a row-boat at his
command ready to sail at any moment, his
orders being that, if an engagement took place
by sea, he should convey the news at once to
the Greeks at Thermopylae; and in like man-
ner Abronychus, the son of Lysicles, an Athe-
nian, had been stationed with a triaconter near
Leonidas, to be ready, in case of disaster be-
falling the land force, to carry tidings of it to
Artemisium. It was this Abronychus who now
arrived with news of what had befallen Leoni-
das and those who were with him. When the
Greeks heard the tidings they no longer de-
layed to retreat, but withdrew in the order
wherein they had been stationed, the Corinth-
ians leading, and the Athenians sailing last
of all.

22. And now Themistocles chose out the
swiftest sailers from among the Athenian ves-
sels, and, proceeding to the various watering-
places along the coast, cut inscriptions on the
rocks, which were read by the lonians the day
following, on their arrival at Artemisium. The
inscriptions ran thus: — "Men of Ionia, ye do
wrong to fight against your own fathers, and
to give your help to enslave Greece. We be-
seech you therefore to come over, if possible, to
our side: if you cannot do this, then, we pray
you, stand aloof from the contest yourselves,
and persuade the Carians to do the like. If
neither of these things be possible, and you
are hindered, by a force too strong to resist,
from venturing upon desertion, at least when
we come to blows fight backwardly, remember-
ing that you are sprung from us, and that it
was through you we first provoked the hatred
of the barbarian." Themistocles, in putting up

264

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these inscriptions, looked, I believe, to two
chances — either Xerxes would not discover
them, in which case they might bring over the
lonians to the side of the Greeks; or they
would be reported to him and made a ground
of accusation against the lonians, who would
thereupon be distrusted, and would not be al-
lowed to take part in the sea-fights.

23. Shortly after the cutting of the inscrip-
tions, a man of Histiaea went in a merchant-
ship to Aphetae, and told the Persians that the
Greeks had fled from Artemisium. Disbeliev-
ing his report, the Persians kept the man a
prisoner, while they sent some of their fastest
vessels to see what had happened. These
brought back word how matters stood; wher-
upon at sunrise the whole fleet advanced to-
gether in a body, and sailed to Artemisium,
where they remained till mid-day; after which
they went on to Histiaea. That city fell into
their hands immediately; and they shortly
overran the various villages upon the coast in
the district of Hellopia, which was part of the
Histixan territory.

24. It was while they were at this station
that a herald reached them from Xerxes,
whom he had sent after making the following
dispositions with respect to the bodies of those
who fell at Thermopylae. Of the twenty thou-
sand who had been slain on the Persian side,
he left one thousand upon the field while he
buried the rest in trenches; and these he care-
fully filled up with earth, and hid with foliage,
that the sailors might not see any signs of
them. The herald, on reaching Histiaea, caused
the whole force to be collected together, and
spake thus to them:

"Comrades, King Xerxes gives permission
to all who please, to quit their posts, and see
how he fights with the senseless men who
think to overthrow his armies."

25. No sooner had these words been uttered,
than it became difficult to get a boat, so great
was the number of those who desired to see
the sight. Such as went crossed the strait, and
passing among the heaps of dead, in this way
viewed the spectacle. Many helots were in-
:luded in the slain, but every one imagined
that the bodies were all either Lacedaemonians
;>r Thespians. However, no one was deceived
by what Xerxes had done with his own dead,
[t was indeed most truly a laughable device —
:>n the one side a thousand men were seen ly-
ing about the field, on the other four thou-
sand crowded together into one spot. This day
then was given up to sight-seeing; on the next

the seamen embarked on board their ships and
sailed back to Histiaea, while Xerxes and his
army proceeded upon their march.

26. There came now a few deserters from
Arcadia to join the Persians — poor men who
had nothing to live on, and were in want of
employment. The Persians brought them into
the king's presence, and there inquired of
them, by a man who acted as their spokesman,
"what the Greeks were doing?" The Arcadians
answered — "They are holding the Olympic
Games, seeing the athletic sports and the char-
iot-races." "And what," said the man, "is the
prize for which they contend?" "An olive-
wreath," returned the others, "which is given
to the man who wins." On hearing this, Tri-
tantaechmes, the son of Artabanus, uttered a
speech which was in truth most noble, but
which caused him to be taxed with cowardice
by King Xerxes. Hearing the men say that
the prize was not money but a wreath of olive,
he could not forbear from exclaiming before
them all: "Good heavens! Mardonius, what
manner of men are these against whom thou
hast brought us to fight? — men who contend
with one another, not for money, but for
honour 1"

27. A little before this, and just after the
blow had been struck at Thermopylae, a her-
ald was sent into Phocis by the Thessalians,
who had always been on bad terms with the
Phocians, and especially since their last over-
throw. For it was not many years previous to
this invasion of Greece by the king, that the
Thessalians, with their allies, entered Phocis
in full force, but were defeated by the Pho-
cians in an engagement wherein they were
very roughly handled. The Phocians, who had
with them as soothsayer Tellias of Elis, were
blocked up in the mountain of Parnassus,
when the following stratagem was contrived
for them by their Elean ally. He took six hun-
dred of their bravest men, and whitened their
bodies and their arms with chalk; then in-
structing them to slay every one whom they
should meet that was not whitened like them-
selves, he made a night attack upon the Thes-
salians. No sooner did the Thessalian sentries,
who were the first to see them, behold this
strange sight, than, imagining it to be a prodi-
gy, they were all filled with afTright. From the
sentries the alarm spread to the army, which
was seized with such a panic that the Phoci-
ans killed four thousand of them, and became
masters of their dead bodies and shields. Of
the shields one half were sent as an offering to

^3-34]

THE HISTORY

265

the temple at Abac, the other half were de-
posited at Delphi; while from the tenth part
of the booty gained in the battle, were made
the gigantic figures which stand round the
tripod in front of the Delphic shrine, and like-
wise the figures of the same size and character
at Abac.

28. Besides this slaughter of the Thessalian
foot when it was blockading them, the Phoci-
ans had dealt a blow to their horse upon its in-
vading their territory, from which they had
never recovered. There is a pass near the city
of Hyampohs, where the Phocians, having dug
a broad trench, filled up the void with empty
wine-jars, after which they covered the place
with mould, so that the ground all looked
alike, and then awaited the coming of the
Thessalians. These, thinking to destroy the
Phocians at one sweep, rushed rapidly for-
ward, and became entangled in the wine-jars,
which broke the legs of their horses.

29. The Thessalians had therefore a double
cause of quarrel with the Phocians, when they
dispatched the herald above mentioned, who
thus delivered his message: —

"At length acknowledge, ye men of Phocis,
that ye may not think to match with us. In
times past, when it pleased us to hold with the
Greeks, we had always the vantage over you;
and now our influence is such with the bar-
barian, that, if we choose it, you will lose your
country, and (what is even worse) you will be
sold as slaves. However, though we can now
do with you exactly as we like, we are willing
to forget our wrongs. Quit them with a pay-
ment of fifty talents of silver, and we under-
take to ward off the evils which threaten your
country."

30. Such was the message which the Thes-
salians sent. The Phocians were the only peo-
ple in these parts who had not espoused the
cause of the Medes; and it is my deliberate
opinion that the motive which swayed them
was none other — neither more nor less — than
their hatred of the Thessalians: for had the
Thessalians declared in favour of the Greeks,
I believe that the men of Phocis would have
joined the Median side. As it was, when the
message arrived, the Phocians made answer,
that "they would not pay anything — it was
open to them, equally with the Thessalians, to
make common cause with the Medes, if they
only chose so to do — but they would never of
their own free will become traitors to Greece."

31. On the return of this answer, the Thes-
salians, full of wrath against the Phocians,

offered themselves as guides to the barbarian
army, and led them forth from Trachinia into
Doris. In this place there is a narrow tongue
of Dorian territory, not more than thirty fur-
longs across, interposed between Malis and
Phocis; it is the tract in ancient times called
Dryopis; and the land, of which it is a part, is
the mother-country of the Dorians in the Pelo-
ponnese. This territory the barbarians did not
plunder, for the inhabitants had espoused their
side; and besides, the Thessalians wished that
they should be spared.

32. From Doris they marched forward into
Phocis; but here the inhabitants did not fall
into their power: for some of them had taken
refuge in the high grounds of Parnassus — one
summit of which, called Tithorea, standing
quite by itself, not far from the city of Neon,
is well fitted to give shelter to a large body of
men, and had now received a number of the
Phocians with their movables; while the great-
er portion had fled to the country of the Ozoli-
an Locrians, and placed their goods in the
city called Amphissa, which lies above the
Crissaean plain. The land of Phocis, however,
was entirely overrun, for the Thessalians led
the Persian army through the whole of it; and
wherever they went, the country was wasted
with fire and sword, the cities and even the
temples being wilfully set alight by the troops.

33. The march of the army lay along the
valley of the Cephissus; and here they ravaged
far and wide, burning the towns of Drymus,
Charadra, Erochus, Tcthronium, Amphicaea,
Neon, Pedieis, Triteis, Elateia, Hyampohs,
Parapotamii, and Abac. At the last-named
place there was a temple of Apollo, very rich,
and adorned with a vast number of treasures
and offerings. There was likewise an oracle
there in those days, as indeed there is at the
present time. This temple the Persians plun-
dered and burnt; and here they captured a
number of the Phocians before they could
reach the hills, and caused the death of some
of their women by ill-usage.

34. After passing Parapotamii, the barbari-
ans marched to Panopeis; and now the army
separated into two bodies, whereof one, which
was the more numerous and the stronger of
the two, marched, under Xerxes himself, to-
wards Athens, entering Bceotia by the country
of the Orchomenians. The Boeotians had one
and all embraced the cause of the Medes; and
their towns were in the possession of Mace-
donian garrisons, whom Alexander had sent
there, to make it manifest to Xerxes that the

266

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Boeotians were on the Median side. Such then
was the road followed by one division of the
barbarians.

35. The other division took guides, and pro-
ceeded towards the temple of Delphi, keeping
Mount Parnassus on their right hand. They
too laid waste such parts of Phocis as they
passed through, burning the city of the Pan-
opeans, together with those of the Daulians
and of the ^Eolidae. This body had been de-
tached from the rest of the army, and made to
march in this direction, for the purpose of
plundering the Delphian temple and convey-
ing to King Xerxes the riches which were
there laid up. For Xerxes, as I am informed,
was better acquainted with what there was
worthy of note at Delphi, than even with what
he had left in his own house; so many of those
about him were continually describing the
treasures — more especially the offerings made
by Croesus the son of Alyattes.

36. Now when the Delphians heard what
danger they were in, great fear fell on them.
In their terror they consulted the oracle con-
cerning the holy treasures, and inquired if they
should bury them in the ground, or carry them
away to some other country. The god, in reply,
bade them leave the treasures untouched —
"He was able," he said, "without help to pro-
tect his own." So the Delphians, when they
received this answer, began to think about sav-
ing themselves. And first of all they sent their
women and children across the gulf into
Achxa; after which the greater number of
them climbed up into the tops of Parnassus,
and placed their goods for safety in the Coryci-
an cave; while some effected their escape to
Amphissa in Locris. In this way all the Del-
phians quitted the city, except sixty men, and
the Prophet.

37. When the barbarian assailants drew near
and were in sight of the place, the Prophet,
who was named Aceratus, beheld, in front of
the temple, a portion of the sacred armour,
which it was not lawful for any mortal hand
to touch, lying upon the ground, removed
from the inner shrine where it was wont to
hang. Then went he and told the prodigy to
the Delphians who had remained behind.
Meanwhile the enemy pressed forward briskly,
and had reached the shrine of Minerva Pro-
naia, when they were overtaken by other prod-
igies still more wonderful than the first. Truly
it was marvel enough, when warlike harness
was seen lying outside the temple, removed
there by no power but its own; what followed,

however, exceeded in strangeness all prodigies
that had ever before been seen. The barbarians
had just reached in their advance the chapel
of Minerva Pronaia, when a storm of thunder
burst suddenly over their heads — at the same
time two crags split off from Mount Parnassus,
and rolled down upon them with a loud noise,
crushing vast numbers beneath their weight —
while from the temple of Minerva there went
up the war-cry and the shout of victory.

38. All these things together struck terror
into the barbarians, who forthwith turned and
fled. The Delphians, seeing this, came down
from their hiding-places, and smote them with
a great slaughter, from which such as escaped
fled straight into Boeetia. These men, on their
return, declared (as I am told) that besides
the marvels mentioned above, they witnessed
also other supernatural sights. Two armed
warriors, they said, of a stature more than hu-
man, pursued after their flying ranks, pressing
them close and slaying them.

39. These men, the Delphians maintain,
were two Heroes belonging to the place — by
name Phylacus and Autonoiis — each of whom
has a sacred precinct near the temple; one, that
of Phylacus, hard by the road which runs
above the temple of Pronaia; the other, that
of Autonoiis, near the Castalian spring, at the
foot of the peak called Hyampeia. The blocks
of stone which fell from Parnassus might still
be seen in my day; they lay in the precinct of
Pronaia, where they stopped, after rolling
through the host of the barbarians. Thus was
this body of men forced to retire from the tem-
pie.

40. Meanwhile, the Grecian fleet, which had
left Artemisium, proceeded to Salamis, at the
request of the Athenians, and there cast an-
chor. The Athenians had begged them to take
up this position, in order that they might con-
vey their women and children out of Attica,
and further might deliberate upon the course
which it now behoved them to follow. Disap-
pointed in the hopes which they had previous-
ly entertained, they were about to hold a coun-
cil concerning the present posture of their af-
fairs. For they had looked to see the Pelopon-
nesians drawn up in full force to resist the en-
emy in Boeotia, but found nothing of what
they had expected; nay, they learnt that the
Greeks of those parts, only concerning them-
selves about their own safety, were building a
wall across the Isthmus, and intended to guard
the Peloponnese, and let the rest of Greece take
its chance. These tidings caused them to make

35-47 J

THE HISTORY

267

the request whereof I spoke, ttfet the combined
fleet should anchor at Salamis.

41. So while the rest of the fleet lay to off
this island, the Athenians cast anchor along
their own coast. Immediately upon their ar-
rival, proclamation was made that every Athe-
nian should save his children and household
as he best could; whereupon some sent their
families to Egina, some to Salamis, but the
greater number to Trcezen. This removal was
made with all possible haste, partly from a de-
sire to obey the advice of the oracle, but still
more for another reason. The Athenians say
that they have in their Acropolis a huge ser-
pent, which lives in the temple, and is the
guardian of the whole place. Nor do they only
say this, but, as if the serpent really dwelt
there, every month they lay out its food, which
consists of a honey-cake. Up to this time the
honey-cake had always been consumed; but
now it remained untouched. So the priestess
told the people what had happened; where-
upon they left Athens the more readily, since
they believed that the goddess had already
abandoned the citadel. As soon as all was re-
moved, the Athenians sailed back to their sta-
tion.

42. And now, the remainder of the Grecian
sea-force, hearing that the fleet which had been
at Artemisium, was come to Salamis, joined it
at that island from Trcezen — orders having
been issued previously that the ships should
muster at Pogon, the port of the Trcezenians.
The vessels collected were many more in num-
ber than those which had fought at Artemisi-
um, and were furnished by more cities. The
admiral was the same who had commanded
before, to wit, Eurybiades, the son of Eury-
cleides, who was a Spartan, but not of the fam-
ily of the kings: the city, however, which sent
by far the greatest number of ships, and the
best sailers, was Athens.

43. Now these were the nations who com-
posed the Grecian fleet. From the Peloponnese,
the following — the Lacedaemonians with six-
teen ships; the Corinthians with the same
number as at Artemisium; the Sicyonians with
fifteen; the Epidaurians with ten; the Troezen-
ians with five; and the Hermionians with
three. These were Dorians and Macedonians
all of them (except those from Hermione), and
had emigrated last from Erineus, Pindus, and
Dryopis. The Hermionians were Dryopians,
of the race which Hercules and the Malians
drove out of the land now called Doris. Such
were the Peloponnesian nations.

44. From the mainland of Greece beyond
the Peloponnese, came the Athenians with a
hundred and eighty ships, a greater number
than that furnished by any other people; and
these were now manned wholly by themselves;
for the Platacans did not serve aboard the Athe-
nian ships at Salamis, owing to the following
reason. When the Greeks, on their withdrawal
from Artemisium, arrived off Chalcis, the Pla-
taeans disembarked upon the opposite shore of
Bceotia, and set to work to remove their house*
holds, whereby it happened that they were left
behind. (The Athenians, when the region
which is now called Greece was held by the
Pelasgi, were Pelasgians, and bore the name of
Cranaans; but under their king Cccrops, they
were called Cecropidae; when Erechtheus got
the sovereignty, they changed their name to
Athenians; and when Ion, the son of Xuthus,
became their general, they were named after
him lonians.)

45. The Megarians served with the same
number of ships as at Artemisium; the Ambra-
ciots came with seven; the Leucadians (who
were Dorians from Corinth) with three.

46. Of the islanders, the Eginetans fur-
nished thirty ships — they had a larger num-
ber equipped; but some were kept back to
guard their own coasts, and only thirty, which
however were their best sailers, took part in
the fight at Salamis. (The Eginetans are Dori-
ans from Epidaurus; their island was called
formerly CEnond). The Chalcideans came next
in order; they furnished the twenty ships with
which they had served at Artemisium. The
Eretrians likewise furnished their seven. These
races are Ionian. Ceos gave its old number—
the Ceans are lonians from Attica. Naxos fur-
nished four: this detachment, like those from
the other islands, had been sent by the citizens
at home to join the Medes; but they made light
of the orders given them, and joined the
Greeks, at the instigation of Democritus, a
citizen of good report, who was at that time
captain of a trireme. The Naxians are lonians,
of the Athenian stock. The Styreans served
with the same ships as before; the Cythnians
contributed one, and likewise a penteconter
— these two nations are Dryopians: the Seriph-
ians, Siphnians, and Melians, also served; they
were the only islanders who had not given
earth and water to the barbarian.

47. All these nations dwelt inside the river
Achoron and the country inhabited by the
Thesprotians; for that people borders on the
Ambraciots and Leucadians, who arc the most

268

HERODOTUS

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remote of all those by whom the fleet was fur-
nished. From the countries beyond, there was
only one people which gave help to the Greeks
in their danger. This was the people of Cro-
tona, who contributed a single ship, under the
command of Phayllus, a man who had thrice
carried off the prize at the Pythian Games. The
Crotomats are, by descent, Achaeans.

48. Most of the allies came with triremes;
but the Mchans, Siphnians, and Seriphians,
brought pentccontcrs. The Melians, who draw
their race from Lacedaemon, furnished two;
the Siphnians and Seriphians, who are lonians
of the Athenian stock, one each. The whole
number of the ships, without counting the
penteconters, was three hundred and seventy-
eight.

49. When the captains from these various
nations were come together at Salamis, a coun-
cil of war was summoned; and Eurybiades
proposed that any one who liked to advise,
should say which place seemed to him the fit-
test, among those still in the possession of the
Greeks, to be the scene of a naval combat. At-
tica, he said, was not to be thought of now;
but he desired their counsel as to the remain-
der. The speakers mostly advised that the fleet
should sail away to the Isthmus, and there give
battle in defence of the Peloponncse; and they
urged as a reason for this, that if they were
worsted in a sea-fight at Salamis, they would
be shut up in an island where they could get
no help; but if they were beaten near the Isth-
mus, they could escape to their homes.

50. As the captains from the Peloponnese
were thus advising, there came an Athenian to
the camp, who brought word that the barbari-
ans had entered Attica, and were ravaging and
burning everything. For the division of the
army under Xerxes was just arrived at Athens
from its march through Bocotia, where it had
burnt Thespiac and Plataea — both which cities
were forsaken by their inhabitants, who had
fled to the Peloponnese — and now it was lay-
ing waste all the possessions of the Athenians.
Thespia; and Platza had been burnt by the
Persians, because they knew from the Thebans
that neither of those cities had espoused their
side.

51. Since the passage of the Hellespont and
the commencement of the march upon Greece,
a space of four months had gone by; one, while
the army made the crossing, and delayed about
the region of the Hellespont; and three while
they proceeded thence to Attica, which they
entered in the archonship of Calliades. They

found the city forsaken; a few people only re-
mained in the temple, either keepers of the
treasures, or men of the poorer sort. These per-
sons having fortified the citadel with planks
and boards, held out against the enemy. It
was in some measure their poverty which had
prevented them from seeking shelter in Sala-
mis; but there was likewise another reason
which in part induced them to remain. They
imagined themselves to have discovered the
true meaning of the oracle uttered by the
Pythoness, which promised that "the wooden
wall" should never be taken — the wooden
wall, they thought, did not mean the ships,
but the place where they had taken refuge.

52. The Persians encamped upon the hill
over against the citadel, which is called Mars'
hill by the Athenians, and began the siege of
the place, attacking the Greeks with arrows
whereto pieces of lighted tow were attached,
which they shot at the barricade. And now
those who were within the citadel found them-
selves in a most woeful case; for their wooden
rampart betrayed them; still, however, they
continued to resist. It was in vain that the Pisis-
tratidae came to them and offered terms of sur-
render— they stoutly refused all parley, and
among their other modes of defence, rolled
down huge masses of stone upon the barbari-
ans as they were mounting up to the gates: so
that Xerxes was for a long time very greatly
perplexed, and could not contrive any way
to take them.

53. At last, however, in the midst of these
many difficulties, the barbarians made discov-
ery of an access. For verily the oracle had
spoken truth; and it was fated that the whole
mainland of Attica should fall beneath the sway
of the Persians. Right in front of the citadel,
but behind the gates and the common ascent
— where no watch was kept, and no one would
have thought it possible that any foot of man
could climb — a few soldiers mounted from the
sanctuary of Aglaurus, Cecrops' daughter, not-
withstanding the steepness of the precipice. As
soon as the Athenians saw them upon the sum-
mit, some threw themselves headlong from the
wall, and so perished; while others fled for
refuge to the inner part of the temple. The
Persians rushed to the gates and opened them,
after which they massacred the suppliants.
When all were slain, they plundered the tem-
ple, and fired every part of the citadel.

54. Xerxes, thus completely master of Ath-
ens, despatched a horseman to Susa, with a
message to Artabanus, informing him of his

48-60]

success hitherto. The day after, he collected
together all the Athenian exiles who had come
into Greece in his train, and bade them go up
into the citadel, and there offer sacrifice after
their own fashion. I know not whether he had
had a dream which made him give this order,
or whether he felt some remorse on account of
having set the temple on fire. However this
may have been, the exiles were not slow to
obey the command given them.

55. I will now explain why I have made
mention of this circumstance: there is a tem-
ple of Erechtheus the Earth-born, as he is
called, in this citadel, containing within it an
olive-tree and a sea. The tale goes among the
Athenians, that they were placed there as wit-
nesses by Neptune and Minerva, when they
had their contention about the country. Now
this olive-tree had been burnt with the rest of
the temple when the barbarians took the place.
But when the Athenians, whom the king had
commanded to offer sacrifice, went up into the
temple for the purpose, they found a fresh
shoot, as much as a cubit in length, thrown out
from the old trunk. Such at least was the ac-
count which these persons gave.

56. Meanwhile, at Salamis, the Greeks no
sooner heard what had befallen the Athenian
citadel, than they fell into such alarm that
some of the captains did not even wait for the
council to come to a vote, but embarked hastily
on board their vessels, and hoisted sail as
though they would take to flight immediately.
The rest, who stayed at the council board,
came to a vote that the fleet should give battle
at the Isthmus. Night now drew on; and the
captains, dispersing from the meeting, pro-
ceeded on board their respective ships.

57. Themistocles, as he entered his own ves-
sel, was met by Mnesiphilus, an Athenian, who
asked him what the council had resolved to
do. On learning that the resolve was to stand
away for the Isthmus, and there give battle on
behalf of the Peloponnese, Mnesiphilus ex-
claimed:—

"If these men sail away from Salamis, thou
wilt have no fight at all for the one fatherland;
for they will all scatter themselves to their own
homes; and neither Eurybiades nor any one
else will be able to hinder them, nor to stop
the breaking up of the armament. Thus will
Greece be brought to ruin through evil coun-
sels. But haste thee now; and, if there be any
possible way, seek to unsettle these resolves — •
mayhap thou mightest persuade Eurybiades
to change his mind, and continue here."

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269

58. The suggestion greatly pleased Themis-
tocles; and without answering a word, he went
straight to the vessel of Eurybiades. Arrived
there, he let him know that he wanted to speak
with him on a matter touching the public serv-
ice. So Eurybiades bade him come on board,
and say whatever he wished. Then Themis-
tocles, seating himself at his side, went over
all the arguments which he had heard from
Mnesiphilus, pretending as if they were his
own, and added to them many new ones be-
sides; until at last he persuaded Eurybiades, by
his importunity, to quit his ship and again col-
lect the captains to council.

59. As soon as they were come, and before
Eurybiades had opened to them his purpose in
assembling them together, Themistocles, as
men are wont to do when they are very anx-
ious, spoke much to divers of them; where-
upon the Corinthian captain, Adeimantus, the
son of Ocytus, observed — "Themistocles, at the
Games they who start too soon are scourged. "
"True/* rejoined the other in his excuse, "but
they who wait too late are not crowned."

60. Thus he gave the Corinthian at this time
a mild answer; and towards Eurybiades him-
self he did not now use any of those arguments
which he had urged before, or say aught of
the allies betaking themselves to flight if once
they broke up from Salamis; it would have
been ungraceful for him, when the confeder-
ates were present, to make accusation against
any: but he had recourse to quite a new sort of
reasoning, and addressed him as follows: —

"With thee it rests, O Eurybiades! to save
Greece, if thou wilt only hearken unto me,
and give the enemy battle here, rather than
yield to the advice of those among us, who
would have the fleet withdrawn to the Isth-
mus. Hear now, I beseech thee, and judge be-
tween the two courses. At the Isthmus thou
wilt fight in an open sea, which is greatly to
our disadvantage, since our ships are heavier
and fewer in number than the enemy's; and
further, thou wilt in any case lose Salamis,
Megara, and Egina, even if all the rest goes
well with us. The land and sea force of the
Persians will advance together; and thy re-
treat will but draw them towards the Pelopon-
nese, and so bring all Greece into peril. If, on
the other hand, thou doest as I advise, these are
the advantages which thou wilt so secure: in
the first place, as we shall fight in a narrow sea
with few ships against many, if the war fol-
lows the common course, we shall gain a great
victory; for to fight in a narrow space is favour-

270

HERODOTUS

[BOOK vin

able to us — in an open sea, to them. Again,
Salamis will in this case be preserved, where
we have placed our wives and children. Nay,
that very point by which ye set most store, is
secured as much by this course as by the other;
for whether we fight here or at the Isthmus,
we shall equally give battle in defence of the
Peloponnese. Assuredly ye will not do wisely
to draw the Persians upon that region. For if
things turn out as I anticipate, and we beat
them by sea, then we shall have kept your Isth-
mus free from the barbarians, and they will
have advanced no further than Attica, but
from thence have fled back in disorder; and
we shall, moreover, have saved Megara, Egina,
and Salamis itself, where an oracle has said
that we are to overcome our enemies. When
men counsel reasonably, reasonable success en-
sues; but when in their counsels they reject
reason, God docs not choose to follow the wan-
derings of human fancies."

61. When Themistocles had thus spoken,
Adeimantus the Corinthian again attacked
him, and bade him be silent, since he was a
man without a city; at the same time he called
on Eurybiades not to put the question at the
instance of one who had no country, and
urged that Themistocles should show of what
state he was envoy, before he gave his voice
with the rest. This reproach he made, because
the city of Athens had been taken, and was in
the hands of the barbarians. Hereupon Them-
istocles spake many bitter things against Adei-
mantus and the Corinthians generally; and
for proof that he had a country, reminded the
captains, that with two hundred ships at his
command, all fully manned for battle, he had
both city and territory as good as theirs; since
there was no Grecian state which could resist
his men if they were to make a descent.

62. After this declaration, he turned to Eury-
biades, and addressing him with still greater
warmth and earnestness — "If thou wilt stay
here," he said, "and behave like a brave man,
all will be well — if not, thou wilt bring Greece
to ruin. For the whole fortune of the war de-
pends on our ships. Be thou persuaded by my
words. If not, we will take our families on
board, and go, just as we are, to Siris, in Italy,
which is ours from of old, and which the
prophecies declare we are to colonise some day
or other. You then, when you have lost allies
like us, will hereafter call to mind what I have
now said."

63. At these words of Themistocles, Eury-
biades changed his determination; principally,

as I believe, because he feared that if he with-
drew the fleet to the Isthmus, the Athenians
would sail away, and knew that without the
Athenians, the rest of their ships could be no
match for the fleet of the enemy. He there-
fore decided to remain, and give battle at Sala-
mis.

64. And now, the different chiefs, notwith-
standing their skirmish of words, on learning
the decision of Eurybiades, at once made ready
for the fight. Morning broke; and, just as the
sun rose, the shock of an earthquake was felt
both on shore and at sea: whereupon the
Greeks resolved to approach the gods with
prayer, and likewise to send and invite the ^Ea-
cids to their aid. And this they did, with as
much speed as they had resolved on it. Prayers
were offered to all the gods; and Telamon and
Ajax were invoked at once from Salamis,
while a ship was sent to Egina to fetch JEacus
himself, and the other ^Eacids.

65. The following is a tale which was told
by Dicaeus, the son of Theocydes, an Athenian,
who was at this time an exile, and had gained
a good report among the Medes. He declared
that after the army of Xerxes had, in the ab-
sence of the Athenians, wasted Attica, he
chanced to be with Dcmaratus the Lacedae-
monian in the Thriasian plain, and that while
there, he saw a cloud of dust advancing from
Eleusis, such as a host of thirty thousand men
might raise. As he and his companion were
wondering who the men, from whom the dust
arose, could possibly be, a sound of voices
reached his ear, and he thought that he recog-
nised the mystic hymn to Bacchus. Now De-
maratus was unacquainted with the rites of
Eleusis, and so he inquired of Dicaeus what the
voices were saying. Dicaeus made answer — "O
Demaratus! beyond a doubt some mighty ca-
lamity is about to befall the king's army! For
it is manifest, inasmuch as Attica is deserted
by its inhabitants, that the sound which we
have heard is an unearthly one, and is now
upon its way from Eleusis to aid the Athenians
and their confederates. If it descends upon the
Peloponnese, danger will threaten the king
himself and his land army — if it moves to-
wards the ships at Salamis, 'twill go hard but
the king's fleet there suffers destruction. Every
year the Athenians celebrate this feast to the
Mother and the Daughter; and all who wish,
whether they be Athenians or any other
Greeks, are initiated. The sound thou nearest
is the Bacchic song, which is wont to be sung
at that festival." "Hush now," rejoined the

61-69]

THE HISTORY

271

other; "and see thou tell no man of this matter.
For if thy words be brought to the king's ear,
thou wilt assuredly lose thy head because of
them; neither I nor any man living can then
save thee. Hold thy peace therefore. The gods
will see to the king's army." Thus Demaratus
counselled him; and they looked, and saw the
dust, from which the sound arose, become a
cloud, and the cloud rise up into the air and
sail away to Salamis, making for the station of
the Grecian fleet. Then they knew that it was
the fleet of Xerxes which would suffer destruc-
tion. Such was the tale told by Dicaeus the son
of Theocydes; and he appealed for its truth to
Demaratus and other eye-witnesses.

66. The men belonging to the fleet of Xer-
xes, after they had seen the Spartan dead at
Thermopylae, and crossed the channel from
Trachis to Histiaea, waited there by the space
of three days, and then sailing down through
the Euripus, in three more came to Phalerum.
In my judgment, the Persian forces both by
land and sea when they invaded Attica were
not less numerous than they had been on their
arrival at Sepias and Thermopyla:. For against
the Persian loss in the storm and at Thermopy-
lae, and again in the sea-fights off Artemisium,
I set the various nations which had since
joined the king — as the Malians, the Dorians,
the Locrians, and the Boeotians — each serving
in full force in his army except the last, who
did not number in their ranks either the Thes-
pians or the Plataeans; and together with these,
the Carystians, the Andrians, the Tenians, and
the other people of the islands, who all fought
on this side except the five states already men-
tioned. For as the Persians penetrated further
into Greece, they were joined continually by
fresh nations.

67. Reinforced by the contingents of all
these various states, except Paros, the barbari-
ans reached Athens. As for the Parians, they
tarried at Cythnus, waiting to see how the war
would go. The rest of the sea forces came safe
to Phalerum; where they were visited by Xer-
xes, who had conceived a desire to go aboard
and learn the wishes of the fleet. So he came
and sate in a seat of honour; and the sovereigns
of the nations, and the captains of the ships,
were sent for, to appear before him, and as
they arrived took their seats according to the
rank assigned them by the king. In the first
seat sate the king of Sidon; after him, the king
of Tyre; then the rest in their order. When the
whole had taken their places, one after another,
and were set down in orderly array, Xerxes,

to try them, sent Mardonius and questioned
each, whether a sea-fight should be risked or
no.

68. Mardonius accordingly went round the
entire assemblage, beginning with the Sidoni-
an monarch, and asked this question; to which
all gave the same answer, advising to engage
the Greeks, except only Artemisia, who spake
as follows (§1.): —

"Say to the king, Mardonius, that these are
my words to him: I was not the least brave of
those who fought at Eubcea, nor were my
achievements there among the meanest; it is
my right, therefore, O my lord, to tell thee
plainly what I think to be most for thy advan-
tage now. This then is my advice. Spare thy
ships, and do not risk a battle; for these people
are as much superior to thy people in seaman-
ship, as men to women. What so great need is
there for thee to incur hazard at sea? Art thou
not master of Athens, for which thou didst un-
dertake thy expedition? Is not Greece subject
to thee? Not a soul now resists thy advance.
They who once resisted, were handled even as
they deserved. (§ 2.) Now learn how I expect
that affairs will go with thy adversaries. If
thou art not over-hasty to engage with them by
sea, but wilt keep thy fleet near the land, then
whether thou abidest as thou art, or marchest
forward towards the Peloponnese, thou wilt
easily accomplish all for which thou art come
hither. The Greeks cannot hold out against
thee very long; thou wilt soon part them asun-
der, and scatter them to their several homes.
In the island where they lie, I hear they have
no food in store; nor is it likely, if thy land
force begins its march towards the Pelopon-
nese, that they will remain quietly where they
are — at least such as come from that region.
Of a surety they will not greatly trouble them-
selves to give battle on behalf of the Athenians.
(§ 3.) On the other hand, if thou art hasty to
fight, I tremble lest the defeat of thy sea force
bring harm likewise to thy land army. This,
too, thou shouldst remember, O king; good
masters are apt to have bad servants, and bad
masters good ones. Now, as thou art the best
of men, thy servants must needs be a sorry set.
These Egyptians, Cyprians, Cilicians, and
Pamphylians, who are counted in the number
of thy subject-allies, of how little service are
they to thee!"

69. As Artemisia spake, they who wished
her well were greatly troubled concerning her
words, thinking that she would suffer some
hurt at the king's hands, because she exhorted

272

HERODOTUS

[BOOK vi ji

him not to risk a battle; they, on the other
hand, who disliked and envied her, favoured
as she was by the king above all the rest of the
allies, rejoiced at her declaration, expecting
that her life would be the forfeit. But Xerxes,
when the words of the several speakers were
reported to him, was pleased beyond all others
with the reply of Artemisia; and whereas, even
before this, he had always esteemed her much,
he now praised her more than ever. Neverthe-
less, he gave orders that the advice of the great-
er number should be followed; for he thought
that at Euboea the fleet had not done its best,
because he himself was not there to see —
whereas this time he resolved that he would
be an eye-witness of the combat.

70. Orders were now given to stand out to
sea; and the ships proceeded towards Salamis,
and took up the stations to which they were
directed, without let or hindrance from the
enemy. The day, however, was too far spent
for them to begin the battle, since night al-
ready approached: so they prepared to engage
upon the morrow. The Greeks, meanwhile,
were in great distress and alarm, more especial-
ly those of the Peloponnese, who were troubled
that they had been kept at Salamis to fight on
behalf of the Athenian territory, and feared
that, if they should suffer defeat, they would
be pent up and besieged in an island, while
their own country was left unprotected.

71. The same night the land army of the
barbarians began its march towards the Pelo-
ponnese, where, however, all that was possible
had been done to prevent the enemy from forc-
ing an entrance by land. As soon as ever news
reached the Peloponnese of the death of Le-
onidas and his companions at Thermopylae, the
inhabitants flocked together from the various
cities, and encamped at the Isthmus, under the
command of Cleombrotus, son of Anaxandri-
das, and brother of Leonidas. Here their first
care was to block up the Scironian Way; after
which it was determined in council to build a
wall across the Isthmus. As the number assem-
bled amounted to many tens of thousands, and
there was not one who did not give himself to
the work, it was soon finished. Stones, bricks,
timber, baskets filled full of sand, were used in
the building; and not a moment was lost by
those who gave their aid; for they laboured
without ceasing either by night or day.

72. Now the nations who gave their aid,
and who had flocked in full force to the Isth-
mus, were the following: the Lacedaemonians,
all the tribes of the Arcadians, the Eleans, the

Corinthians, the Sicyonians, the Epidaurians,
the Phliasians, the Trcezenians, and the Her-
mionians. These all gave their aid, being great-
ly alarmed at the danger which threatened
Greece. But the other inhabitants of the Pel-
oponnese took no part in the matter; though
the Olympic and Carneian festivals were now
over.

73. Seven nations inhabit the Peloponnese.
Two of them are aboriginal, and still continue
in the regions where they dwelt at the first —
to wit, the Arcadians and the Cynurians. A
third, that of the Acha:ans, has never left the
Peloponnese, but has been dislodged from its
own proper country, and inhabits a district
which once belonged to others. The remaining
nations, four out of the seven, are all immi-
grants— namely, the Dorians, the yfctolians, the
Dryopians, and the Lemnians. To the Dorians
belong several very famous cities; to the ^toli-
ans one only, that is, Elis; to the Dryopians,
Hermione and that Asme which lies over
against Cardamyle in Laconia; to the Lemni-
ans, all the towns of the Paroreats. The aborig-
inal Cynurians alone seem to be lonians; even
they, however, have, in course of time, grown
to be Dorians, under the government of the
Argives, whose Orneats and vassals they were.
All the cities of these seven nations, except
those mentioned above, stood aloof from the
war; and by so doing, if I may speak freely,
they in fact took part with the Medes.

74. So the Greeks at the Isthmus toiled un-
ceasingly, as though in the greatest peril; since
they never imagined that any great success
would be gamed by the fleet. The Greeks at
Salamis, on the other hand, when they heard
what the rest were about, felt greatly alarmed;
but their fear was not so much for themselves
as for the Peloponnese. At first they conversed
together in low tones, each man with his fel-
low, secretly, and marvelled at the folly shown
by Eurybiades; but presently the smothered
feeling broke out, and another assembly was
held; whereat the old subjects provoked much
talk from the speakers, one side maintaining
that it was best to sail to the Peloponnese and
risk battle for that, instead of abiding at Sala-
mis and fighting for a land already taken by
the enemy; while the other, which consisted
of the Athenians, Eginetans, and Megarians,
was urgent to remain and have the battle
fought where they were.

75. Then Themistocles, when he saw that
the Peloponnesians would carry the vote
against him, went out secretly from the coun-

70-79

THE HISTORY

273

cil, and, instructing a certain man what he
should say, sent him on board a merchant ship
to the fleet of the Medes. The man's name was
Sicinnus; he was one of Themistocles' house-
hold slaves, and acted as tutor to his sons; in
after times, when the Thespians were admit-
ting persons to citizenship, Themistocles made
him a Thespian, and a rich man to boot. The
ship brought Sicinnus to the Persian fleet, and
there he delivered his message to the leaders
in these words: —

"The Athenian commander has sent me to
you privily, without the knowledge of the oth-
er Greeks. He is a well-wisher to the king's
cause, and would rather success should attend
on you than on his countrymen; wherefore he
bids me tell you that fear has seized the Greeks
and they are meditating a hasty flight. Now
then it is open to you to achieve the best work
that ever ye wrought, if only ye will hinder
their escaping. They no longer agree among
themselves, so that they will not now make any
resistance — nay, 'tis likely ye may see a fight
already begun between such as favour and
such as oppose your cause." The messenger,
when he had thus expressed himself, departed
and was seen no more.

76. Then the captains, believing all that the
messenger had said, proceeded to land a large
body of Persian troops on the islet of Psyttaleia,
which lies between Salamis and the mainland;
after which, about the hour of midnight, they
advanced their western wing towards Salamis,
so as to inclose the Greeks. At the same time
the force stationed about Ceos and Cynosura
moved forward, and filled the whole strait as
far as Munychia with their ships. This advance
was made to prevent the Greeks from escaping
by flight, and to block them up in Salamis,
where it was thought that vengeance might be
taken upon them for the battles fought near
Artemisium. The Persian troops were landed
on the islet of Psyttaleia, because, as soon as
the battle began, the men and wrecks were
likely to be drifted thither, as the isle lay in
the very path of the coming fight — and they
would thus be able to save their own men and
destroy those of the enemy. All these move-
ments were made in silence, that the Greeks
might have no knowledge of them; and they
occupied the whole night, so that the men had
no time to get their sleep.

77. I cannot say that there is no truth in
prophecies, or feel inclined to call in question
those which speak with clearness, when I think
of the following: —

When they shall bridge with their ships to the
sacred strand of Diana

Gnt with the golden jalchton, and cl(c to marine
Cynosura,

Mad hope swelling their hearts at the downfall of
beautiful Athens

Then shall godlike Right extinguish haughty Pre-
sumption,

Insult's furious offspring, who thin\eth to over-
throw all things.

Brass with brass shall mingle, and Mars with
blood shall empurple

Ocean's waves. Then — then shall the day of
Grecians freedom

Come from Victory fair, and Saturn's son all-see-
ing.

When I look to this, and perceive how clearly
Bacis spoke, I neither venture myself to say
anything against prophecies, nor do I approve
of others impugning them.

78. Meanwhile, among the captains at Sala-
mis, the strife of words grew fierce. As yet they
did not know that they were encompassed, but
imagined that the barbarians remained in the
same places where they had seen them the day
before.

79. In the midst of their contention, Aris-
tides, the son of Lysimachus, who had crossed
from Egina, arrived in Salamis. He was an
Athenian, and had been ostracised by the com-
monalty; yet I believe, from what I have heard
concerning his character, that there was not in
all Athens a man so worthy or so just as he.
He now came to the council, and, standing
outside, called for Themistocles. Now Themis-
tocles was not his friend, but his most deter-
mined enemy. However, under the pressure of
the great dangers impending, Anstides forgot
their feud, and called Themistocles out of the
council, since he wished to confer with him.
He had heard before his arrival of the impa-
tience of the Peloponnesians to withdraw the
fleet to the Isthmus. As soon therefore as
Themistocles came forth, Aristides addressed
him in these words: —

"Our rivalry at all times, and especially at
the present season, ought to be a struggle,
which of us shall most advantage our country.
Let me then say to thee, that so far as regards
the departure of the Peloponnesians from this
place, much talk and little will be found pre-
cisely alike. I have seen with my own eyes that
which I now report: that, however much the
Corinthians or Eurybiades himself may wish
it, they cannot now retreat; for we are enclosed
on every side by the enemy. Go in to them, and
make this known."

274

HERODOTUS

80. "Thy advice is excellent," answered the
other; "and thy tidings are also good. That
which I earnestly desired to happen, thine eyes
have beheld accomplished. Know that what
the Medes have now done was at my instance;
for it was necessary, as our men would not
fight here of their own free will, to make them
fight whether they would or no. But come
now, as thou hast brought the good news, go
in and tell it. For if I speak to them, they will
think it a feigned tale, and will not believe that
the barbarians have inclosed us around. There-
fore do thou go to them, and inform them how
matters stand. If they believe thee, 'twill be for
the best; but if otherwise, it will not harm.
For it is impossible that they should now flee
away, if we are indeed shut in on all sides, as
thou sayest."

81. Then Aristides entered the assembly,
and spoke to the captains: he had come, he told
them, from Egina, and had but barely escaped
the blockading vessels — the Greek fleet was en-
tirely inclosed by the ships of Xerxes — and he
advised them to get themselves in readiness to
resist the foe. Having said so much, he with-
drew. And now another contest arose; for the
greater part of the captains would not believe
the tidings.

82. But while they still doubted, a Tenian
trireme, commanded by Panaetius the son of
Sosimenes, deserted from the Persians and
joined the Greeks, bringing full intelligence.
For this reason the Tenians were inscribed
upon the tripod at Delphi among those who
overthrew the barbarians. With this ship,
which deserted to their side at Salamis, and
the Lemnian vessel which came over before at
Artemisium, the Greek fleet was brought to
the full number of 380 ships; otherwise it fell
short by two of that amount.

83. The Greeks now, not doubting what the
Tenians told them, made ready for the coming
fight. At the dawn of day, all the men-at-arms
were assembled together, and speeches were
made to them, of which the best was that of
Themistocles; who throughout contrasted
what was noble with what was base, and bade
them, in all that came within the range of
man's nature and constitution, always to make
choice of the nobler part. Having thus wound
up his discourse, he told them to go at once on
board their ships, which they accordingly did;
and about his time the trireme, that had been
sent to Egina for the ^Eacidse, returned; where-
upon the Greeks put to sea with all their fleet.

84. The fleet had scarce left the land when

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they were attacked by the barbarians. At once
most of the Greeks began to back water, and
were about touching the shore, when Ameinias
of Pallene, one of the Athenian captains, dart-
ed forth in front of the line, and charged a ship
of the enemy. The two vessels became entan-
gled, and could not separate, whereupon the
rest of the fleet came up to help Ameinias, and
engaged with the Persians. Such is the account
which the Athenians give of the way in which
the battle began; but the Eginetans maintain
that the vessel which had been to Egina for
the ^£acidae, was the one that brought on the
fight. It is also reported, that a phantom in the
form of a woman appeared to the Greeks, and,
in a voice that was heard from end to end of
the fleet, cheered them on to the fight; first,
however, rebuking them, and saying —
"Strange men, how long are ye going to back
water?"

85. Against the Athenians, who held the
western extremity of the line towards Eleusis,
were placed the Phoenicians; against the Lace-
daemonians, whose station was eastward to-
wards the Pira'iis, the lonians. Of these last a
few only followed the advice of Themistocles,
to fight backwardly; the greater number did
far otherwise. I could mention here the names
of many tnerarchs who took vessels from the
Greeks, but I shall pass over all excepting The-
omestor, the son of Androdamas, and Phyla-
cus, the son of Histiaeus, both Samians. I show
this preference to them, inasmuch as for this
service Theomestor was made tyrant of Samos
by the Persians, which Phylacus was enrolled
among the king's benefactors, and presented
with a large estate in land. In the Persian
tongue the king's benefactors are called Oro-
sangs.

86. Far the greater number of the Persian
ships engaged in this battle were disabled,
either by the Athenians or by the Eginetans.
For as the Greeks fought in order and kept
their line, while the barbarians were in con-
fusion and had no plan in anything that they
did, the issue of the battle could scarce be other
than it was. Yet the Persians fought far more
bravely here than at Eubcea, and indeed sur-
passed themselves; each did his utmost
through fear of Xerxes, for each thought that
the king's eye was upon himself.

87. What part the several nations, whether
Greek or barbarian, took in the combat, I am
not able to say for certain; Artemisia, however,
I know, distinguished herself in such a way as
raised her even higher than she stood before

80-91]

THE HISTORY

275

in the esteem of the king. For after confusion
had spread throughout the whole of the king's
fleet, and her ship was closely pursued by an
Athenian trireme, she, having no way to fly,
since in front of her were a number of friend-
ly vessels, and she was nearest ot all the Per-
sians to the enemy, resolved on a measure
which in fact proved her safety. Pressed by the
Athenian pursuer, she bore straight against
one of the ships of her own party, a Calyndian,
which had Damasithymus, the Calyndian
king, himself on board. I cannot say whether
she had had any quarrel with the man while
the fleet was at the Hellespont, or no— -neither
can I decide whether she of set purpose at-
tacked his vessel, or whether it merely chanced
that the Calyndian ship came in her way — but
certain it is that she bore down upon his ves-
sel and sank it, and that thereby she had the
good fortune to procure herself a double ad-
vantage. For the commander of the Athenian
trireme, when he saw her bear down on one
ot the enemy's fleet, thought immediately that
her vessel was a Greek, or else had deserted
from the Persians, and was now fighting on
the Greek side; he therefore gave up the chase,
and turned away to attack others.

88. Thus in the first place she saved her life
by the action, and was enabled to get clear off
from the battle; while further, it fell out that
in the very act of doing the king an injury she
raised herself to a greater height than ever in
his esteem. For as Xerxes beheld the fight, he
remarked (it is said) the destruction of the
vessel, whereupon the bystanders observed to
him — "Seest thou, master, how well Artemis-
ia fights, and how she has just sunk a ship of
the enemy?" Then Xerxes asked if it were
really Artemisia's doing; and they answered,
"Certainly; for they knew her ensign": while
all made sure that the sunken vessel belonged
to the opposite side. Everything, it is said, con-
spired to prosper the queen — it was especially
fortunate for her that not one of those on board
the Calyndian ship survived to become her ac-
cuser. Xerxes, they say, in reply to the remarks
made to him, observed — "My men have be-
haved like women, my women like men!"

89. There fell in this combat Anabignes,
one of the chief commanders of the fleet, who
was son of Darius and brother of Xerxes; and
with him perished a vast number of men of
high repute, Persians, Medes, and allies. Of
the Greeks there died only a few; for, as they
were able to swim, all those that were not slain
outright by the enemy escaped from the sink-

ing vessels and swam across to Salamis. But
on the side of the barbarians more perished
by drowning than in any other way, since they
did not know how to swim. The great destruc-
tion took place when the ships which had been
first engaged began to fly; for they who were
stationed in the rear, anxious to display their
valour before the eyes of the king, made every
effort to force their way to the fiont, and thus
became entangled with such of their own ves-
sels as were retreating.

90. In this confusion the following event oc-
curred: certain Phoenicians belonging to the
ships which had thus perished made their ap-
pearance before the king, and laid the blame
of their loss on the lonians, dcclai ing that they
were traitors, and had wilfully destroyed the
vessels. But the upshot of this complaint was
that the Ionian captains escaped the death
which threatened them, while their Phoenician
accusers received death as their reward. For it
happened that, exactly as they spoke, a Sa-
mothracian vessel bore down on an Athenian
and sank it, but was attacked and crippled im-
mediately by one of the Eginctan squadron.
Now the Samothracum were expert with the
javelin, and aimed their weapons so well, that
they cleared the deck of the vessel which had
disabled their own, after which they sprang
on board, and took it. This saved the lomans.
Xerxes, when he saw the exploit, turned fierce-
ly on the Phoenicians — (he was ready, in his
extreme vexation, to find fault with any one)
— and ordered their heads to be cut off, to pre-
vent them, he said, from casting the blame of
their own misconduct upon braver men. Dur-
ing the whole time of the battle Xerxes sate at
the base of the hill called yF.galecA)s, over against
Salamis; and whenever he saw any of his own
captains perform any worthy exploit he in-
quired concerning him; and the man's name
was taken down by his scribes, together with
the names of his father and his city. Aria ra ni-
nes too, a Persian, who was a friend of the lo-
nians, and present at the time whereof I speak,
had a share in bringing about the punishment
of the Phoenicians.

91. When the rout of the barbarians began,
and they sought to make their escape to Pha-
lerum, the Eginetans, awaiting them in the
channel, performed exploits worthy to be re-
corded. Through the whole of the confused
struggle the Athenians employed themselves
in destroying such ships as either made re-
sistance or fled to shore, while the Eginetans
dealt with those which endeavoured to escape

276

HERODOTUS

down the strait; so that the Persian vessels were
no sooner clear of the Athenians than forth-
with they fell into the hands of the Eginetan
squadron.

92. It chanced here that there was a meeting
between the ship of Themistocles, which was
hasting in pursuit of the enemy, and that of
Polycritus, son of Crius the Eginetan, which
had just charged a Sidonian trireme. The Sido-
nian vessel was the same that captured the
Eginetan guard-ship off Sciathus, which had
Pytheas, the son of Ischenoiis, on board — that
Pytheas, I mean, who fell covered with
wounds, and whom the Sidonians kept on
board their ship, from admiration of his gal-
lantry. This man afterwards returned in safety
to Kgina; for when the Sidonian vessel with
its Persian crew fell into the hands of the
(/reeks, he was still found on board. Polycritus
no sooner saw the Athenian trireme than,
knowing at once whose vessel it was, as he ob-
served that it bore the ensign of the admiral,
he shouted to Themistocles jeeringly, and
asked him, in a tone of reproach, if the Egine-
tans did not show themselves rare friends to
the Mcdcs. At the same time, while he thus
reproached Themistocles, Polycritus bore
straight down on the Sidonian. Such of the bar-
barian vessels as escaped from the battle fled
to Phalerum, and there sheltered themselves
under the protection of the land army.

93. The Greeks who gained the greatest
glory of all in the sea-fight off Salamis were the
Egmctans, and after them the Athenians. The
individuals of most distinction were Polycritus
the Eginetan, and two Athenians, Eumenes
of Anagyrus, and Amcinias of Pallene; the
latter of whom had pressed Artemisia so hard.
And assuredly, if he had known that the ves-
sel earned Artemisia on board, he would never
have given over the chase till he had either
succeeded in taking her, or else been taken
himself. For the Athenian captains had re-
ceived special orders touching the queen; and
moreover a reward of ten thousand drachmas
had been proclaimed for any one who should
make her prisoner; since there was great in-
dignation felt that a woman should appear in
arms against Athens. However, as I said be-
fore, she escaped; and so did some others
whose ships survived the engagement; and
these were all now assembled at the port of
Phalerum.

94. The Athenians say that Adeimantus, the
Corinthian commander, at the moment when
the two fleets joined battle, was seized with

[BooK vin

fear, and being beyond measure alarmed,
spread his sails, and hasted to fly away; on
which the other Corinthians, seeing their lead-
er's ship in full flight, sailed off likewise. They
had reached in their flight that part of the
coast of Salamis where stands the temple of
Minerva Sciras, when they met a light bark, a
very strange apparition: it was never discov-
ered that any one had sent it to them; and till
it appeared they were altogether ignorant how
the battle was going. That there was some-
thing beyond nature in the matter they judged
from this — that when the men in the bark
drew near to their ships they addressed them,
saying — "Adeimantus, while thou playest the
traitor's part, by withdrawing all these ships,
and flying away from the fight, the Greeks
whom thou hast deserted are defeating their
foes as completely as they ever wished in their
prayers." Adeimantus, however, would not be-
lieve what the men said; whereupon they told
him uhe might take them with him as hos-
tages, and put them to death if he did not find
the Greeks winning." Then Adeimantus put
about, both he and those who were with him;
and they re-joined the fleet when the victory
was already gained. Such is the tale which the
Athenians tell concerning them of Corinth;
these latter however do not allow its truth. On
the contrary, they declare that they were
among those who distinguished themselves
most in the fight. And the rest of Greece bears
witness in their favour.

95. In the midst of the confusion Aristides,
the son of Lysimachus, the Athenian, of whom
I lately spoke as a man of the greatest excel-
lence, performed the following service. He
took a number of the Athenian heavy-armed
troops, who had previously been stationed
along the shore of Salamis, and, landing with
them on the islet of Psyttalcia, slew all the Per-
sians by whom it was occupied.

96. As soon as the sea-fight was ended, the
Greeks drew together to Salamis all the wrecks
that were to be found in that quarter, and pre-
pared themselves for another engagement, sup-
posing that the king would renew the fight
with the vessels which still remained to him.
Many of the wrecks had been carried away by
a westerly wind to the const of Attica, where
they were thrown upon the strip of shore
called Colias. Thus not only were the prophe-
cies of Bacis and Musaeus concerning this bat-
tle fulfilled completely, but likewise, by the
place to which the wrecks were drifted, the
prediction of Lysistratus, an Athenian sooth-

92-100 ]

sayer, uttered many years before these events,
and quite forgotten at the time by all the
Greeks, was fully accomplished. The words
were —
Then shall the sight of the oars fill Cohan dames

with amazement.

Now this must have happened as soon as the
king was departed.

97. Xerxes, when he saw the extent of his
loss, began to be afraid lest the Greeks might
be counselled by the lonians, or without their
advice might determine to sail straight to the
Hellespont and break down the bridges there;
in which case he would be blocked up in Eu-
rope, and run great risk of perishing. He there-
fore made up his mind to fly; but, as he wished
to hide his purpose alike from the Greeks and
from his own people, he set to work to carry a
mound across the channel to Salamis, and at
the same time began fastening a number of
Phoanician merchant ships together, to serve
at once for a bridge and a wall. He likewise
made many warlike preparations, as if he were
about to engage the Greeks once more at sea.
Now, when these things were seen, all grew
fully persuaded that the king was bent on re-
maining, and intended to push the war in
good earnest. Mardonius, however, was in no
respect deceived; for long acquaintance en-
abled him to read all the king's thoughts.
Meanwhile, Xerxes, though engaged in this
way, sent off a messenger to carry intelligence
of his misfortune to Persia.

98. Nothing mortal travels so fast as these
Persian messengers. The entire plan is a Per-
sian invention; and this is the method of it.
Along the whole line of road there are men
(they say) stationed with horses, in number
equal to the number of days which the journey
takes, allowing a man and horse to each day;
and these men will not be hindered from ac-
complishing at their best speed the distance
which they have to go, either by snow, or rain,
or heat, or by the darkness of night. The first
rider delivers his despatch to the second, and
the second passes it to the third; and so it is
borne from hand to hand along the whole line,
like the light in the torch-race, which the
Greeks celebrate to Vulcan. The Persians give
the riding post in this manner, the name of
"Angarum."

99. At Susa, on the arrival of the first mes-
sage, which said that Xerxes was master of
Athens, such was the delight of the Persians
who had remained behind, that they forthwith
strewed all the streets with myrtle boughs, and

THE HISTORY

277

burnt incense, and fell to feasting and merri-
ment. In like manner, when the second mes-
sage reached them, so sore was their dismay,
that they all with one accord rent their gar-
ments, and cried aloud, and wept and wailed
without stint. They laid the blame of the disas-
ter on Mardonius; and their grief on the occa-
sion was less on account of the damage done
to their ships, than owing to the alarm which
they felt about the safety of the king. Hence
their trouble did not cease till Xerxes himself,
by his arrival, put an end to their fears.

100. And now Mardonius, perceiving that
Xerxes took the defeat of his fleet greatly to
heart, and suspecting that he had made up his
mind to leave Athens and fly away, began to
think of the likelihood of his being visited with
punishment for having persuaded the king to
undertake the war. He therefore considered
that it would be the best thing for him to ad-
venture further, and either become the con-
queror of Greece — which was the result he
rather expected — or else die gloriously after
aspiring to a noble achievement. So with these
thoughts in his mind, he said one day to the
king:—

"Do not grieve, master, or take so greatly
to heart thy late loss. Our hopes hang not alto-
gether on the fate of a few planks, but on our
brave steeds and horsemen. These fellows,
whom thou imaginest to have quite con-
quered us, will not venture — no, not one of
them — to come ashore and contend with our
land army; nor will the Greeks who are upon
the mainland fight our troops; such as did so
have received their punishment. If thou so
pleasest, we may at once attack the Pelopon-
nese; if thou wouldst rather wait a while, that
too is in our power. Only be not disheartened.
For it is not possible that the Greeks can avoid
being brought to account, alike for this and
for their former injuries; nor can they anyhow
escape being thy slaves. Thou shouldst there-
fore do as I have said. If, however, thy mind is
made up, and thou art resolved to retreat and
lead away thy army, listen to the counsel
which, in that case, I have to offer. Make not
the Persians, O king! a laughing-stock to the
Greeks. If thy affairs have succeeded ill, it has
not been by their fault ; thou canst not say that thy
Persians have ever shown themselves cowards.
What matters it if Phoenicians and Egyptians,
Cyprians and Cilicians, have misbehaved? —
their misconduct touches not us. Since then thy
Persians are without fault, be advised by me.
Depait home, if thou art so minded, and take

278

HERODOTUS

[BooK vni

with thec the bulk of thy army; but first let me
choose out 300,000 troops, and let it be my
task to bring Greece beneath thy sway."

jo i. Xerxes, when he heard these words,
felt a sense of joy and delight, like a man who
is relieved from care. Answering Mardonius,
therefore, "that he would consider his coun-
sel, and let him know which course he might
prefer," Xerxes proceeded to consult with the
chief men among the Persians; and because
Artemisia on the former occasion had shown
herself the only person who knew what was
best to be done, he was pleased to summon
her to advise him now. As soon as she arrived,
he put forth all the rest, both councillors and
bodyguards, and said to her: —

"Mardonius wishes me to stay and attack
the Peloponnese. My Persians, he says, and my
other land forces, are not to blame for the disas-
ters which have befallen our arms; and of this
he declares they would very gladly give me
the proof. He therefore exhorts me, either to
stay and act as I have said, or to let him choose
out 300,000 of my troops — wherewith he un-
dertakes to reduce Greece beneath my sway —
while I myself retire with the rest of my forces,
and withdraw into my own country. Do thou,
therefore, as thou didst counsel me so wisely
to decline the sea-fight, now also advise me in
this matter, and say, which course of the twain
I ought to take for my own good."

102. Thus did the king ask Artemisia's
counsel; and the following are the words
wherewith she answered him: —

" 'Tis a hard thing, O king' to give the best
possible advice to one who asks our counsel.
Nevertheless, as thy affairs now stand, it seem-
eth to me that thou wilt do right to return
home. As for Mardonius, if he prefers to re-
main, and undertakes to do as he has said,
leave him behind by all means, with the troops
which he desires. If his design succeeds, and he
subdues the Greeks, as he promises, thine is the
conquest, master; for thy slaves will have ac-
complished it. It, on the other hand, affairs run
counter to his wishes, we can suffer no great
loss, so long as thou art safe, and thy house is
in no danger. The Greeks, too, while thou hv-
est, and thy house flourishes, must be prepared
to fight full many a battle for their freedom;
whereas if Mardonius fall, it matters nothing
— they will have gained but a poor triumph —
a victory over one of thy slaves! Remember
also, thou goest home having gained the pur-
pose of thy expedition; for thou hast burnt
Athens!"

103. The advice of Artemesia pleased Xer-
xes well; for she had exactly uttered his own
thoughts. I, for my part, do not believe that
he would have remained had all his counsel-
lors, both men and women, united to urge his
stay, so great was the alarm thai he felt. As it
was, he gave praise to Artemisia, and entrust-
ed certain of his children to her care, ordering
her to convey them to Ephesus; for he had
been accompanied on the expedition by some
of his natural sons.

104. He likewise sent away at this time one
of the principal of his eunuchs, a man named
Hermotimus, a Pedasian, who was bidden to
take charge of these sons. Now the Pedasians
inhabit the region above Halicarnassus; and it
is related of them, that in their country the
following circumstance happens: when a mis-
chance is about to befall any of their neigh-
bours within a certain time, the priestess of
Minerva in their city grows a long beard. This
has already taken place on two occasions.

105. The Hermotimus of whom I spoke
above was, as I said, a Pedasian; and he, of all
men whom we know, took the most cruel
vengeance on the person who had done him an
injury. He had been made a prisoner of war,
and when his captors sold him, he was bought
by a certain Panionius, a native of Chios, who
made his living by a most nefarious traffic.
Whenever he could get any boys of unusual
beauty, he made them eunuchs, and, carrying
them to Sard is or Ephesus, sold them for large
sums of money. For the barbarians value eu-
nuchs more than others, since they regard them
as more trustworthy. Many were the slaves
that Panionius, who made his living by the
practice, had thus treated; and among them
was this Hermotimus of whom I have here
made mention. However, he was not without
his share of good fortune; for after a while he
was sent from Sardis, together with other gifts,
as a present to the king. Nor was it long before
he came to be esteemed by Xerxes more highly
than all his eunuchs.

1 06. When the king was on his way to Ath-
ens with the Persian army, and abode for a
time at Sardis, Hermotimus happened to make
a journey upon business into Mysia; and there,
in a district which is called Atarneus, but be-
longs to Chios, he chanced to fall in with Pan-
ionius. Recognising him at once, he entered
into a long and friendly talk with him, wherein
he counted up the numerous blessings he en-
joyed through his means, and promised him
all manner of favours in return, if he would

IOI-IOQ ]

THE HISTORY

279

bring his household to Sardis and live there.
Panionius was overjoyed, and, accepting the
offer made him, came presently, and brought
with him his wife and children. Then Hermo-
timus, when he had got Panionius and all his
family into his power, addressed him in these
words: —

"Thou man, who gettest a living by viler
deeds than any one else in the whole world,
what wrong to thee or thine had I or any of
mine done, that thou shouldst have made me
the nothing that I now am? Ah! surely thou
thoughtest that the gods took no note of thy
crimes. But they in their justice have delivered
thee, the doer of unrighteousness, into my
hands; and now thou canst not complain of
the vengeance which I am resolved to take on
thee."

After these reproaches, Hermotimus com-
manded the four sons of Panionius to be
brought, and forced the father to make them
eunuchs with his own hand. Unable to resist,
he did as Hermotimus required; and then his
sons were made to treat him in the self-same
way. So in this way there came to Panionius
requital at the hands of Hermotimus.

107. Xerxes, after charging Artemesia to
convey his sons safe to Ephesus, sent for Mar-
donius, and bade him choose from all his army
such men as he wished, and see that he made
his achievements answer to his promises. Dur-
ing this day he did no more; but no sooner was
night come, than he issued his orders, and at
once the captains of the ships left Phalerum,
and bore away for the Hellespont, each mak-
ing all the speed he could, and hasting to guard
the bridges against the king's return. On their
way, as they sailed by Zoster, where certain
narrow points of land project into the sea, they
took the cliffs for vessels, and fled far away in
alarm. Discovering their mistake, however,
after a time, they joined company once more,
and proceeded upon their voyage.

108. Next day the Greeks, seeing the land
force of the barbarians encamped in the same
place, thought that their ships must still be ly-
ing at Phalerum; and, expecting another at-
tack from that quarter, made preparations to
defend themselves. Soon however news came
that the ships were all departed and gone
away; whereupon it was instantly resolved to
make sail in pursuit. They went as far as An-
dros; but, seeing nothing of the Persian fleet,
they stopped at that place, and held a council
of war. At this council Themistocles advised
that the Greeks should follow on through the

islands, still pressing the pursuit, and making
all haste to the Hellespont, there to break
down the bridges. Eurybiades, however, de-
livered a contrary opinion. "If," he said, "the
Greeks should break down the bridges, it
would be the worst thing that could possibly
happen for Greece. The Persian, supposing
that his retreat were cut off, and he compelled
to remain in Europe, would be sure never to
give them any peace. Inaction on his part
would ruin all his affairs, and leave him no
chance of ever getting back to Asia — nay,
would even cause his army to perish by famine:
whereas, if he bestirred himself, and acted vig-
orously, it was likely that the whole of Europe
would in course of time become subject to him;
since, by degrees, the various towns and tribes
would either fall before his arms, or else agree
to terms of submission; and in this way, his
troops would find food sufficient for them,
since each year the Greek harvest would be
theirs. As it was, the Persian, because he had
lost the sea-fight, intended evidently to remain
no longer in Europe. The Greeks ought to let
him depart; and when he was gone from
among them, and had returned into his own
country, then would be the time for them to
contend with him for the possession of that!'

The other captains of the Peloponnesians de-
clared themselves of the same mind.

109. Whereupon Themistocles, finding that
the majority was against him, and that he
could not persuade them to push on to the Hel-
lespont, changed round, and addressing him-
self to the Athenians, who of all the allies were
the most nettled at the enemy's escape, and
who eagerly desired, if the other Greeks would
not stir, to sail on by themselves to the Helles-
pont and break the bridges, spake as follows: —

"I have often myself witnessed occasions,
and I have heard of many more from others,
where men who had been conquered by an
enemy, having been driven quite to despera-
tion, have renewed the fight, and retrieved
their former disasters. We have now had the
great good luck to save both ourselves and all
Greece by the repulse of this vast cloud of men;
let us then be content and not press them too
hard, now that they have begun to fly. Be sure
we have not done this by our own might. It is
the work of gods and heroes, who were jealous
that one man should be king at once of Eu-
rope and of Asia — more especially a man like
this, unholy and presumptuous — a man who
esteems alike things sacred and things profane;
who has cast down and burnt the very images

280

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of the gods themselves; who even caused the
sea to be scourged with rods and commanded
fetters to be thrown into it. At present all is
well with us — let us then abide in Greece, and
look to ourselves and to our families. The bar-
barian is clean gone — we have driven him off
— let each now repair his own house, and sow
his land diligently. In the spring we will take
ship and sail to the Hellespont and to Ionia!"

All this Themistocles said in the hope of es-
tablishing a claim upon the king; for he want-
ed to have a safe retreat in case any mischance
should befall him at Athens — which indeed
came to pass afterwards.

no. At present, however, he dissembled;
and the Athenians were persuaded by his
words. For they were ready now to do what-
ever he advised; since they had always es-
teemed him a wise man, and he had lately
proved himself most truly wise and well-judg-
ing. Accordingly, they came in to his views;
whereupon he lost no time in sending messen-
gers, on board a light bark, to the king, choos-
ing for this purpose men whom he could trust
to keep his instructions secret, even although
they should be put to every kind of torture.
Among them was the house-slave Sicinnus,
the same whom he had made use of previously.
When the men reached Attica, all the others
stayed with the boat; but Sicinnus went up to
the king, and spake to him as follows: —

*4I am sent to thee by Themistocles, the son
of Neocles, who is the leader of the Athenians,
and the wisest and bravest man of all the allies,
to bear thee this message: Themistocles the
Athenian, anxious to render thee a service, has
restrained the Greeks, who were impatient to
pursue thy ships, and to break up the bridges
at the Hellespont. Now, therefore, return
home at thy leisure.' "

The messengers, when they had performed
their errand, sailed back to the fleet.

in. And the Greeks, having resolved that
they would neither proceed further in pursuit
of the barbarians, nor push forward to the Hel-
lespont and destroy the passage, laid siege to
Andros, intending to take the town by storm.
For Themistocles had required the Andrians
to pay down a sum of money; and they had re-
fused, being the first of all the islanders who
did so. To his declaration, "that the money
must needs be paid, as the Athenians had
brought with him two mighty gods — Persua-
sion and Necessity," they made reply, that
"Athens might well be a great and glorious
city, since she was blest with such excellent

gods; but they were wretchedly poor, stinted
for land, and cursed with two unprofitable
gods, who always dwelt with them and would
never quit their island — to wit, Poverty and
Helplessness. These were the gods of the An-
drians, and therefore they would not pay the
money. For the power of Athens could not pos-
sibly be stronger than their inability." This
reply, coupled with the refusal to pay the sum
required, caused their city to be besieged by
the Greeks.

112. Meanwhile Themistocles, who never
ceased his pursuit of gain, sent threatening
messages to the other islanders with demands
for different sums, employing the same mes-
sengers and the same words as he had used
towards the Andrians. "If," he said, "they did
not send him the amount required, he would
bring the Greek fleet upon them, and besiege
them till he took their cities." By these means
he collected large sums from the Carystians
and the Parians, who, when they heard that
Andros was already besieged, and that Them-
istocles was the best esteemed of all the cap-
tains, sent the money through fear. Whether
any of the other islanders did the like, I cannot
say for certain; but I think some did besides
those I have mentioned. However, the Carysti-
ans, though they complied, were not spared
any the more; but Themistocles was softened
by the Parians' gift, and therefore they re-
ceived no visit from the army. In this way it
was that Themistocles, during his stay at An-
dros, obtained money from the islanders, un-
beknown to the other captains.

1 13. King Xerxes and his army waited but a
few days after the sea-fight, and then withdrew
into Bocotia by the road which they had fol-
lowed on their advance. It was the wish of
Mardomus to escort the king a part of the way;
and as the time of year was no longer suitable
for carrying on war, he thought it best to win-
ter in Thessaly, and wait for the spring before
he attempted the Peloponnese. After the army
was come into Thessaly, Mardonius made
choice of the troops that were to stay with him;
and, first of all, he took the whole body called
the "Immortals," except only their leader, Hy-
darnes, who refused to quit the person of the
king. Next, he chose the Persians who wore
breastplates, and the thousand picked horse;
likewise the Medes, the Sacans, the Bactrians,
and the Indians, foot and horse equally. These
nations he took entire: from the rest of the al-
lies he culled a few men, taking either such as
were remarkable for their appearance, or else

no-n8]

such as had performed, to his knowledge,
some valiant deed. The Persians furnished him
with the greatest number of troops, men who
were adorned with chains and armlets. Next
to them were the Medes, who in number
equalled the Persians, but in valour fell short
of them. The whole army, reckoning the horse-
men with the rest, amounted to 300,000 men.

114. At the time when Mardonius was mak-
ing choice of his troops, and Xerxes still con-
tinued in Thessaly, the Lacedemonians re-
ceived a message from the Delphic oracle, bid-
ding them seek satisfaction at the hands of
Xerxes for the death of Leonidas, and take
whatever he chose to give them. So the Spar-
tans sent a herald with all speed into Thessaly,
who arrived while the entire Persian army was
still there. This man, being brought before the
king, spake as follows: —

"King of the Medcs, the Lacedaemonians
and the Heracleids of Sparta require of thee
the satisfaction due for bloodshed, because
thou slewest their king, who fell fighting for
Greece."

Xerxes laughed, and for a long time spake
not a word. At last, however, he pointed to
Mardonius, who was standing by him, and
said: — "Mardonius here shall give them the
satisfaction they deserve to get." And the her-
ald accepted the answer, and forthwith went
his way.

115. Xerxes, after this, left Mardonius in
Thessaly, and marched away himself, at his
best speed, toward the Hellespont. In five-and-
forty days he reached the place of passage,
where he arrived with scarce a fraction, so to
speak, of his former army. All along their line
of march, in every country where they
chanced to be, his soldiers seized and devoured
whatever corn they could find belonging to the
inhabitants; while, if no corn was to be found,
they gathered the grass that grew in the fields,
and stripped the trees, whether cultivated or
wild, alike of their bark and of their leaves,
and so fed themselves. They left nothing any-
where, so hard were they pressed by hunger.
Plague too and dysentery attacked the troops
while still upon their march, and greatly
thinned their ranks. Many died; others fell sick
and were left behind in the different cities that
lay upon the route, the inhabitants being strict-
ly charged by Xerxes to tend and feed them.
Of these some remained in Thessaly, others
in Siris of Paeonia, others again in Macedon.
Here Xerxes, on his march into Greece, had
left the sacred car and steeds of Jove; which

THE HISTORY

281

upon his return he was unable to recover; for
the Paeonians had disposed of them to the
Thracians, and, when Xerxes demanded them
back, they said that the Thracian tribes who
dwelt about the sources of the Strymon had
stolen the mares as they pastured.

116. Here too a Thracian chieftain, king of
the Bisaltians and of Crestonia, did a deed
which went beyond nature. He had refused to
become the willing slave of Xerxes, and had
fled before him into the heights of Rhodope,
at the same time forbidding his sons to take
part in the expedition against Greece. But they,
either because they cared little for his orders,
or because they wished greatly to see the war,
joined the army of Xerxes. At this time they
had all returned home to him — the number of
the men was six — quite safe and sound. But
their father took them, and punished their
offence by plucking out their eyes from the
sockets. Such was the treatment which these
men received.

117. The Persians, having journeyed
through Thrace and reached the passage, en-
tered their ships hastily and crossed the Helles-
pont to Abydos. The bridges were not found
stretched across the strait; since a storm had
broken and dispersed them. At Abydos the
troops halted, and, obtaining more abundant
provision than they had yet got upon their
march, they fed without stint; from which
cause, added to the change in their water, great
numbers of those who had hitherto escaped
perished. The remainder, together with Xer-
xes himself, came safe to Sardis.

1 1 8. There is 1 ikewise another account given
of the return of the king. It is said that when
Xerxes on his way from Athens arrived at Eion
upon the Strymon, he gave up travelling by
land, and, intrusting Hydarnes with the con-
duct of his forces to the Hellespont, embarked
himself on board a Phoenician ship, and so
crossed into Asia. On his voyage the ship was
assailed by a strong wind blowing from the
mouth of the Strymon, which caused the sea
to run high. As the storm increased, and the
ship laboured heavily, because of the number
of the Persians who had come in the king's
train, and who now crowded the deck, Xerxes
was seized with fear, and called out to the
helmsman in a loud voice, asking him, if there
were any means whereby they might escape
the danger. "No means, master," the helms-
man answered, "unless we could be quit of
these too numerous passengers." Xerxes, they
say, on hearing this, addressed the Persians as

282

HERODOTUS

[BooK vui

follows: "Men of Persia," he said, "now is the
time for you to show what love ye bear your
king. My safety, as it seems, depends wholly
upon you." So spake the king; and the Persians
instantly made obeisance, and then leapt over
into the sea. Thus was the ship lightened, and
Xerxes got safe to Asia. As soon as he had
reached the shore, he sent for the helmsman,
and gave him a golden crown because he had
preserved the life of the king, — but because he
had caused the death of a number of Persians,
he ordered his head to be struck from his
shoulders.

119. Such is the other account which is giv-
en of the return of Xerxes; but to me it seems
quite unworthy of belief, alike in other re-
spects, and in what relates to the Persians. For
had the helmsman made any such speech to
Xerxes, I suppose there is not one man in ten
thousand who will doubt that this is the course
which the king would have followed: — he
would have made the men upon the ship's
deck, who were not only Persians, but Persians
of the very highest rank, quit their place and
go down below; and would have cast into the
sea an equal number of the rowers, who were
Phoenicians. But the truth is, that the king, as
I have already said, returned into Asia by the
same road as the rest of the army.

120. I will add a strong proof of this. It is
certain that Xerxes on his way back from
Greece passed through Abdcra, where he made
a contract of friendship with the inhabitants,
and presented them with a golden scymitar,
and a tiara broidered with gold. The Abdentes
declare — but I put no faith in this part of their
story — that from the time of the king's leaving
Athens, he never once loosed his girdle till he
came to their city, since it was not till then that
he felt himself in safety. Now Abdera is nearer
to the Hellespont than Eion and the Strymon,
where Xerxes, according to the other tale, took
ship.

121. Meanwhile the Greeks, finding that
they could not capture Andros, sailed away to
Carystus, and wasted the lands of the Carysti-
ans, after which they returned to Salamis. Ar-
rived here, they proceeded, before entering on
any other matter, to make choice of the first-
fruits which should be set apart as offerings to
the gods. These consisted of divers gifts;
among them were three Phoenician triremes,
one of which was dedicated at the Isthmus,
where it continued to my day; another at Suni-
um; and the third, at Salamis itself, which was
devoted to Ajax. This done, they made a divi-

sion of the booty, and sent away the first-fruits
to Delphi. Thereof was made the statue, hold-
ing in its hand the beak of a ship, which is
twelve cubits high, and which stands in the
same place with the golden one of Alexander
the Macedonian.

122. After the first-fruits had been sent to
Delphi, the Greeks made inquiry of the god,
in the name of their whole body, if he had re-
ceived his full share of the spoils and was satis-
fied therewith. The god made answer that all
the other Greeks had paid him his full due,
except only the Eginetans; on them he had still
a claim for the prize of valour which they had
gained at Salamis. So the Eginetans, when
they heard this, dedicated the three golden
stars which stand on the top of a bronze mast
in the corner near the bowl offered by Croesus.

123. When the spoils had been divided, the
Greeks sailed to the Isthmus, where a prize of
valour was to be awarded to the man who, of
all the Greeks, had shown the most merit dur-
ing the war. When the chiefs were all come,
they met at the altar of Neptune, and took the
ballots wherewith they were to give their votes
for the first and for the second in merit. Then
each man gave himself the first vote, since
each considered that he was himself the worth-
iest; but the second votes were given chiefly to
Themistocles. In this way, while the others re-
ceived but one vote apiece, Themistocles had
for the second prize a large majority of the
suffrages.

124. Envy, however, hindered the chiefs
from coming to a decision, and they all sailed
away to their homes without making any
award. Nevertheless Themistocles was regard-
ed everywhere as by far the wisest man of all
the Greeks; and the whole country rang with
his fame. As the chiefs who fought at Salamis,
notwithstanding that he was really entitled to
the prize, had withheld his honour from him,
he went without delay to Lacedaemon, in the
hope that he would be honoured there. And
the Lacedemonians received him handsomely,
and paid him great respect. The prize of val-
our indeed, which was a crown of olive, they
gave to Eurybiades; but Themistocles was giv-
en a crown of olive too, as the prize of wisdom
and dexterity. He was likewise presented with
the most beautiful chariot that could be found
in Sparta; and after receiving abundant praises,
was, upon his departure, escorted as far as the
borders of Tegea, by the three hundred picked
Spartans, who are called the Knights. Never
was it known, either before or since, that the

1 19-130 J

THE HISTORY

283

Spartans escorted a man out of their city.

125. On the return of Themistocles to Ath-
ens, Timodemus of Aphidnae, who was one of
his enemies, but otherwise a man of no repute,
became so maddened with envy that he openly
railed against him, and, reproaching him with
his journey to Sparta, said — " 'Twas not his
own merit that had won him honour from the
men of Lacedsemon, but the fame of Athens,
his country." Then Themistocles, seeing that
Timodemus repeated this phrase unceasingly,
replied —

"Thus stands the case, friend. I had never
got this honour from the Spartans, had I been
a Belbinite — nor thou, hadst thou been an
Athenian!"

126. Artabazus, the son of Pharnaces, a man
whom the Persians had always held in much
esteem, but who, after the affair of Plataea, rose
still higher in their opinion, escorted King
Xerxes as far as the strait, with sixty thousand
of the chosen troops of Mardonius. When the
king was safe in Asia, Artabazus set out upon
his return; and on arriving near Pallcnd, and
finding that Mardonius had gone into winter-
quarters in Thessaly and Macedonia, and was
in no hurry for him to join the camp, he
thought it his boundcn duty, as the Potidaeans
had just revolted, to occupy himself in reduc-
ing them to slavery. For as soon as the king
had passed beyond their territory, and the Per-
sian fleet had made its hasty flight from Sala-
mis, the Potidjtans revolted from the barbari-
ans openly; as likewise did all the other in-
habitants of that peninsula.

127. Artabazus, therefore, laid siege to Po-
tidaea; and having a suspicion that the Olyn-
thians were likely to revolt shortly, he be-
sieged their city also. Now Olynthus was at
that time held by the Bottiaeans, who had been
driven from the parts about the Thermaic Gulf
by the Macedonians. Artabazus took the city,
and, having so done, led out all the inhabitants
to a marsh in the neighbourhood, and there
slew them. After this he delivered the place
into the hands of the people called Chalci-
deans, having first appointed Critobulus of
Torone' to be governor. Such was the way in
which the Chalcideans got Olynthus.

128. When this town had fallen, Artabazus
pressed the siege of Potidaea all the more un-
remittingly; and was pushing his operations
with vigour, when Timoxenus, captain of the
Scionaeans, entered into a plot to betray the
town to him. How the matter was managed at
first, I cannot pretend to say, for no account

has come down to us: but at the last this is
what happened. Whenever Timoxenus wished
to send a letter to Artabazus, or Artabazus to
send one to Timoxenus, the letter was written
on a strip of paper, and rolled round the
notched end of an arrow-shaft; the feathers
were then put on over the paper, and the ar-
row thus prepared was shot to some place
agreed upon. But after a while the plot of
Timoxenus to betray Potidxa was discovered
in this way. Artabazus, on one occasion, shot
off his arrow, intending to send it to the ac-
customed place, but, missing his mark, hit one
of the Potidaeans in the shoulder. A crowd
gathered about the wounded man, as common-
ly happens in war; and when the arrow was
pulled out, they noticed the paper, and
straightway carried it to the captains who were
present from the various cities of the penin-
sula. The captains read the letter, and, finding
who the traitor was, nevertheless resolved, out
of regard for the city of Scione*, that as they
did not wish the Scionaeans to be thenceforth
branded with the name of traitors, they would
not bring against him any charge of treachery.
Such accordingly was the mode in which this
plot was discovered.

129. After Artabazus had continued the
siege by the space of three months, it happened
that there was an unusual ebb of the tide,
which lasted a long while. So when the bar-
barians saw that what had been sea was now
no more than a swamp, they determined to

£ush across it into Pallen6. And now the troops
ad already made good two-fifths of their pas-
sage, and three-fifths still remained before they
could reach Pallene*, when the tide came in
with a very high flood, higher than had ever
been seen before, as the inhabitants of -those
parts declare, though high floods are by no
means uncommon. All who were not able to
swim perished immediately; the rest were slain
by the Potidaeans, who bore down upon them
in their sailing vessels. The Potidaeans say
that what caused this swell and flood, and so
brought about the disaster of the Persians
which ensued therefrom, was the profanation,
by the very men now destroyed in the sea, of
the temple and image of Neptune, situated in
their suburb. And in this they seem to me to
say well. Artabazus afterwards led away the
remainder of his army, and joined Mardonius
in Thessaly. Thus fared it with the Persians
who escorted the king to the strait.

130. As for that part of the fleet of Xerxes
which had survived the battle, when it had

284

HERODOTUS

[BOOK vni

made good its escape from Salamis to the coast
of Asia, and conveyed the king with his army
across the strait from the Chersonese to Aby-
dos, it passed the winter at Cyme. On the first
approach of spring, there was an early muster
of the ships at Samos, where some of them in-
deed had remained throughout the winter.
Most of the men-at-arms who served on board
were Persians, or else Medes; and the com-
mand of the fleet had been taken by Mardontes,
the son of Bag.Tus, and Artayntes, the son of
Artachaeus; while there was likewise a third
commander, Ithamitres, the nephew of Ar-
tayntes, whom his uncle had advanced to the
post. Further west than Samos, however, they
did not venture to proceed; for they remem-
bered what a defeat they had suflcred, and
there was no one to compel them to approach
any nearer to Greece. They therefore remained
at Samos, and kept watch over Ionia, to hinder
it from breaking into revolt. The whole num-
ber of their ships, including those furnished by
the lomans, was three hundred. It did not
enter into their thoughts that the Greeks
would proceed against Ionia; on the contrary,
they supposed that the defence of their own
country would content them, more especially
as they had not pursued the Persian fleet when
it fled from Salamis, but had so readily given
up the chase. They despaired, however, alto-
gether of gaining any success by sea them-
selves, though by land they thought that
Mardomus was quite sure of victory. So they
remained at Samos, and took counsel together,
il by any means they might harass the enemy,
at the same time that they waited eagerly to
hear how matters would proceed with Mar-
donius.

ijr. The approach of spring, and the knowl-
edge that Mardomus was in Thcssaly, roused
the Greeks Irom inaction. Their land force in-
deed was not yet come together; but the fleet,
consisting of one hundred and ten ships, pro-
ceeded to Egina, under the command of Leo-
tychides. This Leotychides, who was both gen-
eral and admiral, was the son of Menares, the
son of Agesilaiis, the son of Hippocratidcs, the
son of Leotychides, the son of Anaxilaiis, the
son of Archidamus, the son of Anaxandrides,
the son of Theopompus, the son of Nicander,
the son of Chanllus, the son of Eunomus, the
son of Polydectes, the son of Prytanis, the son
of Euryphon, the son of Procles, the son of
Aristodcmus, the son of Aristomachus, the son
of Clcodxus, the son of Hyllus, the son of
Hercules. He belonged to the younger branch

of the royal house. All his ancestors, except the
two next in the above list to himself, had been
kings of Sparta. The Athenian vessels were
commanded by Xanthippus, the son of Ari-
phron.

132. When the whole fleet was collected to-
gether at Egina, ambassadors from Ionia ar-
rived at the Greek station; they had but just
come from paying a visit to Sparta, where they
had been intreating the Lacedaemonians to
undertake the deliverance of their native land.
One of these ambassadors was Herodotus, the
son of Basileides. Originally they were seven
in number; and the whole seven had conspired
to slay Strattis the tyrant of Chios; one, how-
ever, of those engaged in the plot betrayed the
enterprise; and the conspiracy being in this
way discovered, Herodotus, and the remain-
ing five, quitted Chios, and went straight to
Sparta, whence they had now proceeded to
Egina, their object being to beseech the Greeks
that they would pass over to Ionia. It was not,
however, without difficulty that they were in-
duced to advance even so far as Delos. All be-
yond that seemed to the Greeks full of danger;
the places were quite unknown to them, and
to their fancy swarmed with Persian troops;
as for Samos, it appeared to them as far off
as the Pillars of Hercules. Thus it came to pass,
that at the very same time the barbarians were
hindered by their fears from venturing any
further west than Samos, and the prayers of
the Chians failed to induce the Greeks to ad-
vance any further east than Delos. Terror
guarded the mid region.

133. The Greek fleet was now on its way
to Delos; but Mardonius still abode in his
winter-quarters in Thessaly. When he was
about to leave them, he despatched a man
named Mys, a Europian by birth, to go and
consult the different oracles, giving him orders
to put questions everywhere to all the oracles
whereof he found it possible to make trial.
What it was that he wanted to know, when he
gave Mys these orders, I am not able to say, for
no account has reached me of the matter; but
for my own part, I suppose that he sent to in-
quire concerning the business which he had in
hand, and not for any other purpose.

134. Mys, it is certain, went to Lebadeia,
and, by the payment of a sum of money, in-
duced one of the inhabitants to go down to
Trophonius; he likewise visited Aba! of the
Phocians, and there consulted the god; while
at Thebes, to which place he went first of all,
he not only got access to Apollo Ismenius (of

I3I'I37

THE HISTORY

285

whom inquiry is made by means of victims,
according to the custom practised alsoatOlym-
pia), but likewise prevailed on a man, who
was not a Theban but a foreigner, to pass the
night in the temple of Amphiaraiis. No The-
ban can lawfully consult this oracle, for the
following reason: Amphiaraiis by an oracle
gave the Thebans their choice, to have him for
their prophet or for their helper in war; he
bade them elect between the two, and forego
either one or the other; so they chose rather to
have him for their helper. On this account it
is unlawful for a Theban to sleep in his temple.

135. One thing which the Thebans declare
to have happened at this time is to me very
surprising. Mys, the Europian, they say, after
he had gone about to all the oracles, came at
last to the sacred precinct of Apollo Ptoiis. The
place itself bears the name of Ptoiim; it is in
the country of the Thebans, and is situated on
the mountain side overlooking Lake Copais,
only a very little way from the town called
Acra'phia. Here Mys arrived, and entered the
temple, followed by three Theban citizens —
picked men whom the state had appointed to
take down whatever answer the god might
give. No sooner was he entered than the proph-
et delivered him an oracle, but in a foreign
tongue; so that his Theban attendants were
astonished, hearing a strange language when
they expected Greek, and did not know what
to do. Mys, however, the Europian, snatched
from their hands the tablet which they had
brought with them, and wrote down what the
prophet uttered. The reply, he told them, was
in the Carian dialect. After this, Mys departed
and returned to Thessaly.

136. Mardonius, when he had read the an-
swers given by the oracles, sent next an envoy
to Athens. This was Alexander, the son of
Amyntas, a Macedonian, of whom he made
choice for two reasons. Alexander was con-
nected with the Persians by family ties; for
Gyga?a, who was the daughter of Amyntas, and
sister to Alexander himself, was married to
Bubares, a Persian, and by him had a son, to
wit, Amyntas of Asia; who was named after
his mother's father, and enjoyed the revenues
of Alabanda, a large city of Phrygia, which
had been assigned him by the king. Alexan-
der was likewise (and of this too Mardonius
was well aware), both by services which he
had rendered, and by formal compact of
friendship, connected with Athens. Mardonius
therefore thought that, by sending him, he
would be most likely to gain over the Atheni-

ans to the Persian side. He had heard that they
were a numerous and a warlike people, and
he knew that the disasters which had befallen
the Persians by sea were mainly their work;
he therefore expected that, if he could form
alliance with them, he would easily get the
mastery of the sea (as indeed he would have
done, beyond a doubt), while by land he be-
lieved that he was already greatly superior;
and so he thought by this alliance to make
sure of overcoming the Greeks. Perhaps, too,
the oracles leant this way, and counselled him
to make Athens his friend: so that it may
have been in obedience to them that he sent
the embassy.

137. This Alexander was descended in the
seventh degree from Perdiccas, who obtained
the sovereignty over the Macedonians in the
way which I will now relate. Three brothers,
descendants of Temenus, fled from Argos to
the Illyrians; their names were Gauanes, Ae-
ropus, and Perdiccas. From Illyria they went
across to Upper Macedonia, where they came
to a certain town called Lebsea. There they
hired themselves out to serve the king in differ-
ent employs; one tended the horses; another
looked after the cows; while Perdiccas, who
was the youngest, took charge of the smaller
cattle. In those early times poverty was not
confined to the people: kings themselves were
poor, and so here it was the king's wife who
cooked the victuals. Now, whenever she baked
the bread, she always observed that the loaf of
the labouring boy Perdiccas swelled to double
its natural size. So the queen, finding this nev-
er fail, spoke of it to her husband. Directly
that it came to his ears, the thought struck him
that it was a miracle, and boded something of
no small moment. He therefore sent for the
three labourers, and told them to begone out
of his dominions. They answered, "they had a
right to their wages; if he would pay them
what was due, they were quite willing to go."
Now it happened that the sun was shining
down the chimney into the room where they
were; and the king, hearing them talk of
wages, lost his wits, and said, "There are the
wages which you deserve; take that — I give it
you!" and pointed, as he spoke, to the sun-
shine. The two elder brothers, Gauanes and
Aeropus, stood aghast at the reply, and did
nothing; but the boy, who had a knife in his
hand, made a mark with it round the sunshine
on the floor of the room, and said, "O king!
we accept your payment." Then he received
the light of the sun three times into his bosom,

286

HERODOTUS

[BooK vni

and so went away; and his brothers went with
him.

138. When they were gone, one of those who
sat by told the king what the youngest of the
three had done, and hinted that he must have
had some meaning in accepting the wages
given. Then the king, when he heard what
had happened, was angry, and sent horsemen
after the youths to slay them. Now there is a
river in Macedonia to which the descendants
of these Argives offer sacrifice as their saviour.
This stream swelled so much, as soon as the
sons of Temenus were safe across, that the
horsemen found it impossible to follow. So the
brothers escaped into another part of Mace-
donia, and took up their abode near the place
called "the Gardens of Midas, son of Gordias."
In these gardens there are roses which grow
of themselves, so sweet that no others can
come near them, and with blossoms that have
as many as sixty petals apiece. It was here, ac-
cording to the Macedonians, that Silenus was
made a prisoner. Above the gardens stands a
mountain called Bcrrmus, which is so cold that
none can reach the top. Here the brothers
made their abode; and from this place by de-
grees they conquered all Macedonia.

139. From the Perdiccas of whom we have
here spoken, Alexander was descended in the
following way: — Alexander was the son of
Amyntas, Amyntas of Alcctas; the lather of
Alcctas was Aeropus; of Aeropus, Philip; of
Philip, Arg,Tus; of Argaeus, Perdiccas, the first
sovereign. Such was the descent of Alexander.

140. (§ i.) When Alexander reached Ath-
ens as the ambassador of Mardonius, he spoke
as follows: —

"O men of Athens, these be the words of
Mardonius. 'The king has sent a message to
me, saying, "All the trespasses which the
Athenians have committed against me I freely
forgive. Now then, Mardonius, thus shalt thou
act towards them. Restore to them their terri-
tory; and let them choose for themselves what-
ever land they like besides, and let them dwell
therein as a free people. Build up likewise all
their temples which I burned, if on these terms
they will consent to enter into a league with
me." Such are the orders which I have re-
ceived, and which I must needs obey, unless
there be a hindrance on your part. And now
I say unto you, — why are ye so mad as to levy
war against the king, whom ye cannot pos-
sibly overcome, or even resist for ever? Ye
have seen the multitude and the bravery of the
host ot Xerxes; ye know also how large a pow-

er remains with me in your land; suppose then
ye should get the better of us, and defeat this
army — a thing whereof ye will not, if ye be
wise, entertain the least hope — what follows
even then but a contest with a still greater
force? Do not, because you would fain match
yourselves with the king, consent to lose your
country and live in constant danger of your
lives. Rather agree to make peace; which ye
can now do without any tarnish to your hon-
our, since the king invites you to it. Continue
free, and make an alliance with us, without
fraud or deceit/

(§ 2.) "These are the words, O Athenians!
which Mardonius had bid me speak to you.
For my own part, I will say nothing of the
good will I bear your nation, since ye have not
now for the first time to become acquainted
with it. But I will add my intreaties also, and
beseech you to give ear to Mardonius; for I see
clearly that it is impossible for you to go on
for ever contending against Xerxes. If that had
appeared to me possible, I would not now have
come hither the bearer of such a message. But
the king's power surpasses that of man, and his
arm reaches far. If then ye do not hasten to
conclude a peace, when such fair terms are
offered you, I tremble to think of what you
will have to endure — you, who of all the allies
lie most directly in the path of danger, whose
land will always be the chief battleground of
the contending powers, and who will there-
fore constantly have to suffer alone. Hearken
then, I pray you, to Mardonius! Surely it is no
small matter that the Great King chooses you
out from all the rest of the Greeks, to offer you
forgiveness of the wrongs you have done him,
and to propose himself as your friend and
ally'"

141. Such were the words of Alexander.
Now the Lacedaemonians, when tidings
reached them that Alexander was gone to
Athens to bring about a league between the
Athenians and the barbarians, and when at
the same time they called to mind the prophe-
cies which declared that the Dorian race
should one day be driven from the Pelopon-
nese by the Medes and the Athenians, were ex-
ceedingly afraid lest the Athenians might con-
sent to the alliance with Persia. They there-
fore lost no time in sending envoys to Athens;
and it so happened that these envoys were giv-
en their audience at the same time with Alex-
ander: for the Athenians had waited and made
delays, because they felt sure that the Lacedae-
monians would hear that an ambassador was

138-144 ]

come to them from the Persians, and as soon
as they heard it would with all speed send an
embassy. They contrived matters therefore of
set purpose, so that the Lacedaemonians might
hear them deliver their sentiments on the occa-

sion.

142. As soon as Alexander had finished
speaking, the ambassadors from Sparta took
the word and said, —

"We are sent here by the Lacedaemonians to
entreat of you that ye will not do a new thing
in Greece, nor agree to the terms which are
offered you by the barbarian. Such conduct on
the part of any of the Greeks were alike unjust
and dishonourable; but in you 'twould be
worse than in others, for divers reasons. 'Twas
by you that this war was kindled at the first
among us — our wishes were in no way con-
sidered; the contest began by your seeking to
extend your empire — now the fate of Greece is
involved in it. Besides it was surely an intoler-
able thing that the Athenians, who have al-
ways hitherto been known as a nation to which
many men owed their freedom, should now be-
come the means of bringing all other Greeks
into slavery. We feel, however, for the heavy
calamities which press on you — the loss of your
harvest these two years, and the ruin in which
your homes have lain for so long a time. We
offer you, therefore, on the part of the Lacedae-
monians and the allies, sustenance for your
women and for the unwarlike portion of your
households, so long as the war endures. Be ye
not seduced by Alexander the Macedonian,
who softens down the rough words of Mar-
donius. He does as is natural for him to do —
a tyrant himself, he helps forward a tyrant's
cause. But ye, Athenians, should do different-
ly, at least if ye be truly wise; for ye should
know that with barbarians there is neither
faith nor truth."

143. Thus spake the envoys. After which
the Athenians returned this answer to Alex-
ander:—

"We know, as well as thou dost, that the
power of the Mede is many times greater than
our own: we did not need to have that cast in
our teeth. Nevertheless we cling so to freedom
that we shall offer what resistance we may.
Seek not to persuade us into making terms
with the barbarian — say what thou wilt, thou
wilt never gain our assent. Return rather at
once, and tell Mardonius that our answer to
him is this: — 'So long as the sun keeps his pres-
ent course, we will never join alliance with

THE HISTORY 287

Xerxes. Nay, we shall oppose him unceasingly,
trusting in the aid of those gods and heroes
whom he has lightly esteemed, whose houses
and whose images he has burnt with fire/ And
come not thou again to us with words like
these; nor, thinking to do us a service, per-
suade us to unholy actions. Thou art the guest
and friend of our nation — we would not that
thou shouldst receive hurt at our hands."

144. Such was the answer which the Athe-
nians gave to Alexander. To the Spartan en-
voys they said: —

" 'Twas natural no doubt that the Lacede-
monians should be afraid we might make
terms with the barbarian; but nevertheless
'twas a base fear in men who knew so well of
what temper and spirit we are. Not all the
gold that the whole earth contains — not the
fairest and most fertile of all lands — would
bribe us to take part with the Medes and help
them to enslave our countrymen. Even could
we anyhow have brought ourselves to such a
thing, there are many very powerful motives
which would now make it impossible. The
first and chief of these is the burning and de-
struction of our temples and the images of our
gods, which forces us to make no terms with
their destroyer, but rather to pursue him with
our resentment to the uttermost. Again, there
is our common brotherhood with the Greeks:
our common language, the altars and the sac-
rifices of which we all partake, the common
character which we bear — did the Athenians
betray all these, of a truth it would not be well.
Know then now, if yc have not known it be-
fore, that while one Athenian remains alive,
we will never join alliance with Xerxes. We
thank you, however, for your forethought on
our behalf, and for your wish to give our fam-
ilies sustenance, now that ruin has fallen on
us — the kindness is complete on your part; but
for ourselves, we will endure as we may, and
not be burdensome to you. Such then is our
resolve. Be it your care with all speed to lead
out your troops; for if we surmise aright, the
barbarian will not wait long ere he invade our
territory, but will set out so soon as he learns
our answer to be, that we will do none of those
things which he requires of us. Now then is
the time for us, before he enters Attica, to go
forth ourselves into Bceotia, and give him bat-
tle."

When the Athenians had thus spoken, the
ambassadors from Sparta departed, and re-
turned back to their own country.

The Ninth Book, Entitled
CALLIOPE

->»^->»^-»^>»->)»->»

i. Mardonms, when Alexander upon his re-
turn made known to him the answer of the
Athenians, forthwith broke up from Thessaly,
and led his army with all speed against Athens;
forcing the several nations through whose land
he passed to furnish him with additional
troops. The chief men of Thessaly, far from
repenting of the part which they had taken in
the war hitherto, urged on the Persians to the
attack more earnestly than ever. Thorax of
Larissa in particular, who had helped to es-
cort Xerxes on his flight to Asia, now openly
encouraged Mardonius in his march upon
Greece.

2. When the army reached Bceotia, the The-
hans sought to induce Mardonius to make a
halt: "He would not," they told him, "find
anywhere a more convenient place in which to
pitch his camp; and their advice to him was,
that he should go no further, but fix himself
there, and thence take measures to subdue all
Greece without striking a blow. If the Greeks,
who had held together hitherto, still continued
united among themselves, it would be difficult
for the whole world to overcome them by force
of arms. But if thou wilt do as we advise,"
they went on to say, "thou mayest easily ob-
tain the direction of all their counsels. Send
presents to the men of most weight in the sev-
eral states, and by so doing thou wilt sow divi-
sion among them. After that, it will be a light
task, with the help of such as side with thee, to
bring under all thy adversaries."

3. Such was the advice of the Thebans: but
Mardonius did not follow it. A strong desire
of taking Athens a second time possessed him,
in part arising from his inborn stubbornness,
in part from a wish to inform the king at Sar-
dis, by fire-signals along the islands, that he
was master of the place. However, he did not
on his arrival in Attica find the Athenians in
their country — they had again withdrawn,

some to their ships, but the greater part to
Salamis — and he only gained possession of a
deserted town. It was ten months after the tak-
ing of the city by the king that Mardonius
came against it for the second time.

4. Mardonius, being now in Athens, sent
an envoy to Salamis, one Murychides, a Helles-
pontine Greek, to offer the Athenians once

/ more the same terms which had been con-
veyed to them by Alexander. The reason for
his sending a second time, though he knew be-
forehand their unfriendly feelings towards
him, was, — that he hoped, when they saw the
whole land of Attica conquered and in his
power, their stubbornness would begin to give
way. On this account, therefore, he dispatched
Murychides to Salamis.

5. Now, when Murychides came before the
council, and delivered his message, one of the
councillors, named Lycidas, gave it as his opin-
ion— "that the best course would be, to admit
the proposals brought by Murychides, and lay
them before the assembly of the people." This
he stated to be his opinion, perhaps because he
had been bribed by Mardonius, or it may be
because that course really appeared to him the
most expedient. However, the Athenians —
both those in the council, and those who stood
without, when they heard of the advice — were
full of wrath, and forthwith surrounded Lyci-
das, and stoned him to death. As for Mury-
chides, the Hellespontme Greek, him they sent
away unharmed. Now there was a stir in the
island about Lycidas, and the Athenian wom-
en learnt what had happened. Then each ex-
horted her fellow, and one brought another
to take part in the deed; and they all Hocked of
their own accord to the house of Lycidas, and
stoned to death his wife and his children.

6. The circumstances under which the Athe-
nians had sought refuge in Salamis were the
following. So long as any hope remained that

288

THE HISTORY

289

a Peloponnesian army would come to give
them aid, they abode still in Attica; but when
it appeared that the allies were slack and slow
to move, while the invader was reported to be
pressing forward and to have already entered
Bocotia, then they proceeded to remove their
goods and chattels from the mainland, and
themselves again crossed the strait to Salamis.
At the same time they sent ambassadors to
Lacedaemon, who were to reproach the Lace-
daemonians for having allowed the barbarian
to advance into Attica, instead of joining them
and going out to meet him in Boeotia. They
were likewise to remind the Lacedaemonians oi
the offers by which the Persian had sought to
win Athens over to his side, and to warn them,
that if no aid came from Sparta, the Athenians
must consult for their own safety.

7. The truth was, the Lacedaemonians were
keeping holiday at that time; for it was the
feast of the Hyacmthia, and they thought noth-
ing of so much moment as to perform the serv-
ice of the god. They were also engaged in
building their wall across the Isthmus, which
was now so far advanced that the battlements
had begun to be placed upon it.

When the envoys of the Athenians, accom-
panied by ambassadors from Megara and Pla-
taea, reached Laccdaemon, they came before the
Ephors, and spoke as follows: —

"The Athenians have sent us to you to say,
— the king of the Medes offers to give us back
our country, and wishes to conclude an alliance
with us on fair and equal terms, without fraud
or deceit. He is willing likewise to bestow on
us another country besides our own, and bids
us choose any land that we like. But we, be-
cause we reverenced Hellenic Jupiter, and
thought it a shameful act to betray Greece, in-
stead of consenting to these terms, refused
them; notwithstanding that we have been
wronged and deserted by the other Greeks, and
are fully aware that it is far more for our ad-
vantage to make peace with the Persian than
to prolong the war with him. Still we shall not,
of our own free will, consent to any terms of
peace. Thus do we, in all our dealings with the
Greeks, avoid what is base and counterfeit:
while contrariwise, ye, who were but now so
full of fear least we should make terms with
the enemy, having learnt of what temper we
are, and assured yourselves that we shall not
prove traitors to our country — having brought
moreover your wall across the Isthmus to an
advanced state — cease altogether to have any
care for us. Ye covenanted with us to go out

and meet the Persian in Boeotia; but when the
time came, ye were false to your word, and
looked on while the barbarian host advanced
into Attica. At this time, therefore, the Athe-
nians are angered with you; and justly, — for
ye have not done what was right. They bid
you, however, make haste to send forth your
army, that we may even yet meet Mardonius in
Attica. Now that Boeotia is lost to us, the best
place for the fight within our country, will be
the plain of Thna."

8. The Ephors, when they had heard this
speech, delayed their answer till the morrow;
and when the morrow came, till the day fol-
lowing. And thus they acted for ten days, con-
tinually putting off the ambassadors from one
day to the next. Meanwhile the Peloponnesians
generally were labouring with great zeal at the
wall, and the work nearly approached com-
pletion. I can give no other reason for the con-
duct ot the Lacedaemonians in showing them-
selves so anxious, at the time when Alexander
came, that the Athenians should not join the
Medes, and now being quite careless about it,
except that at the former time the wall across
the Isthmus was not complete, and they
worked at it in great fear of the Persians,
whereas now the bulwark had been raised, and
so they imagined that they had no further need
of the Athenians.

9. At last the ambassadors got an answer,
and the troops marched torth irom Sparta, un-
der the following circumstances. The last audi-
ence had been fixed for the ambassadors, when,
the very day before it was to be given, a cer-
tain Tcgean, named Chileus, a man who had
more influence at Sparta than any other for-
eigner, learning from the Ephors exactly what
the Athenians had said, addressed these words
to them — "The case stands thus, O ye Ephors'
If the Athenians are not our friends, but league
themselves with the barbarians, however
strong our wall across the Isthmus may be,
there will be doors enough, and wide enough
open too, by which the Persian may gain en-
trance to the Peloponnese. Grant their request
then, before they make any fresh resolve,
which may bring Greece to ruin."

10. Such was the counsel which Chileus
gave: and the Ephors, taking the advice into
consideration, determined forthwith, without
speaking a word to the ambassadors from the
three cities, to despatch to the Isthmus a body
of five thousand Spartans; and accordingly
they sent them forth the same night, appoint-
ing to each Spartan a retinue of seven Helots,

290

HERODOTUS

[BOOK ix

and giving the command of the expedition to
Pausamas the son of Cleombrotus. The chief
power belonged of right at this time to Pleis-
tarchus, the son of Leomdas; but as he was
still a child Pausamas, his cousin, was regent
in his room. For the father of Pausanias, Cle-
ombrotus, the son of Anaxandndas, no longer
lived; he had died a short time after bringing
back from the Isthmus the troops who had
been employed in building the wall. A prodigy
had caused him to bring his army home; for
while he was offering sacrifice to know if he
should march out against the Persian, the sun
was suddenly darkened in mid sky. Pausanias
took with him, as joint-leader of the army, Eu-
ryanax, the son of Dorieus, a member of his
own family.

11. The army accordingly had marched out
from Sparta with Pausanias: while the ambas-
sadors, when day came, appeared before the
Ephors, knowing nothing of the march of the
troops, and purposing themselves to leave Spar-
ta forthwith, and return each man to his own
country. They therefore addressed the Ephors
in these words: — "Lacedaemonians, as you do
not stir from home, but keep the Hyacinthian
festival, and amuse yourselves, deserting the
cause of your confederates, the Athenians,
whom your behaviour wrongs, and who have
no other allies, will make such terms with the
Persians as they shall find possible. Now when
terms are once made, it is plain that, having
become the king's allies, we shall march with
the barbarians whithersoever they choose to
load. Then at length you will perceive what
the consequences will be to yourselves." When
the envoys had spoken, the Ephors declared to
them with an oath: — "Our troops must be at
Orestcum by this time, on their march against
the strangers." (The Spartans say "strangers"
for "barbarians.") At this the ambassadors,
quite ignorant of what had happened, ques-
tioned them concerning their meaning; and
when, by much questioning, they had discov-
ered the truth, they were greatly astonished
thereat, and forthwith set off, at their best
speed, to overtake the Spartan army. At the
same time a body of five thousand Lacedae-
monian Periceci, all picked men and fully
armed, set forth from Sparta, in the company
of the ambassadors.

12. So these troops marched in haste to-
wards the Isthmus. Meanwhile the Argives,
who had promised Mardonius that they would
stop the Spartans from crossing their borders,
as soon as they learnt that Pausanias with his

army had started from Sparta, took the swift-
est courier they could find, and sent him off
to Attica. The message which he delivered, on
his arrival at Athens, was the following: "Mar-
donius," he said, "the Argives have sent me to
tell thee that the Lacedaemonian youth are
gone forth from their city, and that the Argives
are too weak to hinder them. Take good heed
therefore to thyself at this time." After thus
speaking, without a word more, he returned
home.

13. When Mardonius learnt that the Spar-
tans were on their march, he no longer cared
to remain in Attica. Hitherto he had kept
quiet, wishing to see what the Athenians
would do, and had neither ravaged their terri-
tory, nor done it any the least harm; for till
now he had cherished the hope that the Athe-
nians would come to terms with him. As, how-
ever, he found that his persuasions were of no
avail, and as their whole policy was now clear
to him, he determined to withdraw from At-
tica before Pausanias with his army reached
the Isthmus; first, however, he resolved to burn
Athens, and to cast down and level with the
ground whatever remained standing of the
walls, temples, and other buildings. His rea-
son for retreating was, that Attica was not a
country where horse could act with advantage;
and further, that if he suffered defeat in a bat-
tle, no way of escape was open to him, except
through defiles, where a handful of troops
might stop all his army. So he determined to
withdraw to Thebes, and give the Greeks bat-
tle in the neighbourhood of a friendly city,
and on ground well suited for cavalry.

14. After he had quitted Attica and was al-
ready upon his march, news reached him that
a body of a thousand Lacedaemonians, distinct
from the army of Pausanias, and sent on in
advance, had arrived in the Megand. When he
heard it, wishing, if possible, to destroy this de-
tachment first, Mardonius considered with
himself how he might compass their ruin.
With a sudden change of march he made for
Megara, while the horse, pushing on in ad-
vance, entered and ravaged the Megarid.
(Here was the furthest point in Europe to-
wards the setting sun to which this Persian
army ever penetrated.)

15. After this, Mardonius received another
message, whereby he learnt that the forces of
the Greeks were collected together at the Isth-
mus; which tidings caused him to draw back,
and leave Attica by the way of Deceleia. The
Boeotarchs had sent for some of the neighbours

THE HISTORY

291

of the Asopians; and these persons served as
guides to the army, and led them first to Sphen-
dale, and from thence to Tanagra, where Mar-
donius rested a night; after which, upon the
morrow, he beat his course to Scolus, which
brought him into the territory of the Thebans.
And now, although the Thebans had espoused
the cause of the Medes, yet Mardonius cut
down all the trees in these parts; not however
from any enmity towards the Thebans, but on
account of his own urgent needs; for he wanted
a rampart to protect his army from attack, and
he likewise desired to have a place of refuge,
whither his troops might flee, in case the battle
should go contrary to his wishes. His army at
this time lay on the Asopus, and stretched
from Erythra?, along by Hysiae, to the territory
of the Platxans. The wall, however, was not
made to extend so far, but formed a square of
about ten furlongs each way.

While the barbarians were employed in this
work, a certain citizen of Thebes, Attaginus
by name, the son of Phrynon, having made
great preparations, gave a banquet, and invited
Mardonius thereto, together with fifty of the
noblest Persians. Now the banquet was held
at Thebes; and all the guests who were invited
came to it.

1 6. What follows was recounted to me by
Thersander, a native of Orchomenus, a man
of the first rank in that city. Thersander told
me that he was himself among those invited to
the feast, and that besides the Persians fifty
Thebans were asked; and the two nations
were not arranged separately, but a Persian
and a Theban were set side by side upon each
couch. After the feast was ended, and the
drinking had begun, the Persian who shared
Thersander's couch addressed him in the
Greek tongue, and inquired of him from what
city he came. He answered, that he was of
Orchomenus; whereupon the other said —

"Since thou hast eaten with me at one table,
and poured libation from one cup, I would
fain leave with thee a memorial of the belief
I hold — the rather that thou mayest have time-
ly warning thyself, and so be able to provide
for thy own safety. Seest thou these Persians
here feasting, and the army which we left en-
camped yonder by the river-side? Yet a little
while, and of all this number thou wilt behold
but a few surviving!"

As he spake, the Persian let fall a flood of
tears: whereon Thersander, who was aston-
ished at his words, replied — "Surely thou
shouldest say all this to Mardonius, and the

Persians who are next him in honour" — but
the other rejoined — "Dear friend, it is not pos-
sible for man to avert that which God has de-
creed shall happen. No one believes warnings,
however true. Many of us Persians know our
danger, but we are constrained by necessity to
do as our leader bids us. Verily 'tis the sorest
of all human ills, to abound in knowledge and
yet have no power over action." All this I heard
myself from Thersander the Orchomenian;
who told me further, that he mentioned what
had happened to divers persons, before the bat-
tle was fought at Plataea.

17. When Mardonius formerly held his
camp in Boeotia, all the Greeks of those parts
who were friendly to the Medes sent troops to
join his army, and these troops accompanied
him in his attack upon Athens. The Phocians
alone abstained, and took no part in the inva-
sion; for, though they had espoused the Medi-
an cause warmly, it was very much against
their will, and only because they were com-
pelled so to do. However, a few days after the
arrival of the Persian army at Thebes, a thou-
sand of their heavy-armed soldiers came up,
under the command of Harmocydes, one of
their most distinguished citizens. No sooner
had these troops reached Thebes, than some
horsemen came to them from Mardonius, with
orders that they should take up a position
upon the plain, away from the rest of the army.
The Phocians did so, and forthwith the entire
Persian cavalry drew nigh to them: where-
upon there went a rumour through the whole
of the Greek force encamped with the Medes,
that Mardonius was about to destroy the Pho-
cians with missiles. The same conviction ran
through the Phocian troops themselves; and
Harmocydes, their leader, addressed them
thus with words of encouragement — "Phoci-
ans" said he, " 'tis plain that these men have
resolved beforehand to take our lives, because
of the accusations of the Thessalians, as I im-
agine. Now, then, is the time for you all to
show yourselves brave men. Tis better to die
fighting and defending our lives, than tamely
to allow them to slay us in this shameful fash-
ion. Let them learn that they are barbarians,
and that the men whose death they have plot-
ted are Greeks!"

18. Thus spake Harmocydes; and the Per-
sian horse, having encircled the Phocians,
charged towards them, as if about to deal out
death, with bows bent, and arrows ready to be
let fly; nay, here and there some did even dis-
charge their weapons. But the Phocians stood

292

HERODOTUS

[BOOK ix

firm, keeping close one to another, and serry-
ing their ranks as much as possible: where-
upon the horse suddenly wheeled round and
rode off. I cannot say with certainty whether
they came, at the prayer of the Thessalians, to
destroy the Phocians, but seeing them pre-
pared to stand on their defence, and fearing to
suffer damage at their hands, on that account
heat a retreat, having orders from Mardonius
so to act; or whether his sole intent was to try
the temper of the Phocians and see whether
they had any courage or no. However this may
have been, when the horsemen retired, Mar-
donius sent a herald to the Phocians, saying —
"Fear not, Phocians — ye have shown your-
selves valiant men — much unlike the report I
had heard of you. Now therefore be forward
in the coming war. Ye will not readily outdo
either the king or myself in services." Thus
ended the affair of the Phocians.

19. The Lacedaemonians, when they reached
the Isthmus, pitched their camp there; and the
other Peloponnesians who had embraced the
good side, hearing or else seeing that they were
upon the march, thought it not right to re-
main behind when the Spartans were going
forth to the war. So the Peloponnesians went
out in one body from the Isthmus, the victims
being favourable for setting forth; and
marched as far as Eleusis, where again they
offered sacrifices, and, finding the omens still
encouraging, advanced further. At Eleusis
they were joined by the Athenians, who had
come across from Salamis, and now accom-
panied the mam army. On reaching Erythrae
in Bccotia, they learnt that the barbarians
were encamped upon the Asopus; wherefore
they themselves, after considering how they
should act, disposed their forces opposite
to the enemy upon the slopes of Mount
Citha?ron.

20. Mardonius, when he saw that the Greeks
would not come down into the plain, sent all
his cavalry, under Masistius (or Macistius, as
the Greeks call him), to attack them where
they were. Now Masistius was a man of much
repute among the Persians, and rode a Nisaean
charger with a golden bit, and otherwise mag-
nificently caparisoned. So the horse advanced
against the Greeks, and made attacks upon
them in divisions, doing them great damage
at each charge, and insulting them by calling
them women.

21. It chanced that the Megarians were
drawn up in the position most open to attack,
and where the ground offered the best ap-

proach to the cavalry. Finding themselves
therefore hard pressed by the assaults upon
their ranks, they sent a herald to the Greek
leaders, who came and said to them, "This is
the message of the Meganajjs — We cannot,
brothers-m-arms, continue to resist the Persian
horse in that post which we have occupied
from the first, if we are left without succours.
Hitherto, although hard pressed, we have held
out against them firmly and courageously.
Now, however, if you do not send others to
take our place, we warn you that we shall quit
our post." Such were the words of the herald.
Pausamas, when he heard them, inquired
among his troops if there were any who would
volunteer to take the post, and so relieve the
Megarians. Of the rest none were willing to go,
whereupon the Athenians offered themselves;
and a body of picked men, three hundred in
number, commanded by Olympiodorus, the
son of Lampo, undertook the service.

22. Selecting, to accompany them, the whole
body of archers, these men relieved the Meg-
arians, and occupied a post which all the oth-
er Greeks collected at Erythrae had shrunk
from holding. After the struggle had contin-
ued for a while, it came to an end on this wise.
As the barbarians continued charging in divi-
sions, the horse of Masistius, which was in
front ot the others, received an arrow in his
flank, the pain of which caused him to rear
and throw his rider. Immediately the Athe-
nians rushed upon Masistius as he lay, caught
his horse, and when he himself made resist-
ance, slew him. At first, however, they were
not able to take his life; for his armour hin-
dered them. He had on a breastplate formed
of golden scales, with a scarlet tunic covering
it. Thus the blows, all falling upon his breast-
plate, took no effect, till one of the soldiers,
perceiving the reason, drove his weapon into
his eye and so slew him. All this took place
without any of the other horsemen seeing it:
they had neither observed their leader fall
from his horse, nor beheld him slain; for he
fell as they wheeled round and prepared for
another charge, so that they were quite igno-
rant of what had happened. When, however,
they halted, and found that there was no one
to marshal their line, Masistius was missed;
and instantly his soldiers, understanding what
must have befallen him, with loud cheers
charged the enemy in one mass, hoping to re-
cover the dead body.

23. So when the Athenians saw that, instead
of coming up in squadrons, the whole mass of

19-26]

THE HISTORY

293

the horse was about to charge them at once,
they called out to the other troops to make
haste to their aid. While the rest of the infan-
try, however, was moving to their assistance,
the contest waxed fierce about the dead body
of Masistius. The three hundred, so long as
they fought by themselves, had greatly the
worse of the encounter, and were forced to re-
tire and yield up the body to the enemy; but
when the other troops approached, the Per-
sian horse could no longer hold their ground,
but fled without carrying off the body, having
incurred in the attempt a further loss of sev-
eral of their number. They therefore retired
about two furlongs, and consulted with each
other what was best to be done. Being without
a leader, it seemed to them the fittest course
to return to Mardonius.

24. When the horse reached the camp, Mar-
donius and all the Persian army made great
lamentation for Masistius. They shaved off all
the hair from their own heads, and cut the
manes from their war-horses and their sump-
ter-beasts, while they vented their grief in such
loud cries that all Boeotia resounded with the
clamour, because they had lost the man who,
next to Mardonius, was held in the greatest es-
teem, both by the king and by the Persians gen-
erally. So the barbarians, after their own fash-
ion, paid honours to the dead Masistius.

25. The Greeks, on the other hand, were
greatly emboldened by what had happened,
seeing that they had not only stood their
ground against the attacks of the horse, but
had even compelled them to beat a retreat.
They therefore placed the dead body of Masis-
tius upon a cart, and paraded it along the ranks
of the army. Now the body was a sight which
well deserved to be gazed upon, being re-
markable both for stature and for beauty; and
it was to stop the soldiers from leaving their
ranks to look at it, that they resolved to carry
it round. After this the Greeks determined to
quit the high ground and go nearer Plataea, as
the land there seemed far more suitable for an
encampment than the country about Erythrae,
particularly because it was better supplied with
water. To this place therefore, and more es-
pecially to a spring-head which was called Gar-
gaphia, they considered that it would be best
for them to remove, after which they might
once more encamp in their order. So they took
their arms, and proceeded along the slopes of
Cithaeron, past Hysiae, to the territory of the
Plataeans; and here they drew themselves up,
nation by nation, close by the fountain Garga-

phia, and the sacred precinct of the Hero An-
drocrates, partly along some hillocks of no
great height, and partly upon the level of the
plain.

26. Here, in the marshalling of the nations,
a fierce battle of words arose between the
Athenians and the Tegeans, both of whom
claimed to have one of the wings assigned to
them. On each side were brought forward the
deeds which they had done, whether in earlier
or in later times; and first the Tegeans urged
their claim as follows: —

"This post has been always considered our
right, and not the right of any of the other al-
lies, in all the expeditions which have been en-
tered into conjointly by the Peloponncsians,
both anciently and in later times. Ever since
the Heraclida: made their attempt, after the
death of Eurystheus, to return by force of arms
into the Peloponnese, this custom has been ob-
served. It was then that the right became ours,
and this was the way in which we gained it: —
When, in company with the Achxans and lo-
nians who then dwelt in the Peloponnese, we
marched out to the Isthmus, and pitched our
camp over against the invaders, then, as the
tale goes, that Hyllus made proclamation, say-
ing— 'It needs not to imperil two armies in a
general battle; rather let one be chosen from
the Peloponnesian ranks, whomsoever they
deem the bravest, and let him engage with me
in single combat, on such terms as shall be
agreed upon/ The saying pleased the Pelopon-
nesians, and oaths were sworn to the effect fol-
lowing:— 'If Hyllus conquer the Peloponnesi-
an champion, the Heraclidae shall return to
their inheritance; if, on the other hand, he be
conquered, the Heraclidae shall withdraw, lead
back their army, and engage for the next hun-
dred years to make no further endeavours to
force their return." Hereupon Echemus, the
son of Aeropus and grandson of Phegeus, who
was our leader and king, offered himself, and
was preferred before all his brothers-in-arms
as champion, engaged in single combat with
Hyllus, and slew him upon the spot. For this
exploit we were rewarded by the Peloponnesi-
ans of that day with many goodly privileges,
which we have ever since enjoyed; and, among
the rest, we obtained the right of holding the
leading post in one wing, whenever a joint ex-
pedition goes forth beyond our borders. With
you then, O Lacedaemonians, we do not claim
to compete; choose you which wing ye please;
we yield and grant you the preference: but we
maintain that the command of the other wing

294

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f BOOK ix

belongs of right to us, now no less than for-
merly. Moreover, set aside this exploit which
we have related, and still our title to the chief
post is better than that of the Athenians: wit-
ness the many glorious fights in which we have
been engaged against yourselves, O Spartans!
as well as those which we have maintained
with others. We have therefore more right to
this place than they; for they have performed
no exploits to be compared to ours, whether
we look to earlier or to later times."

27. Thus spake the Tegeans; and the Athe-
nians made reply as follows: — "We are not
ignorant that our forces were gathered here,
not for the purpose of speech-making, but for
battle against the barbarian. Yet as the Tegeans
have been pleased to bring into debate the ex-
ploits performed by our two nations, alike in
earlier and in later times, we have no choice
but to set before you the grounds on which we
claim it as our heritage, deserved by our un-
changing bravery, to be preferred above Ar-
cadians. In the first place, then, those very
HeraclidtC, whose leader they boast to have
slain at the Isthmus, and whom the other
Greeks would not receive when they asked a
refuge from the bondage wherewith they were
threatened by the people of Mycenae, were giv-
en a shelter by us; and we brought down the
insolence of Eurystheus, and helped to gain
the victory over those who were at that time
lords of the Peloponnese. Again, when the Ar-
givcs led their troops with Polymces against
Thebes, and were slain and refused burial, it is
our boast that we went out against the Cad-
meians, recovered the bodies, and buried them
at Eleusis in our own territory. Another noble
deed of ours was that against the Amazons,
when they came from their seats upon the
Thermodon, and poured their hosts into At-
lica; and in the Trojan war too we were not a
whit behind any of the Greeks. But what boots
it to speak of these ancient matters? A nation
which was brave in those days might have
grown cowardly since, and a nation of cowards
then might now be valiant. Enough therefore
of our ancient achievements. Had we per-
formed no other exploit than that at Marathon
—though in truth we have performed exploits
is many and as noble as any of the Greeks —
yet had we performed no other, we should de-
serve this privilege, and many a one beside.
There we stood alone, and singly fought with
the Persians; nay, and venturing on so dan-
gerous a cast, we overcame the enemy, and
:onquered on that day forty and six nations!

Does not this one achievement suffice to make
good our title to the post we claim? Neverthe-
less, Lacedaemonians, as to strive concerning
place at such a time as this is not right, we are
ready to do as ye command, and to take our
station at whatever part of the line, and face
whatever nation ye think most expedient.
Wheresoever ye place us, 'twill be our en-
deavour to behave as brave men. Only declare
your will, and we shall at once obey you."

28. Such was the reply of the Athenians;
and forthwith all the Lacedaemonian troops
cried out with one voice, that the Athenians
were worthier to have the left wing than the
Arcadians. In this way were the Tegeans over-
come; and the post was assigned to the Athe-
nians.

When this matter had been arranged, the
Greek army, which was in part composed of
those who came at the first, in part of such as
had flocked in from day to day, drew up in the
following order: — Ten thousand Lacedaemoni-
an troops held the right wing, five thousand of
whom were Spartans; and these five thousand
were attended by a body of thirty-five thou-
sand Helots, who were only lightly armed —
seven Helots to each Spartan. The place next
to themselves the Spartans gave to the Tege-
ans, on account of their courage and of the es-
teem in which they held them. They were all
fully armed, and numbered fifteen hundred
men. Next in order came the Corinthians, five
thousand strong; and with them Pausanias
had placed, at their request, the band of three
hundred which had come from Potidxa in
Pallcnc. The Arcadians of Orchomenus, in
number six hundred, came next; then the Sicy-
onians, three thousand; then the Epidaurians,
eight hundred; then the Trcezenians, one
thousand; then the Lepreats, two hundred; the
Mycenaeans and Tirynthians, four hundred;
the Phliasians, one thousand; the Hermioni-
ans, three hundred; the Eretrians and Styre-
ans, six hundred; the Chalcideans, four hun-
dred; and the Ambraciots, five hundred. After
these came the Leucadians and Anactorians,
who numbered eight hundred; the Paleans of
Cephallenia, two hundred; the Eginetans, five
hundred; the Megarians, three thousand; and
the Plataeans, six hundred. Last of all, but first
at their extremity of the line, were the Athe-
nians, who, to the number of eight thousand,
occupied the left wing, under the command of
Aristides, the son of Lysimachus.

29. All these, except the Helots — seven of
whom, as I said, attended each Spartan — were

27-33

THE HISTORY

295

heavy-armed troops; and they amounted to
thirty-eight thousand seven hundred men.
This was the number of Hoplites, or heavy-
armed soldiers, which was brought together
against the barbarian. The light-armed troops
consisted of the thirty-five thousand ranged
with the Spartans, seven in attendance upon
each, who were all well equipped for war; and
of thirty-four thousand five hundred others,
belonging to the Lacedaemonians and the rest
of the Greeks, at the rate (nearly) of one light
to one heavy armed. Thus the entire number
of the light-armed was sixty-nine thousand
five hundred.

30. The Greek army, therefore, which mus-
tered at Plataea, counting light-armed as well
as heavy-armed, was but eighteen hundred
men short of one hundred and ten thousand;
and this amount was exactly made up by the
Thespians who were present in the camp; for
eighteen hundred Thespians, being the whole
number left, were likewise with the army; but
these men were without arms. Such was the
array of the Greek troops when they took post
on the Asopus.

31. The barbarians under Mardonius, when
the mourning for Masistms was at an end, and
they learnt that the Greeks were in the Plataran
territory, moved likewise towards the river
Asopus, which flows in those parts. On their
arrival Mardonius marshalled them against
the Greeks in the following order: — Against
the Lacedaemonians he posted his Persians;
and as the Persians were far more numerous
he drew them up with their ranks deeper than
common, and also extended their front so that
part faced the Tegeans; and here he took care
to choose out the best tioops to face the Lace-
daemonians, whilst against the Tegeans he ar-
rayed those on whom he could not so much
depend. This was done at the suggestion and
by the advice of the Thebans. Next to the Per-
sians he placed the Medes, facing the Corin-
thians, Potidseans, Orchomemans, and Sicyo-
nians; then the Bactrians, facing the Epidauri-
ans, Troezemans, Lepreats, Tirynthians, My-
cenaeans, and Phhasians; after them the Indi-
ans, facing the Hermionians, Eretrians, Styre-
ans, and Chalcidians; then the Sacans, facing
the Ambraciots, Anactorians, Leucadians, Pa-
leans, and Eginetans; last of all, facing the
Athenians, the Platseans, and the Mcgarians,
he placed the troops of the Boeotians, Locrians,
Malians, and Thessalians, and also the thou-
sand Phocians. The whole nation of the Pho-
cians had not joined the Medes; on the con-

trary, there were some who had gathered
themselves into bands about Parnassus, and
made expeditions from thence, whereby they
distressed Mardonius and the Greeks who
sided with him, and so did good service to the
Grecian cause. Besides those mentioned above,
Mardonius likewise arrayed against the Athe-
nians the Macedonians and the tribes dwelling
about Thessaly.

32. I have named here the greatest of the na-
tions which were marshalled by Mardonius on
this occasion, to wit, all those of most renown
and account. Mixed with these, however, were
men of divers other peoples, as Phrygians,
Thracians, Mysians, Paeonians, and the like;
Ethiopians again, and Egyptians, both of the
Hermotybian and Calasirian races, whose
weapon is the sword, and who are the only
fighting men in that country. These persons
had formerly served on board the fleet of Xer-
xes, but Mardonius disembarked them before
he left Phalerum; in the land force which Xer-
xes brought to Athens there were no Egyp-
tians. The number of the barbarians, as I have
already mentioned, was three hundred thou-
sand; that of the Greeks who had made alli-
ance with Mardonius is known to none, for
they were never counted: I should guess that
they mustered near fifty thousand strong. The
troops thus marshalled were all foot soldiers.
As for the horse, it was drawn up by itself.

33. When the marshalling of Mardonius'
troops by nations and by maniples was ended,
the two armies proceeded on the next day to
offer sacrifice. The Grecian sacrifice was of-
fered by Tisamenus, the son of Antiochus, who
accompanied the army as soothsayer: he was
an Elean, and belonged to the Clytiad branch
of the lamidse, but had been admitted among
their own citizens by the Lacedaemonians.
Now his admission among them was on this
wise: — Tisamenus had gone to Delphi to con-
sult the god concerning his lack of offspring,
when it was declared to him by the Pythoness
that he would win five very glorious combats.
Misunderstanding the oracle, and imagining
that he was to win combats in the games, Tisa-
menus at once applied himself to the practice
of gymnastics. He trained himself for the Pen-
tathlum, and, on contending at Olympia, came
within a little of winning it; for he was suc-
cessful in everything, except the wrestling-
match, which was carried off by Hieronymus
the Andrian. Hereon the Lacedaemonians per-
ceived that the combats of which the oracle
spoke were not combats in the games, but bat-

296

HERODOTUS

[BOOK ix

ties: they therefore sought to induce Tisa-
menus to hire out his services to them, in or-
der that they might join him with their Hera-
cleid kings in the conduct of their wars. He
however, when he saw that they set great store
by his friendship, forthwith raised his price,
and told them, "If they would receive him
among their citizens, and give him equal
rights with the rest, he was willing to do as they
desired, but on no other terms would they ever
gain his consent." The Spartans, when they
heard this, at first thought it monstrous, and
ceased to implore his aid. Afterwards, how-
ever, when the fearful danger of the Persian
war hung over their heads, they sent for him
and agreed to his terms; but Tisamenus now,
perceiving them so changed, declared, "He
could no longer be content with what he had
asked before: they must likewise make his
brother Hagias a Spartan, with the same rights
as himself."

34. In acting thus he did but follow the ex-
ample once set by Melampus, at least if king-
ship may be compared with citizenship. For
when the women of Argos were seized with
madness, and the Argives would have hired
Melampus to come from Pylos and heal them
of their disease, he demanded as his reward
one-half of the kingdom; but as the Argives
disdained to stoop to this, they left him and
went their way. Afterwards, however, when
many more of their women were sei/ed, they
brought themselves to agree to his terms; and
accordingly they went again to him, and said
they were content to give what he required.
Hereon Melampus, seeing them so changed,
raised his demand, and told them, "Except
they would give his brother Bias one-third of
the kingdom likewise, he would not do as they
wished." So, as the Argives were in a strait,
they consented even to this.

35. In like manner the Spartans, as they
were in great need of Tisamenus, yielded ev-
erything: and Tisamenus the Elean, having in
this way become a Spartan citizen, afterwards,
in the capacity of soothsayer, helped the Spar-
tans to gain five very glorious combats. He and
his brother were the only men whom the Spar-
tans ever admitted to citizenship. The five
combats were these following: — The first was
the combat at Platara; the second, that near
Tegea, against the Tegeans and the Argives;
the third, that at Dipaeeis, against all the Ar-
cadians excepting those of Mantinea; the
fourth, that at the Isthmus* against the Mes-
senians; and the fifth, that at Tanagra, against

the Athenians and the Argives. The battle here
fought was the last of all the five.

36. The Spartans had now brought Tisa-
menus with them to the Plataean territory,
where he acted as soothsayer for the Greeks.
He found the victims favourable, if the Greeks
stood on the defensive, but not if they began
the battle or crossed the river Asopus.

37. With Mardomus also, who was very
eager to begin the battle, the victims were not
favourable for so doing; but he likewise found
them bode him well, if he was content to stand
on his defence. He too had made use of the
Grecian rites; for Hegesistratus, an Elean, and
the most renowned of the Telhads, was his
soothsayer. This man had once been taken cap-
tive by the Spartans, who, considering that he
had done them many grievous injuries, laid
him in bonds, with the intent to put him to
death. Thereupon Hegesistratus, finding him-
self in so sore a case, since not only was his life
in danger, but he knew that he would have to
suffer torments of many kinds before his death,
— Hegesistratus, I say, did a deed for which no
words suffice. He had been set with one foot in
the stocks, which were of wood but bound
with iron bands; and in this condition received
from without an iron implement, wherewith
he contrived to accomplish the most courage-
ous deed upon record. Calculating how much
of his foot he would be able to draw through
the hole, he cut off the front portion with his
own hand; and then, as he was guarded by
watchmen, forced a way through the wall of
his prison, and made his escape to Tegea, trav-
elling during the night, but in the daytime
stealing into the woods, and staying there. In
this way, though the Lacedaemonians went out
in full force to search for him, he nevertheless
escaped, and arrived the third evening at Te-
gea. So the Spartans were amazed at the man's
endurance, when they saw on the ground the
piece which he had cut off his foot, and yet for
all their seeking could not find him anywhere.
Hegesistratus, having thus escaped the Lace-
daemonians, took refuge in Tegea; for the
Tegeans at that time were ill friends with the
Lacedaemonians. When his wound was healed,
he procured himself a wooden foot, and be-
came an open enemy to Sparta. At the last,
however, this enmity brought him to trouble;
for the Spartans took him captive as he was
exercising his office in Zacynthus, and forth-
with put him to death. But these things hap-
pened some while after the fight at Plataea. At
present he was serving Mardonius on the Aso-

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297

pus, having been hired at no inconsiderable
price; and here he offered sacrifice with a right
good will, in part from his hatred of the Lace-
daemonians, in part for lucre's sake.

38. So when the victims did not allow either
the Persians or their Greek allies to begin the
battle — these Greeks had their own soothsayer
in the person of Hippomachus, a Leucadian—
and when soldiers continued to pour into the
opposite camp and the numbers on the Greek
side to increase continually, Timagenidas, the
son of Herpys, a Theban, advised Mardonius
to keep a watch on the passes of Cithaeron, tell-
ing him how supplies of men kept flocking in
day after day, and assuring him that he might
cut oft large numbers.

39. It was eight days after the two armies
first encamped opposite to one another when
this advice was given by Timagenidas. Mar-
donius, seeing it to be good, as soon as evening
came, sent his cavalry to that pass of Mount
Cithaeron which opens out upon Platva, a pass
called by the Boeotians the "Three Heads," but
called the "Oak-Heads" by the Athenians. The
horse sent on this errand did not make the
movement in vain. They came upon a body of
five hundred sumpter-beasts which were just
entering the plain, bringing provisions to the
Greek camp from the Peloponnese, with a
number of men driving them. Seeing this prey
m their power, the Persians set upon them and
slaughtered them, sparing none, neither man
nor beast; till at last, when they had had
enough of slaying, they secured such as were
left, and bore them oft to the camp to Mar-
donius.

40. After this they waited again for two
days more, neither army wishing to begin the
fight. The barbarians indeed advanced as far
as the Asopus, and endeavoured to tempt the
Greeks to cross; but neither side actually
passed the stream. Still the cavalry of Mardoni-
us harassed and annoyed the Greeks incessant-
ly; for the Thebans, who were zealous in the
cause of the Medes, pressed the war forward
with all eagerness, and often led the charge till
the lines met, when the Medes and Persians
took their place, and displayed, many of them,
uncommon valour.

41. For ten days nothing was done more
than this; but on the eleventh day from the
time when the two hosts first took station, one
over against the other, near Plataea — the num-
ber of the Greeks being now much greater
than it was at the first, and Mardonius being
impatient of the delay — there was a conference

held between Mardonius, son of Gobryas, and
Artabazus, son of Pharnaces, a man who was
esteemed by Xerxes more than almost any of
the Persians. At this consultation the following
were the opinions delivered: — Artabazus
thought it would be best for them to break up
from their quarters as soon as possible, and
withdraw the whole army to the fortified town
of Thebes, where they had abundant stores of
corn for themselves, and of fodder for the
sumpter-beasts. There, he said, they had only
to sit quiet, and the war might be brought to
an end on this wise: — Coined gold was plenti-
ful in the camp, and uncoined gold too; they
had silver moreover in great abundance, and
drinking-cups. Let them not spare to take of
these, and distribute them among the Greeks,
especially among the leaders in the several cit-
ies; 'twould not be long before the Greeks gave
up their liberty, without risking another bat-
tle for it. Thus the opinion of Artabazus
agreed with that of the Thebans; for he too had
more foresight than some. Mardonius, on the
other hand, expressed himself with more
fierceness and obstinacy, and was utterly disin-
clined to yield. "Their army," he said, "was
vastly superior to that of the Greeks; and they
had best engage at once, and not wait till great-
er numbers were gathered against them. As
for Hegesistratus and his victims, they should
let them pass unheeded, not seeking to force
them to be favourable, but, according to the
old Persian custom, hasting to join battle."

42. When Mardonius had thus declared his
sentiments, no one ventured to say him nay;
and accordingly his opinion prevailed, for it
was to him, and not to Artabazus, that the
king had given the command of the army.

Mardonius now sent for the captains of the
squadrons, and the leaders of the Greeks in
his service, and questioned them: — "Did they
know of any prophecy which said that the
Persians were to be destroyed in Greece-3" All
were silent; some because they did not know
the prophecies, but others, who knew them full
well, because they did not think it safe to speak
out. So Mardonius, when none answered,
said, "Since ye know of no such oracle, or do
not dare to speak of it, I, who know it well,
will myself declare it to you. There is an ora-
cle which says that the Persians shall come into
Greece, sack the temple at Delphi, and when
they have so done, perish one and all. Now we,
as we are aware of the prediction, will neither
go against the temple nor make any attempt
to sack it: we therefore shall not perish for this

298

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| BOOK ix

trespass. Rejoice then thus far, all ye who are
well-wishers to the Persians, and doubt not we
shall get the better of the Greeks." When he
had so spoken, he further ordered them to pre-
pare themselves, and to put all in readiness for
a battle upon the morrow.

43. As for the oracle of which Mardonius
spoke, and which he referred to the Persians,
it did not, I am well assured, mean them, but
the Illyrians and the Enchelcan host. There
are, however, some verses of Bacis which did
speak of this battle: —

By Thermodon's stream, and the grass-clad ban\s

of Asopus,
See where gather the Grecians, and har^ to the

foreigners' war-shout — •
There in death shall he, ere fate or Lachesis

doomed him,
Many a bow-bearing Mede, when the day of

calamity comet h.

These verses, and some others like them which
Musarus wrote, referred, I well know, to the
Persians. The river Thermodon flows between
Tanagra and Glisas.

44. After Mardonius had put his question
about the prophecies, and spoken the above
words of encouragement, night drew on apace,
and on both sides the watches were set. As
soon then as there was silence throughout the
camp, — the night being now well advanced,
and the men seeming to be in their deepest
sleep, — Alexander, the son of Amyntas, king
and leader of the Macedonians, rode up on
horseback to the Athenian outposts, and de-
sired to speak with the generals. Hereupon,
while the greater part continued on guard,
some oi the watch ran to the chiefs, and told
them, "There had come a horseman from the
Median camp who would not say a word, ex-
cept that he wished to speak with the generals,
of whom he mentioned the names."

45. They at once, hearing this, made haste
to the outpost, where they found Alexander,
who addressed them as follows: —

"Men of Athens, that which I am about to
say I trust to your honour; and I charge you to
keep it secret from all excepting Pausanias, if
you would not bring me to destruction. Had
I not greatly at heart the common welfare of
Greece, I should not have come to tell you;
but I am myself a Greek by descent, and I
would not willingly see Greece exchange free-
dom for slavery. Know then that Mardonius
and his army cannot obtain favourable omens;
had it not been for this, they would have
fought with you long ago. Now, however, they

have determined to let the victims pass un-
heeded, and, as soon as day dawns, to engage
in battle. Mardonius, I imagine, is afraid that,
if he delays, you will increase in number. Make
ready then to receive him. Should he however
still defer the combat, do you abide where you
are; for his provisions will not hold out many
more days. If ye prosper in this war, forget not
to do something for my freedom; consider the
risk I have run, out of zeal for the Greek cause,
to acquaint you with what Mardonius intends,
and to save you from being surprised by the
barbarians. I am Alexander of Macedon."

As soon as he had said this, Alexander rode
back to the camp, and returned to the station
assigned him.

46. Meanwhile the Athenian generals has-
tened to the right wing, and told Pausanias all
that they had learnt from Alexander. Here-
upon Pausanias, who no sooner heard the in-
tention of the Persians than he was struck with
fear, addressed the generals, and said, —

"Since the battle is to come with to-morrow's
dawn, it were well that you Athenians should
stand opposed to the Persians, and we Spartans
to the Boeotians and the other Greeks; for ye
know the Medes and their manner of fight,
since ye have already fought with them once
at Marathon, but we are quite ignorant and
without any experience of their warfare.
While, however, there is not a Spartan here
present who has ever fought against a Medc,
of the Boeotians and Thessalians we have had
experience. Take then your arms, and march
over to our post upon the right, while we sup-
ply your place m the left wing."

Hereto the Athenians replied — "We, too,
long ago, when we saw that the Persians were
drawn up to face you, were minded to suggest
to you the very course which you have now
been the first to bring forward. We feared,
however, that perhaps our words might not
be pleasing to you. But, as you have now spok-
en of these things yourselves, we gladly give
our consent, and are ready to do as ye have
said."

47. Both sides agreeing hereto, at the dawn
of day the Spartans and Athenians changed
places. But the movement was perceived by the
Boeotians, and they gave notice of it to Mar-
donius; who at once, on hearing what had been
done, made a change in the disposition of his
own forces, and brought the Persians to face
the Lacedaemonians. Then Pausanias, finding
that his design was discovered, led back his
Spartans to the right wing; and Mardonius,

43-52 J

THE HISTORY

299

seeing this, replaced his Persians upon the left
of his army.

48. When the troops again occupied their
former posts, Mardonius sent a herald to the
Spartans, who spoke as follows: —

"Lacedaemonians, in these parts the men say
that you are the bravest of mankind, and ad-
mire you because you never turn your backs
in flight nor quit your ranks, but always stand
firm, and either die at your posts or else des-
troy your adversaries. But in all this which
they say concerning you there is not one word
of truth; for now have we seen you, before
battle was joined or our two hosts had come
to blows, flying and leaving your posts, wish-
ing the Athenians to make the first trial of our
arms, and taking your own station against our
slaves. Surely these are not the deeds of brave
men. Much do we find ourselves deceived in
you; for we believed the reports of you that
reached our ears, and expected that you would
send a herald with a challenge to us, proposing
to fight by yourselves against our division of
native Persians. We for our part were ready to
have agreed to this; but ye> have made us no
such offer — nay ! ye seem rather to shrink from
meeting us. However, as no challenge of this
kind comes from you to us, lo! we send a chal-
lenge to you. Why should not you on the part
of the Greeks, as you are thought to be the
bravest of all, and we on the part of the bar-
barians, fight a battle with equal numbers on
both sides? Then, if it seems good to the oth-
ers to fight likewise, let them engage after-
wards— but if not, — if they are content that
we should fight on behalf of all, let us so do —
and whichever side wins the battle, let them
win it for their whole army."

49. When the herald had thus spoken, he
waited a while, but, as no one made him any
answer, he went back, and told Mardonius
what had happened. Mardonius was full of joy
thereat, and so puffed up by the empty victory,
that he at once gave orders to his horse to
charge the Greek line. Then the horsemen
drew near, and with their javelins and their ar-
rows— for though horsemen they used the bow
— sorely distressed the Greek troops, which
could not bring them to close combat. The
fountain of Gargaphia, whence the whole
Greek army drew its water, they at this time
choked up and spoiled. The Lacedaemonians
were the only troops who had their station near
this fountain; the other Greeks were more or
less distant from it, according to their place in
the line; they however were not far from the

Asopus. Still, as the Persian horse with their
missile weapons did not allow them to ap-
proach, and so they could not get their water
from the river, these Greeks, no less than the
Lacedaemonians, resorted at this time to the
fountain.

50. When the fountain was choked, the
Grecian captains, seeing that the army had no
longer a water-place, and observing moreover
that the cavalry greatly harassed them, held a
meeting on these and other matters at the head-
quarters of Pausanias upon the right. For be-
sides the above-named difficulties, which were
great enough, other circumstances added to
their distress. All the provisions that they had
brought with them were gone; and the attend-
ants who had been sent to fetch supplies from
the Peloponnese, were prevented from return-
ing to camp by the Persian horse, which had
now closed the passage.

51. The captains therefore held a council,
whereat it was agreed, that if the Persians did
not give battle that day, the Greeks should
move to the Island — a tract of ground which
lies in front of Plataea, at the distance of ten
furlongs from the Asopus and fount Garga-
phia, where the army was encamped at that
time. This tract was a sort of island in the
continent: for there is a river which, dividing
near its source, runs down from Mount Cithae-
ron into the plain below in two streams, flow-
ing in channels about three furlongs apart,
which after a while unite and become one.
The name of this river is Oeroe, and the dwell-
ers in those parts call it, the daughter of the
Asopus. This was the place to which the
Greeks resolved to remove; and they chose it,
first because they would there have no lack of
water, and secondly, because the horse could
not harass them as when it was drawn up right
in their front. They thought it best to begin
their march at the second watch of the night,
lest the Persians should see them as they left
their station, and should follow and harass
them with their cavalry. It was agreed like-
wise, that after they had reached the place,
which the Asopus-born Oeroe surrounds, as it
flows down from Cithaeron, they should des-
patch, the very same night, one half of their
army towards that mountain-range, to relieve
those whom they had sent to procure pro-
visions, and who were now blocked up in that
region.

52. Having made these resolves, they con-
tinued during that whole day to suffer beyond
measure from the attacks of the enemy's

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[BOOK ix

horse. At length when towards dusk the
attacks of the horse ceased, and, night having
closed in, the hour arrived at which the army
was to commence its retreat, the greater num-
ber struck their tents and began the march
towards the rear. They were not minded, how-
ever, to make for the place agreed upon; but
in their anxiety to escape from the Persian
horse, no sooner had they begun to move than
they fled straight to Plataea; where they took
post at the temple of Juno, which lies outside
the city, at the distance of about twenty fur-
longs from Gargaphia; and here they pitched
their camp in front of the sacred building.

53. As soon as Pausanias saw a portion of
the troops in motion, he issued orders to the
Laccdarmonians to strike their tents and fol-
low those who had been the first to depart, sup-
posing that they were on their march to the
place agreed upon. All the captains but one
were ready to obey his orders: Amompharetus,
however, the son of Poliadas, who was leader
of the Pitanate cohort, refused to move, saying,
"He for one would not fly from the strangers,
or of his own will bring disgrace upon Sparta."
It had happened that he was absent from the
former conference of the captains; and so what
was now taking place astonished him. Pausa-
nias and Euryanax thought it a monstrous
thing that Amompharetus would not hearken
to them; but considered that it would be yet
more monstrous, it, when he was so minded,
they were to leave the Pitanatcs to their fate;
seeing that, if they forsook them to keep their
agreement with the other Greeks, Amom-
pharetus and those with him might perish. On
this account, therefore, they kept the Lace-
demonian force in its place, and made every
endeavour to persuade Amompharetus that he
was wrong to act as he was doing.

54. While the Spartans were engaged in
these efforts to turn Amompharetus — the only
man unwilling to retreat either in their own
army or in that of the Tegeans — the Athenians
on their side did as follows. Knowing that it
was the Spartan temper to say one thing and
no another, they remained quiet in their sta-
tion until the army began to retreat, when they
despatched a horseman to see whether the
Spartans really meant to set forth, or whether
after all they had no intention of moving. The
horseman was also to ask Pausanias what he
wished the Athenians to do.

55. The herald on his arrival found the
Lacedarmonians drawn up in their old posi-
tion, and their leaders quarrelling with one

another. Pausanias and Euryanax had gone on
urging Amompharetus not to endanger the
lives of his men by staying behind while the
others drew off, but without succeeding in
persuading him; until at last the dispute had
waxed hot between them just at the moment
when the Athenian herald arrived. At this
point Amompharetus, who was still disputing,
took up with both his hands a vast rock, and
placed it at the feet of Pausanias, saying —
"With this pebble I give my vote not to run
away from the strangers." (By "strangers" he
meant barbarians.) Pausanias, in reply, called
him a fool and a madman, and, turning to the
Athenian herald, who had made the inquiries
with which he was charged, bade him tell his
countrymen how he was occupied, and ask
them to approach nearer, and retreat or not ac-
cording to the movements of the Spartans.

56. So the herald went back to the Atheni-
ans; and the Spartans continued to dispute till
morning began to dawn upon them. Then
Pausanias, who as yet had not moved, gave the
signal for retreat — expecting (and rightly, as
the event proved) that Amompharetus, when
he saw the rest of the Lacedaemonians in mo-
tion, would be unwilling to be left behind. No
sooner was the signal given, than all the army
except the Pitanates began their march, and
retreated along the line of the hills; the Tege-
ans accompanying them. The Athenians like-
wise set off in good order, but proceeded by a
different way from the Lacedaemonians. For
while the latter clung to the hilly ground and
the skirts of Mount Citharron, on account of
the fear which they entertained of the enemy's
horse, the former betook themselves to the low
country and marched through the plain.

57. As for Amompharetus, at first he did
not believe that Pausanias would really dare
to leave him behind; he therefore remained
firm in his resolve to keep his men at their
post; when, however, Pausanias and his troops
were now some way off, Amompharetus,
thinking himself forsaken in good earnest, or-
dered his band to take their arms, and led
them at a walk towards the main army. Now
the army was waiting for them at a distance
of about ten furlongs, having halted upon the
river Moloeis at a place called Argiopius,
where stands a temple dedicated to Eleusinian
Ceres. They had stopped here, that, in case
Amompharetus and his band should refuse to
quit the spot where they were drawn up, and
should really not stir from it, they might have
it in their power to move back and lend them

THE HISTORY

301

assistance. Amompharetus, however, and his
companions rejoined the main body; and at the
same time the whole mass of the barbarian
cavalry arrived and began to press hard upon
them. The horsemen had followed their usual
practice and ridden up to the Greek camp,
when they discovered that the place where the
Greeks had been posted hitherto was deserted.
Hereupon they pushed forward without stop-
ping, and, as soon as they overtook the enemy,
pressed heavily on them.

58. Mardonius, when he heard that the
Greeks had retired under cover of the night,
and beheld the place, where they had been
stationed, empty, called to him Thorax of La-
rissa, and his brethren, Eurypylus and Thrasi-
deius, and said: —

"O sons of Aleuas! what will ye say now,
when ye see yonder place empty? Why, you,
who dwell in their neighbourhood, told me
the Lacedaemonians never fled from battle, but
were brave beyond all the rest of mankind.
Lately, however, you yourselves beheld them
change their place in the line; and here, as all
may see, they have run away during the night.
Venly, when their turn came to fight with
those who arc of a truth the bravest warriors
in all the world, they showed plainly enough
that they are men of no worth, who have dis-
tinguished themselves among Greeks — men
likewise of no worth at all. However, I can
readily excuse you, who, knowing nothing of
the Persians, praised these men from your ac-
quaintance with certain exploits of theirs; but
I marvel all the more at Artabazus, that he
should have been afraid of the Lacedaemoni-
ans, and have therefore given us so dastardly a
counsel, — bidding us, as he did, break up our
camp, and remove to Thebes, and there allow
ourselves to be besieged by the Greeks — advice
whereof I shall take care to inform the king.
But of this hereafter. Now we must not allow
them to escape us, but must pursue after them
till we overtake them; and then we must exact
vengeance for all the wrongs which have been
suffered at their hands by the Persians."

59. When he had so spoken, he crossed the
Asopus, and led the Persians forward at a run
directly upon the track of the Greeks, whom
he believed to be in actual flight. He could not
see the Athenians; for, as they had taken the
way of the plain, they were hidden from his
sight by the hills; he therefore led on his troops
against the Lacedaemonians and the Tegeans
only. When the commanders of the other divi-
sions of the barbarians saw the Persians pur-

suing the Greeks so hastily, they all forthwith
seized their standards, and hurried after at
their best speed in great disorder and disarray.
On they went with loud shouts and in a wild
rout, thinking to swallow up the runaways.

60. Meanwhile Pausanias had sent a horse-
man to the Athenians, at the time when the
cavalry first fell upon him, with this mes-
sage:—

"Men of Athens! now that the great strug-
gle has come, which is to decide the freedom
or the slavery of Greece, we twain, Lacedae-
monians and Athenians, are deserted by all the
other allies, who have fled away from us dur-
ing the past night. Nevertheless, we are re-
solved what to do — we must endeavour, as
best we may, to defend ourselves and to suc-
cour one another. Now, had the horse fallen
upon you first, we ourselves with the Tegeans
(who remain faithful to the Greek cause)
would have been bound to render you assist-
ance against them. As, however, the entire
body has advanced upon us, 'tis your place to
come to our aid, sore pressed as we are by the
enemy. Should you yourselves be so straitened
that you cannot come, at least send us your
archers, and be sure you will earn our grati-
tude. We acknowledge that throughout this
whole war there has been no zeal to be com-
pared to yours — we therefore doubt not that
you will do us this service."

61. The Athenians, as soon as they received
this message, were anxious to go to the aid of
the Spartans, and to help them to the uttermost
of their power; but, as they were upon the
march, the Greeks on the king's side, whose
place in the line had been opposite theirs, fell
upon them, and so harassed them by their at-
tacks that it was not possible for them to give
the succour they desired. Accordingly the Lace-
daemonians, and the Tegeans — whom nothing
could induce to quit their side — were left alone
to resist the Persians. Including the light-
armed, the number of the former was 50,000;
while that of the Tegeans was 3000. Now,
therefore, as they were about to engage with
Mardonius and the troops under him, they
made ready to offer sacrifice. The victims,
however, for some time were not favourable;
and, during the delay, many fell on the Spar-
tan side, and a still greater number were
wounded. For the Persians had made a ram-
part of their wicker shields, and shot from be-
hind them such clouds of arrows, that the Spar-
tans were sorely distressed. The victims con-
tinued unpropitious; till at last Pausanias

302

HERODOTUS

[BooK ix

raised his eyes to the Heraeum of the Plataeans,
and calling the goddess to his aid, besought her
not to disappoint the hopes of the Greeks.

62. As he offered his prayer, the Tegeans,
advancing before the rest, rushed forward
against the enemy; and the Lacedaemonians,
who had obtained favourable omens the mo-
ment that Pausanias prayed, at length, after
their long delay, advanced to the attack; while
the Persians, on their side, left shooting, and
prepared to meet them. And first the combat
was at the wicker shields. Afterwards, when
these were swept down, a fierce contest took
place by the side of the temple of Ceres, which
lasted long, and ended in a hand-to-hand
struggle. The barbarians many times seized
hold of the Greek spears and brake them; for
in boldness and warlike spirit the Persians
were not a whit inferior to the Greeks; but they
were without bucklers, untrained, and far be-
low the enemy in respect of skill in arms.
Sometimes singly, sometimes in bodies of ten,
now fewer and now more in number, they
dashed upon the Spartan ranks, and so per-
ished.

63. The fight went most against the Greeks,
where Mardonius, mounted upon a white
horse, and surrounded by the bravest of all the
Persians, the thousand picked men, fought in
person. So long as Mardonius was alive, this
body resisted all attacks, and, while they de-
fended their own lives, struck down no small
number of Spartans; but after Mardonius fell,
and the troops with him, which were the mam
strength of the army, perished, the remainder
yielded to the Lacedaemonians, and took to
flight. Their light clothing, and want of buck-
lers, were of the greatest hurt to them : for they
had to contend against men heavily armed,
while they themselves were without any such
defence.

64. Then was the warning of the oracle ful-
filled; and the vengeance which was due to the
Spartans for the slaughter of Leonidas was
paid them by Mardonius — then too did Pau-
sanias, the son of Cleombrotus, and grandson
of Anaxandridas (I omit to recount his other
ancestors, since they are the same with those
of Leonidas), win a victory exceeding in glory
all those to which our knowledge extends.
Mardonius was slain by Acimnestus, a man fa-
mous in Sparta — the same who in the Mes-
senian war, which came after the struggle
against the Medes, fought a battle near Steny-
clerus with but three hundred men against the
whole force of the Messcnians, and himself

perished, and the three hundred with him.

65. The Persians, as soon as they were put
to flight by the Lacedaemonians, ran hastily
away, without preserving any order, and took
refuge in their own camp, within the wooden
defence which they had raised in the Theban
territory. It is a marvel to me how it came to
pass, that although the battle was fought quite
close to the grove of Ceres, yet not a single
Persian appears to have died on the sacred soil,
nor even to have set foot upon it, while round
about the precinct, in the unconsecrated
ground, great numbers perished. I imagine —
if it is lawful, in matters which concern the
gods, to imagine anything — that the goddess
herself kept them out, because they had burnt
her dwelling at Elcusis. Such, then, was the
issue of this battle.

66. Artabazus, the son of Pharnaces, who
had disapproved from the first of the king's
leaving Mardonius behind him, and had made
great endeavours, but all in vain, to dissuade
Mardonius from risking a battle, when he
found that the latter was bent on acting other-
wise than he wished, did as follows. He had a
force under his orders which was far from in-
considerable, amounting, as it did, to near forty
thousand men. Being well aware, therefore,
how the battle was likely to go, as soon as the
two armies began to fight, he led his soldiers
forward in an orderly array, bidding them one
and all proceed at the same pace, and follow
him with such celerity as they should observe
him to use. Having issued these commands, he
pretended to lead them to the battle. But when,
advancing before his army, he saw that the
Persians were already in flight, instead of keep-
ing the same order, he wheeled his troops sud-
denly round, and beat a retreat; nor did he
even seek shelter within the palisade or behind
the walls of Thebes, but hurried on into Pho-
cis, wishing to make his way to the Hellespont
with all possible speed. Such accordingly was
the course which these Persians took.

67. As for the Greeks upon the king's side,
while most of them played the coward pur-
posely, the Boeotians, on the contrary, had a
long struggle with the Athenians. Those of
the Thebans who were attached to the Medes,
displayed especially no little zeal; far from
playing the coward, they fought with such
fury that three hundred of the best and bravest
among them were slain by the Athenians in
this passage of arms. But at last they too were
routed, and fled away — not, however, in the
same direction as the Persians and the crowd

62-71

THE HISTORY

303

of allies, who, having taken no part in the bat-
tle, ran off without striking a blow — but to the
city of Thebes.

68. To me it shows very clearly how com-
pletely the rest of the barbarians were depend-
ent upon the Persian troops, that here they all
fled at once, without ever coming to blows
with the enemy, merely because they saw the
Persians running away. And so it came to pass
that the whole army took to flight, except only
the horse, both Persian and Boeotian. These
did good service to the flying foot-men, by ad-
vancing close to the enemy, and separating
between the Greeks and their own fugitives.

69. The victors however pressed on, pursu-
ing and slaying the remnant of the king's
army.

Meantime, while the flight continued, tid-
ings reached the Greeks who were drawn up
round the Heraeum, and so were absent from
the battle, that the fight was begun, and that
Pausanus was gaining the victory. Hearing
this, they rushed forward without any order,
the Corinthians taking the upper road across
the skirts of Cithaeron and the hills, which led
straight to the temple of Ceres; while the Me-
garians and Phliasians followed the level route
through the plain. These last had almost
reached the enemy, when the Theban horse
espied them, and, observing their disarray, des-
patched against them the squadron of which
Asopodorus, the son of Timander, was captain.
Asopodorus charged them with such effect
that the left six hundred of their number dead
upon the plain, and, pursuing the rest, com-
pelled them to seek shelter in Cithaeron. So
these men perished without honour.

70. The Persians, and the multitude with
them, who fled to the wooden fortress, were
able to ascend into the towers before the Lace-
daemonians came up. Thus placed, they pro-
ceeded to strengthen the defences as well as
they could; and when the Lacedaemonians ar-
rived, a*sharp fight took place at the rampart.
So long as the Athenians were away, the bar-
barians kept off their assailants, and had much
the best of the combat, since the Lacedaemoni-
ans were unskilled in the attack of walled
places: but on the arrival of the Athenians, a
more violent assault was made, and the wall
was for a long time attacked with fury. In the
end the valour of the Athenians and their
perseverance prevailed — they gained the top of
the wall, and, breaking a breach through it,
enabled the Greeks to pour in. The first to en-
ter here were the Tegeans, and they it was who

plundered the tent of Mardonius; where
among other booty the found the manger from
which his horses ate, all made of solid brass,
and well worth looking at. This manger was
given by the Tegeans to the temple of Minerva
Alea, while the remainder of their booty was
brought into the common stock of the Greeks.
As soon as the wall was broken down, the bar-
barians no longer kept together in any array,
nor was there one among them who thought
of making further resistance — in good truth,
they were all half dead with fright, huddled
as so many thousands were into so narrow and
confined a space. With such tameness did they
submit to be slaughtered by the Greeks, that
of the 300,000 men who composed the army —
omitting the 40,000 by whom Artabazus was
accompanied in his flight — no more than 3000
outlived the battle. Of the Lacedaemonians
from Sparta there perished in this combat
ninety-one; of the Tegeans, sixteen; of the
Athenians, fifty-two.

71. On the side of the barbarians, the great-
est courage was manifested, among the foot-
soldiers, by the Persians; among the horse, by
the Sacs; while Mardonius himself, as a man,
bore off the palm from the rest. Among the
Greeks, the Athenians and the Tegeans fought
well; but the prowess shown by the Lacedae-
monians was beyond either. Of this I have but
one proof to offer — since all the three nations
overthrew the force opposed to them — and
that is, that the Lacedemonians fought and
conquered the best troops. The bravest man by
far on that day was, in my judgment, Aristo-
demus— the same who alone escaped from the
slaughter of the three hundred at Thermopylae,
and who on that account had endured disgrace
and reproach: next to him were Posidonius,
Philocyon, and Amompharetus the Spartan.
The Spartans, however, who took part in the
fight, when the question of "who had dis-
tinguished himself most," came to be talked
over among them, decided — "that Aristode-
mus, who, on account of the blame which at-
tached to him, had manifestly courted death,
and had therefore left his place in the line and
behaved like a madman, had done of a truth
very notable deeds; but that Posidonius, who,
with no such desire to lose his life, had quitted
himself no less gallantly, was by so much a
braver man than he." Perchance, however, it
was envy that made them speak after this sort.
Of those whom I have named above as slain
in this battle, all, save and except Aristodemus,
received public honours: Aristodemus alone

304

HERODOTUS

[BOOK ix

had no honours, because he courted death for
the reason which I have mentioned.

72. These then were the most distinguished
of those who fought at Plataea. As for Calli-
crates, — the most beautiful man, not among
the Spartans only, but in the whole Greek
camp, — he was not killed in the battle; for it
was while Pausanias was still consulting the
victims, that as he sat in his proper place in the
line, an arrow struck him on the side. While
his comrades advanced to the fight, he was
borne out of the ranks, very loath to die, as he
showed by the words which he addressed to
Arimnestus, one of the Platseans; — "I grieve,"
said he, "not because I have to dj> for my
country, but because I have not lifted my arm
against the enemy, nor done any deed worthy
of me, much as I have desired to achieve some-
thing."

73. The Athenian who is said to have dis-
tinguished himself the most was Sophanes, the
son of Eutychidcs, of the Deceleian canton.
The men of this canton, once upon a time, did
a deed, which (as the Athenians themselves
confess) has ever since been serviceable to
them. When the Tyndaridae, in days of yore,
invaded Attica with a mighty army to recover
Helen, and, not being able to find out whither
she had been carried, desolated the cantons, —
at this time, they say, the Deceleians (or De-
celus himself, according to some), displeased
at the rudeness of Theseus, and fearing that
the whole territory would suffer, discovered
everything to the enemy, and even showed
them the way to Aphidna:, which Titacus, a
native of the place, betrayed into their hands.
As a reward for this action, Sparta has always,
from that time to the present, allowed the De-
celeians to be free from all dues, and to have
seats of honour at their festivals; and hence
too, in the war which took place many years
after these events between the Peloponnesians
and the Athenians, the Lacedaemonians, while
they laid waste all the rest of Attica, spared the
lands of the Deceleians.

74. Of this canton was Sophanes, the Athe-
nian, who most distinguished himself in the
battle. Two stories are told concerning him:
according to the one, he wore an iron anchor,
fastened to the belt which secured his breast-
plate by a brazen chain; and this, when he
came near the enemy, he threw out; to the in-
tent that, when they made their charge, it
might be impossible for him to be driven from
his post: as soon, however, as the enemy fled,
his wont was to take up his anchor and join

the pursuit. Such, then, is one of the said stor-
ies. The other, which is contradictory to the
first, relates that Sophanes, instead of having
an iron anchor fastened to his breastplate, bore
the device of an anchor upon his shield, which
he never allowed to rest, but made to run
round continually.

75. Another glorious deed was likewise per-
formed by this same Sophanes. At the time
when the Athenians were laying siege to Egi-
na, he took up the challenge of Eurybates the
Argive, a winner of the Pentathlum, and slew
him. The fate of Sophanes in after times was
the following: he was leader of an Athenian
army in conjunction with Leagrus, the son of
Glaucon, and in a battle with the Edonians
near Datum, about the gold-mines there, he
was slain, after displaying uncommon bravery.

76. As soon as the Greeks at Plataea had
overthrown the barbarians, a woman came
over to them from the enemy. She was one of
the concubines of Pharandates, the son of Te-
aspes, a Persian; and when she heard that the
Persians were all slain and that the Greeks had
carried the day, forthwith she adorned herself
and her maids with many golden ornaments,
and with the bravest of the apparel that she
had brought with her, and, alighting from her
litter, came forward to the Lacedaemonians, ere
the work of slaughter was well over. When
she saw that all the orders were given by Pau-
sanias, with whose name and country she was
well acquainted, as she had oftentimes heard
tell of them, she knew who he must be; where-
fore she embraced his knees, and said —

"O king of Sparta! save thy suppliant from
the slavery that awaits the captive. Already I
am beholden to thee for one service — the
slaughter of these men, wretches who had no
regard either for gods or angels. I am by birth
a Coan, the daughter of Hegetoridas, son of
Antagoras. The Persian seized me by force in
Cos, and kept me against my will."

"Lady," answered Pausanias, "fear nothing:
as a suppliant thou art safe — and still more, if
thou hast spoken truth, and Hegetoridas of
Cos is thy father — for he is bound to me by
closer ties of friendship than any other man in
those regions."

When he had thus spoken, Pausanias placed
the woman in the charge of some of the Eph-
ors who were present, and afterwards sent her
to Egina, whither she had a desire to go.

77. About the time of this woman's coming,
the Mantineans arrived upon the field, and
found that all was over, and that it was too late

72-82]

THE HISTORY

305

to take any part in the battle. Greatly distressed
hereat, they declared themselves to deserve a
fine, as laggarts; after which, learning that a
portion of the Medes had fled away under Ar-
tabazus, they were anxious to go after them
as far as Thessaly. The Lacedaemonians how-
ever would not sufTer the pursuit; so they re-
turned again to their own land, and sent the
leaders of their army into banishment. Soon
after the Mantineans, the Eleans likewise ar-
rived, and showed the same sorrow; after
which they too returned home, and banished
their leaders. But enough concerning these na-
tions.

78. There was a man at Platrea among the
troops of the Eginetans, whose name was Lam-
pon; he was the son of Pytheas, and a person
of the first rank among his countrymen. Now
this Lampon went about this same time to
Pausanias, and counselled him to do a deed of
exceeding wickedness. "Son of Cleombrotus,"
he said very earnestly, "what thou hast already
done is passing great and glorious. By the fa-
vour of Heaven thou hast saved Greece, and
gained a renown beyond all the Greeks of
whom we have any knowledge. Now then so
finish thy work, that thine own fame may be
increased thereby, and that henceforth barbari-
ans may fear to commit outrages on the Gre-
cians. When Leomdas was slain at Thermopy-
lae, Xerxes and Mardomus commanded that he
should be beheaded and crucified. Do thou the
like at this time by Mardonius, and thou wilt
have glory in Sparta, and likewise through the
whole of Greece. For, by hanging him upon
a cross, thou wilt avenge Leonidas, who was
thy father's brother."

79. Thus spake Lampon, thinking to please
Pausanias; but Pausanias answered him — "My
Eginetan friend, for thy foresight and thy
friendliness I am much beholden to thee: but
the counsel which thou hast offered is not good.
First hast thou lifted me up to the skies, by thy
praise of my country and my achievement; and
then thou hast cast me down to the ground, by
bidding me maltreat the dead, and saying that
thus I shall raise myself in men's esteem. Such
doings befit barbarians rather than Greeks; and
even in barbarians we detest them. On such
terms then I could not wish to please the Egi-
netans, nor those who think as they think —
enough for me to gain the approval of my own
countrymen, by righteous deeds as well as by
righteous words. Leonidas, whom thou
wouldsf; have me avenge, is, I maintain, abun-
dantly avenged already. Surely the countless

lives here taken are enough to avenge not him
only, but all those who fell at Thermopylae.
Come not thou before me again with such a
speech, nor with such counsel; and thank my
forbearance that thou art not now punished."
Then Lampon, having received this answer,
departed, and went his way.

80. After this Pausanias caused proclama-
tion to be made, that no one should lay hands
on the booty, but that the Helots should collect
it and bring it all to one place. So the Helots
went and spread themselves through the camp,
wherein were found many tents richly adorned
with furniture of gold and silver, many couch-
es covered with plates of the same, and many
golden bowls, goblets, and other drinking-ves-
sels. On the carriages were bags containing sil-
ver and golden kettles; and the bodies of the
slain furnished bracelets and chains, and scy-
mitars with golden ornaments — not to men-
tion embroidered apparel, of which no one
made any account. The Helots at this time
stole many things of much value, which they
sold in after times to the Eginetans; however,
they brought in likewise no small quantity,
chiefly such things as it was not possible for
them to hide. And this was the beginning of
the great wealth of the Eginetans, who bought
the gold of the Helots as if it had been mere
brass.

81. When all the booty had been brought to-
gether, a tenth of the whole was set apart for
the Delphian god; and hence was made the
golden tripod which stands on the bronze
serpent with the three heads, quite close to the
altar. Portions were also set apart for the gods
of Olympia, and of the Isthmus; from which
were made, in the one case, a bronze Jupiter
ten cubits high; and in the other, a bronze
Neptune of seven cubits. After this, the rest of
the spoil was divided among the soldiers, each
of whom received less or more according to
his deserts; and in this way was a distribution
made of the Persian concubines, of the gold,
the silver, the beasts of burthen, and all the oth-
er valuables. What special gifts were presented
to those who had most distinguished them-
selves in the battle, I do not find mentioned by
any one; but I should suppose that they must
have had some gifts beyond the others. As for
Pausanias, the portion which was set apart for
him consisted of ten specimens of each kind of
thing — women, horses, talents, camels, or
whatever else there was in the spoil.

82. It is said that the following circumstance
happened likewise at this time. Xerxes, when

306

HERODOTUS

[BOOK ix

he fled away out of Greece, left his war-tent
with Mardonius: when Pausanias, therefore,
saw the tent with its adornments of gold and
silver, and its hangings of divers colours, he
gave commandment to the bakers and the
cooks to make him ready a banquet in such
fashion as was their wont for Mardonius. Then
they made ready as they were bidden; and
Pausanius, beholding the couches of gold and
silver daintily decked out with their rich cover-
tures, and the tables of gold and silver laid,
and the feast itself prepared with all magnifi-
cence, was astonished at the good things which
were set before him, and, being in a pleasant
mood, gave commandment to his own follow-
ers to make ready a Spartan supper. When the
suppers were both served, and it was apparent
how vast a difference lay between the two,
Pausanias laughed, and sent his servants to call
to him the Greek generals. On their coming,
he pointed to the two boards, and said: —

"I sent for you, O Greeks, to show you the
folly of this Median captain, who, when he en-
joyed such fare as this, must needs come here
to rob us of our penury."

Such, it is said, were the words of Pausanias
to the Grecian generals.

83. During many years afterwards, the Pla-
taeans used often to find upon the field of bat-
tle concealed treasures of gold, and silver, and
other valuables. More recently they likewise
made discovery of the following: the flesh hav-
ing all fallen away from the bodies of the dead,
and their bones having been gathered together
into one place, the Plataeans found a skull with-
out any seam, made entirely of a single bone;
likewise a jaw, both the upper bone and the
under, wherein all the teeth, front and back,
were joined together and made of one bone;
also, the skeleton of a man not less than five
cubits in height.

84. The body of Mardonius disappeared the
day after the battle; but who it was that stole
it away I cannot say with certainty. I have
heard tell of a number of persons, and those
too of many different nations, who are said to
have given him burial; and I know that many
have received large sums on this score from
Artontes the son of Mardonius: but I cannot
discover with any certainty which of them it
was who really took the body away, and buried
it. Among others, Dionysophanes, an Ephesi-
an, is rumoured to have been the actual person.

85. The Greeks, after sharing the booty
upon the field of Platara, proceeded to bury
their own dead, each nation apart from the

rest. The Lacedaemonians made three graves;
in one they buried their youths, among whom
were Posidonius, Amompharetus, Philocyon,
and Calhcrates; — in another, the rest of the
Spartans; and in the third, the Helots. Such
was their mode of burial. The Tegeans buried
all their dead in a single grave; as likewise did
the Athenians theirs, and the Megarians and
Phliasians those who were slain by the horse.
These graves, then, had bodies buried in them:
as for the other tombs which are to be seen at
Plataea, they were raised, as I understand, by
the Greeks whose troops took no part in the
battle; and who, being ashamed of themselves,
erected empty barrows upon the field, to obtain
credit with those who should come after them.
Among others, the Egmetans have a grave
there, which goes by their name; but which, as
I learn, was made ten years later by Cleades,
the son of Autodicus, a Plataean, at the request
of the Egmetans, whose agent he was.

86. After the Greeks had buried their dead
at Plataea, they presently held a council, where-
at it was resolved to make war upon Thebes,
and to require that those who had joined the
Medes should be delivered into their hands.
Two men, who had been the chief leaders on
the occasion, were especially named — to wit,
Timagenidas and Attaginus. If the Thebans
should refuse to give these men up, it was de-
termined to lay siege to their city, and never
stir from before it till it should surrender. Af-
ter this resolve, the army marched upon The-
bes; and having demanded the men, and been
refused, began the siege, laying waste the coun-
try all around, and making assaults upon the
wall in divers places.

87. When twenty days were gone by, and
the violence of the Greeks did not slacken,
Timagenidas thus bespake his countrymen —

"Ye men of Thebes, since the Greeks have
so decreed, that they will never desist from the
siege till either they take Thebes or we are de-
livered to them, we would not that the land
of Bccotia should suffer any longer on our be-
half. If it be money that they in truth desire,
and their demand of us be no more than a pre-
text, let money from the treasury of the state
be given them; for the state, and not we alone,
embraced the cause of the Medcs. If, however,
they really want our persons, and on that ac-
count press this siege, we are ready to be de-
livered to them and to stand our trial."

The Thebans thought this offer very right
and seasonable; wherefore, they despatched a
herald without any delay to Pausanias, and

THE HISTORY

307

told him they were willing to deliver up the

men.

88. As soon as an agreement had been con-
cluded upon these terms, Attaginus made his
escape from the city; his sons, however, were
surrendered in his place; but Pausanias refused
to hold them guilty, since children (he said)
could have had no part in such an offence. The
rest of those whom the Thebans gave up had
expected to obtain a trial, and in that case their
trust was to escape by means of bribery; but
Pausanias, afraid of this, dismissed at once the
whole army of allies, and took the men with
him to Corinth, where he slew them all. Such
were the events which happened at Plataea
and at Thebes.

89. Artabazus, the son of Pharnaces, who
fled away from Plataea, was soon far sped on
his journey. When he reached Thessaly, the
inhabitants received him hospitably, and made
inquiries of him concerning the rest of the
army, since they were still altogether ignorant
of what had taken place at Plataea: whereupon
the Persian, knowing well that, if he told them
the truth, he would run great risk of perishing
himself, together with his whole army — for if
the facts were once blazoned abroad, all who
learnt them would be sure to fall upon him —
the Persian, I say, considering this, as he had
before kept all secret from the Phocians, so
now answered the Thessalians after the fol-
lowing fashion: —

"I myself, Thessalians, am hastening, as ye
see, into Thrace; and I am fain to use all possi-
ble despatch, as I am sent with this force on
special business from the main army. Mardoni-
us and his host are close behind me, and may
be looked for shortly. When he comes, receive
him as ye have received me, and show him
every kindness. Be sure ye will never hereafter
regret it, if ye so do."

With these words he took his departure, and
marched his troops at their best speed through
Thessaly and Macedon straight upon Thrace,
following the inland route, which was the
shortest, and, in good truth, using all possible
despatch. He himself succeeded in reaching
Byzantium; but a great part of his army per-
ished upon the road — many being cut to pieces
by the Thracians, and others dying from hun-
ger and excess of toil. From Byzantium Arta-
bazus set sail, and crossed the strait; returning
into Asia in the manner which has been here
described.

90. On the same day that the blow was
struck at Plataea, another defeat befell the Per-

sians at Mycale in Ionia. While the Greek fleet
under Leotychides the Lacedaemonian was still
lying inactive at Deios, there arrived at that
place an embassy from Samos, consisting of
three men, Lampon the son of Thrasyclcs,
Athenagoras the son of Archestratidas, and
Hegesistratus the son of Aristagoras. The Sa-
mians had sent them secretly, concealing their
departure both from the Persians and from
their own tyrant Theomestor, the son of An-
drodamas, whom the Persians had made ruler
of Samos. When the ambassadors came before
the Greek captains Hegesistratus took the
word, and urged them with many and various
arguments, saying, "that the lonians only
needed to see them arrive in order to revolt
from the Persians; and that the Persians would
never abide their coming; or if they did,
'twould be to offer them the finest booty that
they could anywhere expect to gain;" while at
the same time he made appeal to the gods of
their common worship, and besought them to
deliver from bondage a Grecian race, and
withal to drive back the barbarians. "This," he
said, "might very easily be done, for the Per-
sian ships were bad sailers, and far from a
match for theirs;" adding, moreover, "that if
there was any suspicion lest the Samians in-
tended to deal treacherously, they were them-
selves ready to become hostages, and to return
on board the ships of their allies to Asia."

91. When the Samian stranger continued
importunately beseeching him, Leotychides,
either because he wanted an omen, or by a
mere chance, as God guided him, asked the
man — "Samian stranger! prithee, tell me thy
name?" "Hegesistratus (army-leader)," an-
swered the other, and might have said more,
but Leotychides stopped him by exclaiming —
"I accept, O Samian! the omen which thy
name affords. Only, before thou goest back,
swear to us, thyself and thy brother-envoys,
that the Samians will indeed be our warm
friends and allies."

92. No sooner had he thus spoken than he
proceeded to hurry forward the business. The
Samians pledged their faith upon the spot; and
oaths of alliance were exchanged between
them and the Greeks. This done, two of the
ambassadors forthwith sailed away; as for He-
gesistratus, Leotychides kept him to accom-
pany his own fleet, for he considered his name
to be a good omen. The Greeks abode where
they were that day, and on the morrow sacri-
ficed, and found the victims favourable. Their
soothsayer was Dei'phonus, the son of Evenius,

308

HERODOTUS

a man of Apollonia — I mean the Apollonia
which lies upon the Ionian Gulf.

93. A strange thing happened to this man's
father, Evcnius. The Apolloniats have a flock
of sheep sacred to the sun. During the day-
time these sheep graze along the banks of the
river which flows from Mount Lacmon
through their territory and empties itself into
the sea by the port of Oricus; while at night
they are guarded by the richest and noblest of
the citizens, who are chosen to serve the office,
and who keep the watch each for one year.
Now the Apolloniats set great store by these
sheep, on account of an oracle which they re-
ceived concerning them. The place where they
are folded at night is a cavern, a long way
from the town. Here it happened that Evenius,
when he was chosen to keep the watch, by
some accident fell asleep upon his guard; and
while he slept, the cave was entered by wolves,
which destroyed some sixty of the flock under
his care. Evenius, when he woke and found
what had occurred, kept silence about it and
told no one; for he thought to buy other sheep
and put them in the place of the slain. But the
matter came to the cars of the Apolloniats, who
forthwith brought Evenius to trial, and con-
demned him to lose his eyes, because he had
gone to sleep upon his post. Now when Eve-
nius was blinded, straightway the sheep had no
young, and the land ceased to bear its wonted
harvests. Then the Apolloniats sent to Do-
dona, and to Delphi, and asked the prophets,
what had caused the woes which so afflicted
them. The answer which they received was
this — "The woes were come for Evcnius, the
guardian of the sacred sheep, whom the Apol-
loniats had wrongfully deprived of sight. They
(the gods) had themselves sent the wolves;
nor would they ever cease to exact vengeance
for Evenius, till the Apolloniats made him
whatever atonement he liked to ask. When
this was paid, they would likewise give him a
gift, which would make many men call him
blessed."

94. Such was the tenor of the prophecies.
The Apolloniats kept them close, but charged
some of their citizens to go and make terms
with Evenius; and these men managed the
business for them in the way which I will now
describe. They found Evenius sitting upon a
bench, and, approaching him, they sat down
by his side, and began to talk: at first they
spoke of quite other matters, but in the end
they mentioned his misfortune, and offered
him their condolence. Having thus beguiled

[BooK ix

him, at last they put the question — "What
atonement would he desire, if the Apolloniats
were willing to make him satisfaction for the
wrong which they had done to him?" Here-
upon Evenius, who had not heard of the ora-
cle, made answer — "If I were given the lands
of this man and that — " (here he named the
two men whom he knew to have the finest
farms in Apollonia), "and likewise the house
of this other" — (and here he mentioned the
house which he knew to be the handsomest in
the town), "I would, when master of these, be
quite content, and my wrath would cease alto-
gether." As soon as Evenius had thus spoken,
the men who sat by him rejoined — "Evenius,
the Apolloniats give thee the atonement which
thou hast desired, according to the bidding of
the oracles." Then Evenius understood the
whole matter, and was enraged that they had
deceived him so; but the Apolloniats bought
the farms from their owners, and gave Evenius
what he had chosen. After this was done,
straightway Evenius had the gift of prophecy,
insomuch that he became a famous man in
Greece.

95. Deiphonus, the son of this Evenius, had
accompanied the Corinthians, and was sooth-
sayer, as I said before, to the Greek armament.
One account, however, which I have heard,
declares that he was not really the son of this
man, but only took the name, and then went
about Greece and let out his services for hire.

96. The Greeks, as soon as the victims were
favourable, put to sea, and sailed across from
Delos to Samos. Arriving off Calami, a place
upon the Samian coast, they brought the fleet
to an anchor near the temple of Juno which
stands there, and prepared to engage the Per-
sians by sea. These latter, however, no sooner
heard of the approach of the Greeks, than, dis-
missing the Phoenician ships, they sailed away
with the remainder to the mainland. For it had
been resolved in council not to risk a battle,
.since the Persian fleet was thought to be no
match for that of the enemy. They fled, there-
fore, to the main, to be under the protection of
their land army, which now lay at Mycale, and
consisted of the troops left behind by Xerxes
to keep guard over Ionia. This was an army of
sixty thousand men, under the command of
Tigranes, a Persian of more than common
beauty and stature. The captains resolved
therefore to betake themselves to these troops
for defence, to drag their ships ashore, and to
build a rampart around them, which might
at once protect the fleet, and serve likewise as

93-iQi ]

THE HISTORY

309

a place of refuge for themselves.

97. Having so resolved, the commanders
put out to sea; and passing the temple of the
Eumenides, arrived at Gseson and Scolopoeis,
which are in the territory of Mycate. Here
is a temple of Eleusinian Ceres, built by Philis-
tus the son of Pasicles who came to Asia with
Neileus the son of Codrus, what time he
founded Miletus. At this place they drew the
ships up on the beach, and surrounded them
with a rampart made of stones and trunks of
trees, cutting down for this purpose all the
fruit-trees which grew near, and defending the
barrier by means of stakes firmly planted in
the ground. Here they were prepared either to
win a battle, or undergo a siege — their
thoughts embracing both chances.

98. The Greeks, when they understood that
the barbarians had fled to the mainland, were
sorely vexed at their escape: nor could they de-
termine at first what they should do, whether
they should return home, or proceed to the
Hellespont. In the end, however, they resolved
to do neither, but to make sail for the conti-
nent. So they made themselves ready for a sea-
fight by the preparation of boarding-bridges,
and what else was necessary; provided with
which they sailed to Mycale. Now when they
came to the place where the camp was, they
found no one venture out to meet them, but
observed the ships all dragged ashore within
the barrier, and a strong land-force drawn up
in battle array upon the beach; Lcotychides
therefore sailed along the shore in his ship,
keeping as close hauled to the land as possible,
and by the voice of a herald thus addressed the
lonians: —

"Men of Ionia — ye who can hear me speak
— do ye take heed to what I say; for the Per-
sians will not understand a word that I utter.
When we join battle with them, before aught
else, remember Freedom — and next, recollect
our watchword, which is Hebe*. If there be any
who hear me not, let those who hear report my
words to the others."

In all this Leotychides had the very same de-
sign which Themistocles entertained at Ar-
temisium. Either the barbarians would not
know what he had said, and the lonians would
be persuaded to revolt from them; or if his
words were reported to the former, they would
mistrust their Greek soldiers.

99. After Leotychides had made this ad-
dress, the Greeks brought their ships to the
land, and, having disembarked, arrayed them-
selves for the battle. When the Persians saw

them marshalling their array, and bethought
themselves of the advice which had been of-
fered to the lonians, their first act was to dis-
arm the Samians, whom they suspected of
complicity with the enemy. For it had hap-
pened lately that a number of the Athenians
who lingered in Attica, having been made
prisoners by the troops of Xerxes, were brought
to Asia on board the barbarian fleet; and these
men had been ransomed, one and all, by the
Samians, who sent them back to Athens, well
furnished with provisions for the way. On this
account, as much as on any other, the Samians
were suspected, as men who had paid the ran-
som of five hundred of the king's enemies. Af-
ter disarming them, the Persians next des-
patched the Milesians to guard the paths which
lead up into the heights of Mycale, because
(they said) the Milesians were well acquainted
with that region: their true object, however,
was to remove them to a distance from the
camp. In this way the Persians sought to secure
themselves against such of the lonians as they
thought likely, if occasion offered, to make re-
bellion. They then joined shield to shield, and
so made themselves a breastwork against the
enemy.

100. The Greeks now, having finished their
preparations, began to move towards the bar-
barians; when, lo! as they advanced, a rumour
flew through the host from one end to the
other — that the Greeks had fought and con-
quered the army of Mardonius in Bceotia. At
the same time a herald's wand was observed
lying upon the beach. Many things prove to
me that the gods take part in the affairs of<
man. How else, when the battles of Mycale and
Plataea were about to happen on the self same
day, should such a rumour have reached the
Greeks in that region, greatly cheering the
whole army, and making them more eager
than before to risk their lives.

1 01. A strange coincidence too it was, that
both the battles should have been fought near
a precinct of Eleusinian Ceres. The fight at
Plataca took place, as I said before, quite close
to one of Ceres' temples; and now the battle
at Mycale was to be fought hard by another.
Rightly, too, did the rumour run, that the
Greeks with Pausanias had gained their vic-
tory; for the fight at Plataea fell early in the
day, whereas that at Mycale was towards eve-
ning. That the two battles were really fought
on the same day of the same month became ap-
parent when inquiries were made a short time
afterwards. Before the rumour reached them,

310

HERODOTUS

[BOOK ix

the Greeks were full of fear, not so much on
their own account, as for their countrymen,
and for Greece herself, lest she should be
worsted in her struggle with Mardonius. But
when the voice fell on them, their fear van-
ished, and they charged more vigorously and
at a quicker pace. So the Greeks and the bar-
barians rushed with like eagerness to the fray;
for the Hellespont and the Islands formed the
prize for which they were about to fight.

102. The Athenians, and the force drawn
up with them, who formed one half of the
army, marched along the shore, where the
country was low and level; but the way for the
Lacedaemonians, and the troops with them, lay
across hills and a torrent-course. Hence, while
the Lacedemonians were effecting their pas-
sage round, the Athenians on the other wing
had already closed with the enemy. So long as
the wicker bucklers of the Persians continued
standing, they made a stout defence, and had
not even the worst of the battle; but when the
Athenians, and the allies with them, wishing
to make the victory their own, and not share
it with the Lacedaemonians, cheered each oth-
er on with shouts, and attacked them with the
utmost fierceness, then at last the face of things
became changed. For, bursting through the
line of shields, and rushing forwards in a
body, the Greeks fell upon the Persians; who,
though they bore the charge and for a long
time maintained their ground, yet at length
took refuge in their intrenchment. Here the
Athenians themselves, together with those who
followed them in the line of battle, the Corin-
thians, the Sicyomans, and the Troezenians,
pressed so closely on the steps of their flying
foes, that they entered along with them into
the fortress. And now, when even their fort-
ress was taken, the barbarians no longer of-
fered resistance, but fled hastily away, all save
only the Persians. They still continued to fight
in knots of a few men against the Greeks, who
kept pouring into the intrenchment. And here,
while two of the Persian commanders fled, two
fell upon the field: Artayntes and Ithamitres,
who were leaders of the fleet, escaped; Mar-
dontes, and the commander of the land force,
Tigranes, died fighting.

103. The Persians still held out, when the
Lacedaemonians, and their part of the army,
reached the camp, and joined in the remainder
of the battle. The number of Greeks who fell
in the struggle here was not small; the Sicyoni-
ans especially lost many, and, among the rest,
Pcnlaiis their general.

The Samians, who served with the Medes,
and who, although disarmed, still remained in
the camp, seeing from the very beginning of
the fight that the victory was doubtful, did all
that lay in their power to render help to the
Greeks. And the other lonians likewise, be-
holding their example, revolted and attacked
the Persians.

104. As for the Milesians, who had been or-
dered, for the better security of the Persians', to
guard the mountain-paths, — that, in case any
accident befell them such as had now hap-
pened, they might not lack guides to conduct
them into the high tracts of Mycale*, — and who
had also been removed to hinder them from
making an outbreak in the Persian camp; they,
instead of obeying their orders, broke them
in every respect. For they guided the flying
Persians by wrong roads, which brought them
into the presence of the enemy; and at last they
set upon them with their own hands, and
showed themselves the hottest of their adver-
saries. Ionia, therefore, on this day revolted a
second time from the Persians.

105. In this battle the Greeks who behaved
with the greatest bravery were the Athenians;
and among them the palm was borne off by
Hermolycus, the son of Euthynus, a man ac-
complished in the Pancratium. This Hermoly-
cus was afterwards slain m the war between
the Athenians and Carystians. He fell in the
fight near Cyrnus in the Carystian territory,
and was buried m the neighbourhood of Ger-
a-stus. After the Athenians, the most distin-
guished on the Greek side were the Corinthi-
ans, the Troezenians, and the Sicyomans.

1 06. The Greeks, when they had slaugh-
tered the greater portion of the barbarians,
either in the battle or in the rout, set fire to
their ships and burnt them, together with the
bulwark which had been raised for their de-
fence, first however removing therefrom all
the booty, and carrying it down to the beach.
Besides other plunder, they found here many
caskets of money. When they had burnt the
rampart and the vessels, the Greeks sailed
away to Samos, and there took counsel to-
gether concerning the lonians, whom they
thought of removing out of Asia. Ionia they
proposed to abandon to the barbarians; and
their doubt was, in what part of their own pos-
sessions in Greece they should settle its inhabi-
tants. For it seemed to them a thing impossible
that they should be ever on the watch to guard
and protect Ionia; and yet otherwise there
could be no hope that the lonians would escape

I02-IIO ]

THE HISTORY

311

the vengeance of the Persians. Hereupon the
Peloponnesian leaders proposed that the sea-
port towns of such Greeks as had sided with
the Medes should be taken away from them,
and made over to the lonians. The Athenians,
on the other hand, were very unwilling that
any removal at all should take place, and dis-
liked the Peloponnesians holding councils con-
cerning their colonists. So, as they set them-
selves against the change, the Peloponnesians
yielded with a good will. Hereupon the Sami-
ans, Chians, Lesbians, and other islanders, who
had helped the Greeks at this time, were re-
ceived into the league of the allies; and took the
oaths, binding themselves to be faithful, and
not desert the common cause. Then the Greeks
sailed away to the Hellespont, where they
meant to break down the bridges, which they
supposed to be still extended across the strait.

107. The barbarians who escaped from the
battle — a scanty remnant — took refuge in the
heights of Mycale, whence they made good
their retreat to Sardis. During the march, Ma-
sistes, the son of Darius, who had been present
at the disaster, had words with Artayntes, the
general, on whom he showered many re-
proaches. He called him, among other things,
"worse than a woman," for the way in which
he had exercised his command, and said there
was no punishment which he did not deserve to
suffer for doing the king's house such grievous
hurt. Now with the Persians there is no greater
insult than to call a man "worse than a wom-
an." So when Artayntes had borne the re-
proaches for some while, at last he fell in a rage,
and drew his scymitar upon Masistes, being
fain to kill him. But a certain Hahcarnassian,
Xenagoras by name, the son of Praxilaiis, who
stood behind Artayntes at the time, seeing him
in the act of rushing forward, seized him sud-
denly round the waist, and, lifting him from
his feet, dashed him down upon the ground;
which gave time for the spearmen who guard-
ed Masistes to come to his aid. By his conduct
here Xenagoras gained the favour, not of Ma-
sistes only, but likewise of Xerxes himself,
whose brother he had preserved from death;
and the king rewarded his action by setting
him over the whole land of Cihcia. Except this,
nothing happened upon the road; and the men
continued their march and came all safe to
Sardis. At Sardis they found the king, who
had been there ever since he lost the sea-fight
and fled from Athens to Asia.

1 08. During the time that Xerxes abode at
this place, he fell in love with the wife of Ma-

sistes, who was likewise staying in the city. He
therefore sent her messages, but failed to win
her consent; and he could not dare to use vio-
lence, out of regard to Masistes, his brother.
This the woman knew well enough, and hence
it was that she had the boldness to resist him.
So Xerxes, finding no other way open, devised
a marriage between his own son Darius and a
daughter of this woman and Masistes — think-
ing that he might better obtain his ends if he
effected this union. Accordingly he betrothed
these two persons to one another, and, after the
usual ceremonies were completed, took his de-
parture for Susa. When he was come there,
and had received the woman into his palace
as his son's bride, a change came over him, and
losing all love for the wife of Masistes, he con-
ceived a passion for his son's bride, Masistes'
daughter. And Artaynta — for so was she called
— very soon returned his love.

109. After a while the thing was discovered
in the way which I will now relate. Amcstris,
the wife of Xerxes, had woven with her own
hands a long robe, of many colours, and very
curious, which she presented to her husband
as a gift. Xerxes, who was greatly pleased with
it, forthwith put it on; and went in it to visit
Artaynta, who happened likewise on this day
to please him greatly. He therefore bade her
ask him whatever boon she liked, and prom-
ised that, whatever it was, he would assuredly
grant her request. Then Artaynta, who was
doomed to suffer calamity together with her
whole house, said to him — "Wilt thou indeed
give me whatever I like to ask?" So the king,
suspecting nothing less than that her choice
would fall where it did, pledged his word, and
swore to her. She then, as soon as she heard
his oath, asked boldly for the robe. Hereupon
Xerxes tried all possible means to avoid the
gift; not that he grudged to give it, but because
he dreaded Amestns, who already suspected,
and would now, he feared, detect his love. So
he offered her cities instead, and heaps of gold,
and an army which should obey no other lead-
er. (The last of these is a thoroughly Persian
gift.) But, as nothing could prevail on Artayn-
ta to change her mind, at the last he gave her
the robe. Then Artaynta was very greatly re-
joiced, and she often wore the garment and
was proud of it. And so it came to the ears of
Amestris that the robe had been given to her.

no. Now when Amestris learnt the whole
matter, she felt no anger against Artaynta; but,
looking upon her mother, the wife of Masistes,
as the cause of all the mischief, she determined

312

HERODOTUS

[BOOK ix

to compass her death. She waited, therefore,
till her husband gave the great royal banquet,
a feast which takes place once every year, in
celebration of the king's birthday — "Tykta"
the feast is called in the Persian tongue, which
in our language may be rendered "perfect" —
and this is the only day in all the year on which
the king soaps his head, and distributes gifts
to the Persians. Amestris waited, accordingly,
for this day, and then made request of Xerxes,
that he would please to give her, as her present,
the wife of Masistes. But he refused; for it
seemed to him shocking and monstrous to give
into the power of another a woman who was not
only his brother's wife, but was likewise wholly
guiltless of what had happened — the more es-
pecially as he knew well enough with what in-
tent Amestris had preferred her request.

in. At length, however, wearied by her
importunity, and constrained moreover by the
law of the feast, which required that no one
who asked a boon that day at the king's board
should be denied his request, he yielded, but
with a very ill will, and gave the woman into
her power. Having so done, and told Amestris
she might deal with her as she chose, the king
called his brother into his presence, and said —

"Masistes, thou art my brother, the son of
my father Darius; and, what is more, thou art
a good man. I pray thee, live no longer with
the wife whom thou now hast. Behold, I will
give thee instead my own daughter in mar-
riage; take her to live with thee. But part first
with the wife thou now hast — I like not that
thou keep to her."

To this Masistes, greatly astonished, an-
swered—

"My lord and master, how strange a speech
hast thou uttered! Thou biddest me put away
my wife, who has borne me three goodly
youths, and daughters besides, whereof thou
hast taken one and espoused her to a son of
thine own — thou biddest me put away this
wife, notwithstanding that she pleases me
greatly, and marry a daughter of thine! In
truth, O king! that I am accounted worthy to
wed thy daughter, is an honour which I might-
ily esteem; but yet to do as thou sayest am I in
no wise willing. I pray thee, use not force to
compel me to yield to thy prayer. Be sure thy
daughter will find a husband to the full as
worthy as myself. Suffer me then to live on
with my own wife."

Thus did Masistes answer; and Xerxes, in
wrath, replied — "I will tell thee, Masistes,
what thou hast gained by these words. I will

not give thee my daughter; nor shalt thou live
any longer with thy own wife. So mayest thou
learn, in time to come, to take what is offered
thee." Masistes, when he heard this, withdrew,
only saying — "Master, thou hast not yet taken
my life."

112. While these things were passing be-
tween Xerxes and his brother Masistes, Ames-
tris sent for the spearmen of the royal body-
guard, and caused the wife of Masistes to be
mutilated in a horrible fashion. Her two
breasts, her nose, ears, and lips were cut off
and thrown to the dogs; her tongue was torn
out by the roots, and thus disfigured she was
sent back to her home.

113. Masistes, who knew nothing of what
had happened, but was fearful that some ca-
lamity had befallen him, ran hastily to his
house. There, finding his wife so savagely
used, he forthwith took counsel with his sons,
and, accompanied by them and certain others
also, set forth on his way to Bactria, intending
to stir up revolt in that province, and hoping
to do great hurt to Xerxes: all which, I believe,
he would have accomplished, if he had once
reached the Bactrian and Sacan people; for he
was greatly beloved by them both, and was
moreover satrap of Bactria. But Xerxes, hear-
ing of his designs, sent an armed force upon
his track, and slew him while he was still upon
the road, with his sons and his whole army.
Such is the tale of King Xerxes' love and of the
death of his brother Masistes.

114. Meanwhile the Greeks, who had left
Mycale*, and sailed for the Hellespont, were
forced by contrary winds to anchor near Lec-
tum; from which place they afterwards sailed
on to Abydos. On arriving here, they discov-
ered that the bridges, which they had thought
to find standing, and which had been the chief
cause of their proceeding to the Hellespont,
were already broken up and destroyed. Upon
this discovery, Leotychides, and the Pelopon-
nesians under him, were anxious to sail back to
Greece; but the Athenians, with Xanthippus
their captain, thought good to remain, and
resolved to make an attempt upon the Cher-
sonese. So, while the Peloponnesians sailed
away to their homes, the Athenians crossed
over from Abydos to the Chersonese, and there
laid siege to Sestos.

115. Now, as Sestos was the strongest fort-
ress in all that region, the rumour had no soon-
er gone forth that the Greeks were arrived at
the Hellespont, than great numbers flocked
thither from all the towns in the neighbour-

III-I20 ]

THE HISTORY

313

hood. Among the rest there came a certain
CEobazus, a Persian, from the city of Cardia,
where he had laid up the shore-cables which
had been used in the construction of the
bridges. The town was guarded by its own
/Eolian inhabitants, but contained also some
Persians, and a great multitude of their allies.

116. The whole district was under the rule
of Artayctes, one of the king's satraps; who
was a Persian, but a wicked and cruel man. At
the time when Xerxes was marching against
Athens, he had craftily possessed himself of
the treasures belonging to Protesilaiis the son
of Iphiclus, which were at Ela?sus in the
Chersonese. For at this place is the tomb of
Protesilaiis, sui rounded by a sacred precinct;
and here there was great store of wealth, vases
of gold and silver, works in brass, garments,
and other offerings, all which Artayctes made
his prey, having got the king's consent by thus
cunningly addressing him —

"Master, there is in this region the house of
a Greek, who, when he attacked thy territory,
met his due reward, and perished. Give me his
house, I pray thee, that hereafter men may fear
to carry arms against thy land."

By these words he easily persuaded Xerxes
to give him the man's house; for there was no
suspicion of his design in the king's mind. And
he could say in a certain sense that Protesilaiis
had borne arms against the land of the king;
because the Persians consider all Asia to belong
to them, and to their king for the time being.
So when Xerxes allowed his request, he
brought all the treasures from Elaesus to Scstos,
and made the sacred land into cornfields and
pasture land; nay, more, whenever he paid a
visit to Elaeus, he polluted the shrine itself by
vile uses. It was this Artayctes who was now
besieged by the Athenians — and he was but ill
prepared for defence; since the Greeks had
fallen upon him quite unawares, nor had he in
the least expected their coming.

117. When it was now late in the autumn,
and the siege still continued, the Athenians be-
gan to murmur that they were kept abroad so
long; and, seeing that they were not able to
take the place, besought their captains to lead
them back to their own country. But the cap-
tains refused to move, till either the city had
fallen, or the Athenian people ordered them to
return home. So the soldiers patiently bore up
against their sufferings.

118. Meanwhile those within the walls were
reduced to the last straits, and forced even to
boil the very thongs of their beds for food. At

last, when these too failed them, Artayctes and
CEobazus, with the native Persians, fled away
from the place by night, having let themselves
down from the wall at the back of the town,
where the blockading force was scantiest. As
soon as day dawned, they of the Chersonese
made signals to the Greeks from the walls, and
let them know what had happened, at the
same time throwing open the gates of their
city. Hereupon, while some of the Greeks
entered the town, others, and those the more
numerous body, set out in pursuit of the enemy.

119. CEobazus fled into Thrace; but there
the Apsmthian Thracians seized him, and of-
fered him, after their wonted fashion, to Plei-
storus, one of the gods of their country. His
companions they likewise put to death, but in
a different manner. As for Artayctes and the
troops with him, who had been the last to
leave the town, they were overtaken by the
Greeks, not far from yfcgospotami, and de-
fended themselves stoutly for a time, but were
at last either killed or taken prisoners. Those
whom they made prisoners the Greeks bound
with chains, and brought with them to Sestos.
Artayctes and his son were among the number.

120. Now the Chersonesites relate that the
following prodigy befell one of the Greeks
who guarded the captives. He was broiling
upon a fire some salted fish, when of a sudden
they began to leap and quiver, as if they had
been only just caught. Hereat, the rest of the
guards hurried round to look, and were great-
ly amazed at the sight. Artayctes, however, be-
holding the prodigy, called the man to him,
and said —

"Fear not, Athenian stranger, because of this
marvel. It has not appeared on thy account,
but on mine. Protesilaiis of Elaeus has sent it to
show me, that albeit he is dead and embalmed
with salt, he has power from the gods to chas-
tise his injurer. Now then I would fain acquit
my debt to him thus. For the riches which I
took from his temple, I will fix my fine at one
hundred talents — while for myself and this boy
of mine, I will give the Athenians two hun-
dred talents, on condition that they will spare
our lives."

Such were the promises of Artayctes; but
they failed to persuade Xanthippus. For the
men of Elaeus, who wished to avenge Protesi-
laiis, entreated that he might be put to death;
and Xanthippus himself was of the same mind.
So they led Artayctes to the tongue of land
where the bridges of Xerxes had been fixed —
or, according to others, to the knoll above the

314

HERODOTUS

town of Madytus; and, having nailed him to
a board, they left him hanging thereupon. As
for the son of Artayctes, him they stoned to
death before his eyes.

121. This done, they sailed back to Greece,
carrying with them, besides other treasures,
the shore cables from the bridges of Xerxes,
which they wished to dedicate in their tem-
ples. And this was all that took place that year.

122. It was the grandfather of the Artayctes,
one Artembares by name, who suggested to the
Persians a proposal which they readily em- ,
braced, and thus urged upon Cyrus: — "Since
Jove," they said, "has overthrown Astyages,
and given the rule to the Persians, and to thee
chiefly, O Cyrus! come now, let us quit this
land wherein we dwell — for it is a scant land
and a rugged — and let us choose ourselves
some other better country. Many such lie

around us, some nearer, some further ofT: if
we take one of these, men will admire us far
more than they do now. Who that had the
power would not so act? And when shall we
have a fairer time than now, when we are
lords of so many nations, and rule all Asia?"
Then Cyrus, who did not greatly esteem the
counsel, told them, — "they might do so, if they
liked — but he warned them not to expect in
that case to continue rulers, but to prepare for
being ruled by others — soft countries gave birth
to soft men — there was no region which pro-
duced very delightful fruits, and at the same
time men of a warlike spirit." So the Persians
departed with altered minds, confessing that
Cyrus was wiser than they; and chose rather to
dwell in a churlish land, and exercise lordship,
than to cultivate plains, and be the slaves of
others.

MAPS: HERODOTUS

I. BABYLON

II. PERSIAN EMPIRE

III. SCYTHIA

IV. AFRICA, ACCORDING TO HERODOTUS
V. THE REGION OF THE AEGEAN

VI. MARATHON

VII. THERMOPYLAE

VIII. SALAMIS

IX. PLAT^A

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IX. PLAT/EA

Index

Abaris, the Hyperborean, tale of, 130

Abydos, Xerxes' anger at destruction of bridge at,
222; views his armament at, 224; retreating
Persians at, 281

Acanthus, Xerxes at, 235

Aces, river of Asia, its five channels water the five
nations, 114; distress occasioned by the Great
King blocking its passage between the hills, 114

Achaeans, the, 34

Achaemenes, advises Xerxes as to his further ad-
vance against the Greeks, 258

Acropolis, huge serpent in, 267; captured by the
Persians, 268

Adeimatus, Corinthian commander, story of his
flight from Salamis, 276

Adrastas, King of Argos, worship of, 172, 173

Adrastus, the Phrygian, 8-10

Adyrmachidae, African tribe, 154

^Eaces, former tyrant of Samos, ousted by Aris-
tagoras, offers terms from the Persians to the
Samians, 188; re-established on his throne, 190

/Eolians, the, 33, 34, 35, 49; furnish ships for
Xerxes' fleet, 231

^sop, 77

Africa, see Libya

Agathyrsi, the, 142; their love of luxury, 142; they
have wives in common, 142; refuse to help the
Scythians, 144; they forbid the latter to cross
their borders, 145, 146

Agbatana, description of, 23, 24

Alarodians, in Xerxes' army, 229

Alcxus, the poet, 180

Alcmaeomdae, the, banished from Athens, 171;
build the temple at Delphi, 171; bribe the Py-
thoness to induce the Lacedemonians to free
Athens, 171; charge of treachery against, 208,
209; history of the family, 209; Cra-sus' gener-
osity towards, 209; further prosperity of family,
209-211

Alexander, son of Amyntas, satrap of Macedonia,
slays the Persian ambassadors, 163; bribes Bu-
bares, the Persian, to hush up the matter, 163; is
allowed, as a Greek, to enter the foot-race at
Olympia, 163; advises the Greeks to retire from
Tempe, 247; sent as envoy to Athens, 285; his
descent from Perdiccas, 285, 286; delivers the
message from Mardomus, 286; the Athenians
answer to him, 287; his warning to the Athe-
nians, 298

Alyattes, King of Lydia, war with Milesia, 4, 5;
his death, 6; war with Cyaxares, 17; his tomb,
22

Amasis, King of Egypt, 18; settles Greeks at Mem-
phis, 82; leads the rebels against Apries, 84;

takes the latter prisoner, and gives him up to
his subjects, 85; succeeds Apries as king, 85;
wins over the Egyptians in a curious way, 86;
his general habit of life, 86; builds gateway to
temple of Minerva, 86; sets up colossal statues
and Sphinxes, 86; builds temple of his at Mem-
phis, 87; wise law passed by, 87; gives city and
lands to the Greeks, 87; gives money for re-
building temple at Delhi, 87; concludes a league
with Gyrene, 87; his wife, 87; his gifts to tem-
ples, 88; his conquest of Cyprus, 88; expedition
of Cambyses against, 89; his death, 91; his body
insulted and burned by Cambyses, 92, 93; his
letter of advice to Polycrates, 98; dissolves con-
tract of friendship with, 99; the corselet given
by, to the temple of Minerva, 99

Amazons, Scythian name for, 143; they massacre
the Greek crews and plunder Scythian territory,
143; the Scythians take them for wives, 143;
they settle on the further side of the Tanais,
144; their descendants, 144

Amber, 114

Amestns, wife of Xerxes, her revenge on Masis-
tres' wife, 311, 312

Ammonians, the, African tribe, 156; Cambyses
sends expedition against, 93, 95; the army mys-
teriously disappears, 95

Amompharetus, refuses to obey the orders of
Pausanias, 300, 301

Amyntas, satrap of Macedonia, story of the Per-
sian ambassadors at his court, 162, 163; his fam-
ily of Greek origin, 163

Anacharsis, 132; his attachment to foreign cus-
toms causes his death, 137

Anaxandndas, King of Sparta, his two wives, 167

Anchimohus, leader of the Lacedaemonians
against Athens, his death and tomb, 171, 172

Androphagi, the, 142; their nomad life and lan-
guage, 142; their cannibalism, 142; they refuse
to help the Scythians, 144; the Scythians lead
the enemy through their territory, 145; they flee
to the desert, 146

Andros, siege of, 280

Angarum, Persian name for the riding post, 277

Anthylla, assigned to the wife of the ruler of
Egypt to keep her in shoes, 68

Anysis, King of Egypt, 78, 79

Apis, see Epaphus

Apollo, 82, 83; temple of, at Branchidae, 83

Apries (Pharaoh-Hophra), King of Egypt, 152;
fights with the King of Tyre, 84; reverse of his
army and consequent rebellion, 84; fights with
the rebels at Momemphis, and taken prisoner,
85; is killed by his subjects, 85

325

326

INDEX

Arabia, spices and gum peculiar to, 112; winged
serpents and vipers in, 113; sheep of, 113

Arabian Desert, method of supplying water to, 90

Arabians, their customs and gods, 90; never en-
slaved by the Persians, 109; their yearly gift of
frankincense to Persia, 1 1 1 ; their manner of col-
lecting frankincense, cassia, and cinnamon, 113;
of procuring ladanum, 113; in Xerxes' army,
their equipment for war, 228; their camels, 230

Araxes, river, 45

Arcadia, deserters from, give Xerxes an account
of the Olympic (James, 264

Arccsilaus, King of the Cyrcna-ans, 152

Arcesilaus, grandson of above, refuses to submit
to Dernonax, and Hecs to Samos, 153; returns
with troops, and regains his power at Gyrene,
153; disregards the oracle and fulfils his destiny,

JS3

Ardys, King of Lydia, 4

Argippa-ans, the, a bald-headed race, 128; particu-
lar fruit which serves them for food and drink,
128

Argivcs, fight of the three hundred, with three
hundred Lacedemonians, 19; best musi-
cians in Greece, 117; the Argives and Cleo-
menes, 200, 201 ; refuse help to Egina, 203; their
reply to the Greek ambassadors, 241, 242; their
friendship with the Persians, 242

Argonauts, the Mmya! descended from, 149

Arians, in Xerxes' army, their equipment for war,
228

Arimaspi, the, a one-eyed race, 114, 126, 128

Anon and the Dolphin, 5

Anstagoras, governor of Miletus, the exiles from
Naxos beg his help, 165; persuades Artaphernes
to send expedition against the island, 165; he
joins forces with the Persian licet, 165; his quar-
rel with Mcgabatcs, the commander, 166, fail-
ure of his expedition, 166; receives messenger
from Ilistiivus, 166; holds a council with his
friends and resolves on revolt against Darius,
166, 167; lays down his lordship and establishes
a commonwealth, 167; puts down the tyrants
throughout Ionia, 167; endeavours in vain to
gain the help of Cleomenes, King of Sparta,
169, 170; obtains help from Athens, 180; sends
word to the P.romans to escape, 181; failure of
Ionian revolt, 184; rcsoKes on (light, 185; sails
to Thrace, 185; he and his army destroyed, 185

Aristeas, the poet, 126; his mysterious disappear-
ances and reappearance, 126, 127; statue bear-
ing his name, 127

Aristidcs, brings tidings to Themistocles of the
Persian fleet, 273; addresses the council, 274;
slays the Persians on Psyttaleia, 276

Artiscus, the, Darius at, 140

Aristodemus, the Spartan, sole survivor of Ther-
mopylx, 257, 303

Ariston, King of Sparta, story of, 196, 197

Armenians, 169; in Xerxes' army, their equip-
ment for war, 229

Artabanus, his speech dissuading Xerxes from at-

tacking Greece, 216-218; Xerxes' vision appears
to him, 218-220; his conversation with Xerxes
at Abydos, 224-226; Xerxes' message to, 268, 269

Artabazus, lays siege to Potidaca, 283; his advice
at the Persian council of war, 297; his conduct
at Plat«ca, 302; he escapes to Byzantium, 307

Artachaes, the Persian, his immense height, his
death and funeral, 235

Artaphernes, brother of Darius, made governor of
Sardis, 164; is induced by Anstagoras to send
an expedition against Naxos, 165; receives Athe-
nian ambassadors, 174; orders the Athenians to
take back Hippias, 180; defends Sardis, 181;
discovers the treachery of Hi&tueus, 186; puts
down conspiracy in Sardis, 186; settles affairs in
Ionia, 193

Artaphernes, son of the above, in command of
troops, for the invasion of Greece, 203; course
of the expedition, 203-205

Artayctes, governor of Sestos, his unholy deeds
and punishment, 222, 313; besieged at Sestos,
313; taken prisoner and put to death with his
son, 313, 314

Artaxerxes, meaning of name, 204

Artembares, his proposal to Cyrus and the Per-
sians, 314

Artemisia, Queen of Halicarnassus, furnishes
ships for Xerxes' fleet, and herself accompanies
the expedition against Greece, 232; cities ruled
by, 232; dissuades Xerxes from risking a sea-
fight with the Greeks, 271; her conduct during
the battle of Salamis, 274, 275; reward offered
for her capture, 276; she escapes, 276; her ad-
vice to Xerxes, 278; he gives some of his chil-
dren into her care, 278

Artemisium, description of, 247, 248; Greek fleet
at, 248, 260; naval engagements between
Greeks and Persians at, 261-262, 262, 263

Aryandcs, governor of Egypt, seeks to rival Da-
rius and is put to death, 153, 154; helps Phere-
tnna with forces against the Barcaeans, 154

Asbysta:, the, African tribe, 154

Ascalon, ancient temple of Venus at, 25

Asia, plain in, converted into a sea, 114; chief
tracts of, 130; its size and boundaries, 130, 131;
greater part discovered by Darius, 131; origin
of name, 131, 132

Asmach, the, or "Deserters," 55

Asses, their braying frightens the Scythian horse,
146; wild, in Africa, 157

Assyria, its produce and climate, 43, 44; boats
used by the natives, 44

Assyrians, their warlike equipment, 228; in
Xerxes' army, 228

Astyages, King of the Medes, 16; captured by
Cyrus, 17; his visions, 25; gives orders for the
destruction of the infant Cyrus, 25; his horrible
punishment of Harpagus, 28; revenge of the
latter, and fall of Astyages, 29, 30

Asychis (Shishak?), King of Egypt, builds gate-
way to temple of Vulcan, and a pyramid of
brick, 77, 78

INDEX

327

Atarantians, the, African tribe, 156

Athenians, march against the Peloponnesians at
Eleusis, 174; defeat the Boeotians, 175; and the
Chalcidians, 175; forbidden by oracle to take
immediate revenge on the Eginetans, 177; they
determine to be at open enmity with the Per-
sians, 1 80; consent to help Aristagoras, 180;
send fleet to help the lonians, 181 ; refuse to give
them further help, 181; they charge the Egine-
tans with being traitors to Greece, 194; refuse
to give up the Eginetan hostages, 201, 202; they
plan to attack Egina, 202; defeat the Eginetans
in a naval battle, 203; some of their ships cap-
tured by the enemy, 203; they prepare to meet
the Persians, 206, 207; battle of Marathon, 207-
208; their patriotic conduct, 239; the saviours
of Greece, 239; receive warnings from the ora-
cle, 239, 240; Themistocles re-assures them, 240;
they become a maritime power, 240; they re-
move the women and children from Attica and
prepare for the Persians, 267; battle of Salamis,
274, 275; their reply to the Persian envoy sent
by Mardomus, 287; to the Spartan envoys, 287;
to the second envoy from Mardonius, 288; the
Athenians seek refuge at Salamis, 288; their
embassy to Sparta, 289; join the Lacedaemonians
at the Isthmus, 292; they and the Tegeans both
angrily claim to have a wing of the army as-
signed them, 293, 294; are warned by Alexan-
der of Macedon, 298; they change places with
the Spartans, 298; their retreat, 300; unable to
reach the Lacedaemonians in time to help at the
battle of Platsea, 301 ; help in attack on Persian
camp, 303; they bury their dead, 306; at Mycalc,
310; their successful siege of Sestos, 312, 313;
they carry home with them the cables from
Xerxes' bridges, 314

Athens, under Hipparchus and Hippias, 170, 172;
its power increases after their downfall, 172;
its inhabitants divided into ten tribes by Clis-
thencs, 172; rivalry between Clisthenes and
Isagoras, 173; Cleomenes, King of Sparta, en-
ters the town, but is forced to retire, 173, 174;
sends envoys to Sardis to make alliance with the
Persians, 174; cause of the feud with Egina,
175-177; the women kill a man with their
brooches, 177; their punishment, 177; Darius
sends expedition against, 203; treatment of
Persian heralds to, 237, 238; taken by Persians,
268

Athos, canal of, cut by Xerxes, 220, 221; passage
through of his fleet, 236

Atlantcs, the, African tribe, reported never to eat
any living thing and never to have any dreams,
156

Atlas Mountain, 156

Atys, son of Croesus, 8-10

Augila, district of Africa, 156

Auschisae, the, African tribe, 154

Auscans, the, African tribe, their feast in honour
of Minerva, 155

Azotus, siege of, 83

Babylon, description of, 40 ff.; besieged and taken
by Cyrus, 43; dress of the inhabitants, 44; yearly
marriage market in, 44; their custom with re-
gard to the sick, 44, 45; modes of burial, 45;
shameful custom of the women, 45; certain
fish-eating tribes, 45; besieged by Darius, 121,
122; overthrown by the successful ruse of
Zopyrus, 122, 123; its wall and gates destroyed
by Darius, 123; he crucifies the leading citizens
and finds wives for the remainder, 123; Zopy-
rus made governor for life, 123

Babylonians, revolt from Darius, 121; they stran-
gle their women, 121; they jeer at Darius and
his host, 121 ; are overcome and destroyed, 123;
Darius provides wives for the survivors, to pre-
vent the race becoming extinct, 123

Bacchus, sacrifices to, 59; introduction of his name
and worship into Greece, 59, 60; a president of
the nether regions, 75, 80, 83; Arabian name
for, 90; worshipped by the Thracians, 161

Bacis, prophecy of, 263, 273, 276, 298

Bactrians, in Xerxes' army, their equipment for
war, 228, 230

Barca, in Libya, Greeks settle at, 152; Arcesilaus,
king of Cyrcne, killed by the Barca?ans, 153;
Phcretma, his mother, at the head of the gov-
ernment, 153; besieged by Persians from Egypt
on her behalf, 159; their mines discovered by
means of a shield, 159; city taken by fraud,
159; cruelty of Pherelina to the inhabitants,
159; the enslaved Barcaraiis arc given a village
in Bactna, and name it Barca, 159

Barcaans, submit to Cambyscs, 91

Battus, leader of the Greek colony in Platca,
151, 152; founds another colony on the main-
land of Libya, 152

Battus, grandson of above, king of the Cyrenarans,
152; deprived of his power by Demonax, 152,

153

Beavers, 143

Bees, in country north of the Ister, 161
Bias of Prienc, his advice to the lonians, 38
Boeotians, give help to the Lacedaemonians, 174;

defeated by the Athenians, 175; their struggle

with the Athenians at Platoa, 302
Boges, governor of Eion, his valiant conduct, 234
Boryes, animals found in Africa, 157
Borysthenes (Dnieper), the, 127; description of

its beauties, fish, pleasant taste, etc , 133
Borysthenites, the, or Scythian husbandmen, 127,

137, i38

Bosphorus, the, 139; pillars erected on its shores
by Darius, 139; bridge thrown across for him,
139; memorial of, left by its architect, 139,
140

Branchidar, temple of Apollo at, 83; treasures
given to by Croesus, 167

Bubares, son of Megabazus, is bribed by Alex-
ander of Macedon to hush up the death of the
Persian ambassadors, 163

Bubastis (Diana), goddess of the Egyptians, her
temple, 78, 83

328

INDEX

Budini, the, 127; colour of their eyes and hair,
142; their buildings entirely of wood, 142;
their worship of Bacchus, 142, 143; their lan-
guage, 143; they feed on lice, 143; agree to help
the Scythians, 144

Bulis, story of, and Sperthias, 238, 239

Busiris, 61

Buto, oracle of Latona at, 61, 62, 82

Byblus (papyrus), 67

Cabalians, the, African tribe, 154; in Xerxes' army,
their equipment for war, 229

Cabiri, the Phoenician gods, 60, 97

Cadmeian characters engraved on tripods, 171

Cadmus, 170, 171

Cadmus, native of Cos, sent by Gelo to watch the
war between Greeks and Persians, 245

Calantian Indians, in

Calascirians, warrior class in Egypt, 84, 85

Callatians, their custom of eating their fathers, 98

Callatebus, manufacture of honey by inhabitants
of, 222

Callimachus, Polemarch at Athens, is persuaded
by Miltiades to vote for war, 206, 207; leads the
right wing at Marathon, 207; is killed, 207

Callicratcs, his beauty and death, 304

Calliste, Cadmus at, 149; arrival of Theras and
the Laceda-monians at, 151. See Thera

Cambyscs, marries daughter of King of the
Modes, 25; ascends the Persian throne, 49; cause
of his expedition against Egypt, 89; obtains
safe-conduct through the Syrian Desert, 90,
conquers Kgypt, 91; takes Memphis, 91; his
treatment of Rsammemtus, 91, 92; insults and
burns the body of Amasis, 92, 93; plans expedi-
tions against the Carthaginians, Ammonians,
and Ethiopians, 93; sends spies into Ethiopia,
93; proceeds on his expedition against, 94; his
men lack food and turn cannibals, 94; forced
to give up the expedition, 94; slays the priests
of Apis, 95; smitten with madness, 95; kills his
brother, 95; his sister, 95, 96; and Prexaspes'
son, 97; tries to kill Crojsus, 97; makes sport of
the images in the temples, 97; receives help
from Polycrates, 99; revolt of Magi against,
102; receives his death wound, 103; his vision,
and dying speech to the Persians*, 103, 104; his
death, 104

Camels, used by the Arabian troops, 230; carry
provisions of Persian army, and attacked by
lions, 236

Candaules, 2; and his wife, 2, $

Cannibals, the, 127

Cappadocia, invaded by Cra'sus, 16, 17

Cappndocians, the, 169

Carians, the, 38, 39; assist Psnmmetichus, 82; join
the Ionian revolt, 182, defeated by the Persians,
184; lay an ambush and destroy the Persian
army, 184; furnish ships to Xerxes' fleet, 231;
their equipments, 231

Carthage, Cambyses plans expedition against, 93;
gives up the idea, 93

Carthaginians, circumnavigation of Libya by, 131;
method of trading with west coast of Africa,
158; invade Sicily, 245; defeated by Gelo, 245

Carystas, besieged by the Persians, 204

Caspeirians, in Xerxes' army, 230

Caspian, the, 45, 46

Caspians, in Xerxes' army, their equipment for
war, 228, 230

Cassandane, mother of Cambyses, 49, 89

Cassiterides, the, 114

Catarrhactes (cataract), the, 221

Caunians, the, 39

Celts, the, 56

Ceres, 75

Chalcidcans, give help to the Lacedaemonians,
174; defeated by the Athenians, 175

Chalybians, in Xerxes' army, their equipment for
war, 229

Charilaus, brother to Mseandrius of Samos, 120;
arms the mercenaries and falls on the Persians,
121

Chemmis (Khemmo), worship of Perseus at, 66

Cheops, King of Egypt, his wickedness and op-
pression, 75, 76

Chcphren, King of Egypt, pyramid built by, 76

Chersonese, the, 191; subdued by the Phoeni-
cians, 191

Chersonese, the Rugged, 141

Chians, the, at the sea-fight of Lade, 188; at-
tacked and defeated by Histizus and his Les-
bians, 190; their island falls into the hands of
the Persians, 191

Choaspes, the kings of Persia drink only the water
of this river, 42

Chorasmians, in Xerxes' army, their equipment
for war, 228

Cihcians, the, 169; vessels furnished by, to Xerxes'
fleet, 231; equipment of their crews, 231; an-
cient name of, 231

Cimmerians, 4, 24; conquered by the Scythians,
126; traces of, still in Scythia, 126; their settle-
ment in Asia, 126

Cimon, father of Miltiades, 205

Cinyps, the, river of Africa, 155; fertility of the
surrounding regions, 158

Cissia, province of, 169; bitumen, salt, and oil ob-
tained from well in, 208; Cissians in Xerxes'
army, 227, 230; their attack on the Persians at
Thermopylae, 253

Cleobis and Bito, 7

Cleombrotus, brother of Leonidas, commands the
Peloponnesians at the Isthmus, 272

Cleomenes, King of Sparta, refuses bribe offered
by Maeandrius, and advises the latter being sent
away, 121, 167; his short reign and death, 169;
account of his interview with Aristagoras, 169;
he refuses the help demanded, 170; anecdote of
his daughter Gorgo, 169, 170; his contract of
friendship with Isagoras, 173; sends a herald to
bid Clisthenes and others leave Athens, 173; he
enters Athens, 173; he and Isagoras besieged in
the citadel, 174; is forced to retire from Athens,

INDEX

329

174; failure of his further expedition against
the Athenians, 174; goes in person to Egina to
seize the traitors accused by Athens, 194; he is
forced' to retire, 194; charges brought against,
by Demaratus, 194; he conspires with Leoty-
chides to depose Demaratus, 197; bribes the
Delphic oracle, 198; attacks the Eginetans, 199;
flees in fear from Sparta, 199; his pact with the
Arcadians, 199; he returns to Sparta and is smit-
ten with madness, 199; he kills himself, 199;
his sacrilege and cruel treatment of the Argives,
200, 201; this and other causes assigned for
his insanity, 201; his intemperance, 201

Chsthenes, shares government of Athens with
Isagoras, 172; divides the Athenians into ten
tribes, 172; his other innovations, 173; ordered
by Cleomenes, King of Sparta, to leave Athens,
173; is recalled by the people, 174; his parent-
age, 211

Chsthenes, King of Sicyon, his doings in the mat-
ter of Adrastus, King of Argos, 172, 173; with
respect to the Dorian tribes, 173; he chooses a
husband for his daughter, 209, 210

Cmdians, the, 39

Goes, general of the Mytilenaeans, his good advice
to Darius, 141; given the sovereignty of Mity-
lene in reward, 161; is stoned to death by the
Mytilena?ans, 167

Colchians, 69, gift of boys and maidens furnished
by, to Persia, every fifth year, in; in Xerxes'
army, their equipment for war, 229

Colossae, Xerxes at, 222

Corcyraran boys, delivered by the Samians, 99, 100

Corcyra-ans, their promises to help Greece, 245,
246; their perfidious conduct, 246

Corinth, 85; Periander's tyranny over, 179, 180;
an ally of Athens, 202

Corinthians, help in expedition against Samos, 99;
their anger with the Samians for delivering the
Corcyraean boys, 99, 100; at Mycale, 310

Greston, customs of the Thracians who live above
the people of, 160

Crete, Greek embassy to, 246; former history of,
246; forbidden by oracle to help the Greeks,
246

Crocodile, peculiarities of, and manner of catch-
ing, 63

Crocodiles, city of, 80; sepulchres of, 81

Croesus, King of Lydia, 2; his conquests, 6; and
Solon, 7, 8; his son Atys, 8, 9; consults the ora-
cles, 10, ii ; alliance with Lacedaemonians, 15,
16; invades Cappadocia, 16, 17; defeated at
Sardis, 18, 19; taken prisoner by Cyrus, 20; his
deliverance, 20; and treatment by Cyrus, 21;
reproaches the Delphian oracle, 21; his advice
to Cyrus concerning the Lydians, 35; concern-
ing the message from Tomyris, 46; Cyrus gives
him into care of his son, 47; accompanies Cam-
byses to Egypt, 92 ; his speech delights Cambyses,
96; he admonishes the king and narrowly es-
capes death; 97; bowl sent by, to Lacedaemoni-
ans, 99

Crotoniats, their fame as physicians, 117; take the
town of Sybaris, 168

Crystal, coffins made of, by the Ethiopians, 94

Cyaxares, King of the Medes, 4; war with Al-
yattes, 16, 17; his conquests, 24; marches on
Nineveh, 24; is overcome by the Scythians, 24;
recovers his kingdom, 25

Cydrara, Xerxes at, 222

Cyprians, vessels furnished by, to Xerxes' fleet,
231; their dress and races, 231

Cyprus, conquered by Amasis, 88; revolts from
the Medes, 182; Persian attack on, 183, 184;
again made subject to Darius, 184

Cyraunis, island of, method of drawing up the
gold dust from its lake, 158

Cyrenaeans, they rout the Egyptians, 152; are de-
feated by the Libyans, 152; enrolled in three
tribes by Demonax, the Mantinean law-giver,

I5*V53
Cyrcnc, defeat of Apries at, 84; concludes league

with Amasis, 87; presents to, from Amasis and
his wife, 87, 88; submits to Cambyses, 91; col-
onised by Greeks, 152; its three yearly harvests,

i5«

Cyrus, King of Persia, 10; captures Astyages, 17;
inarches on Cra*sus, 17; defeats Cru'sus at Sar-
dis, 18, 19; besieges and takes Sardis, IQ; takes
Crcrsus prisoner, 20; his treatment of the latter,
20, 21 ; legend of his bringing up, 25-29; per-
suades the Persians to throw off the Median
yoke, 29, 30; becomes King of the Medes, 31;
his answer to the lomans, 33; his reception of
the Lacedaemonian deputies, 35; leaves Sardis,
35; deals with the revolted Lydians according
to the advice of Croesus, 35, 36; makes war on
Assyria, 40, 42; he wreaks his vengeance on the
River Gyndes, 42; advances on Habylon, 43; en-
ters the city along the bed of the river, 43, at-
tacks the Massageta?, 45, 46; sends ambassadors
to Tomyris, 46; her message to him, 46; Cra-sus
advises him concerning, 46; his dream before
the battle with Tomyris, 47; is slain fighting
against her, 48

Dadica?, in Xerxes' army, 228

Darius, son of Hystaspes, 41; opens the tomb of
Nitocris, 42; joins the conspiracy against Smer-
dis, 105 ff.; supports the monarchical govern-
ment of Persia, 108; according to agreement,
his steed being the first to neigh, he is chosen
king, 109; his choice of wives, 109; establishes
satrapies, 109; tribute severally paid by, 109,
no; determines to take vengeance on Onrtes,
116; he accomplishes his design, 117; he sprains
his foot, 117; is cured by Dcmocedes, one of
Orcetes* slaves, 117; is persuaded by his wife to
make war on Greece, 118; sends Persians under
Democedes to spy out the country, 118; escape
of Democedes, and disaster to Persians, 119;
besieges and takes Samos, 119; story of Sylos-
on's cloak, 119, 120; Darius sends expedition to
Samos on his behalf, 120; besieges Babylon, 121,

330

INDEX

122; gains possession of the city by ruse, 122,
123; his Scythian expedition, 124, 139; marches
from Susa and surveys the Euxine, 139; sets up
two pillars on the shores of the Bosphorus, 139;
crosses the bridge thrown over it, 140; pitches
his camp near the Tearus, 140; reaches the
Artiscus and orders every one of his soldiers to
throw a stone on a certain spot, 140; subdues
the Getae and the Thracians, 140; he crosses
the Jster, 141; his orders concerning the bridge,
141; he pursues the Scythians, 145; his march
through the desert, 145; enters Scythia and gives
chase to the enemy, 145, 146; sends a herald to
the Scythian king, 146; receives haughty an-
swer, 146; his camp assaulted by the enemy,
146; symbolic gifts sent to him by the Scythians,
146; he retires with the flower of his troops,
leaving the wounded behind, 147; escapes
across the Ister, 148; and reaches Asia, 148;
rewards Hislixus and Goes, 161; his sight of a
Patoman woman decides him to remove the
Pxonians to his own land, 161, 162; his orders
accordingly to Megabazus, 162; is warned
against Histiarus by Megabazus and sends for
the former, 164; makes him his councillor and
retires to Susa, 164; approves of the expedition
against Naxos, 165; his anger against the Athe-
nians, 182; sends Histiaois down to the coast,
182; gives refuge to Scythas, king of the Xan-
claeans, 190; hears of the death of Histiarus, 191 ;
his kindness to Miltiades' son, 193; his envoys
to the Greek states, demanding earth and water,
194; receives Demaratus, King of Sparta, 199;
sends expedition against Eretria and Athens
under Datis and Artaphernes, 203; meaning of
his name, 204; settles the Eretnans in Cissia,
208; prepares for fresh expedition against
Greece, 214; his sons dispute the succession, 214;
appoints Xerxes his heir, 214; his death, 214

Dates, at Augila, 156

Datis, in command of the Persian forces, 203;
course of the expedition to Greece, 203-205;
his return to Asia, 208

Dcioces, King of the Medcs, 23, 24

Deiphonus and Evenius, 307, 308

Delians, the, receive offerings from the Hyper-
boreans, 129, 130; death of the damsels sent
with the gifts, 130; honour done to their
memory, 130; other maidens honoured by,
130

Delos, Persians at, 204; earthquake at, 204

Delos, lake and temple on, 85

Delphi, temple at, destroyed by fire, 87; attack of
the Persians on, 266; storm and prodigies strike
terror into the assailants, 266; they are forced
to retire, 266

Demaratus, son of Ariston, his quarrel with Cleo-
menes, joint King of Sparta, 174; he brings
charges against Cleomcnes, 194; story of his
birth, 196-198; he is deposed and flees to Dari-
us, 198, 199; his advice to Xerxes, 214; his re-
plies to Xerxes' enquiries concerning the Greeks,

232, 233; Xerxes consults him a second time,
253; again questions him about the Spartans,
258; his advice to the king, 258; opposed by
Achaemenes, 258; Xerxes declares him his bond-
friend, 258; how he sent warning to the Spar-
tans of the Persian expedition, 259

Democedes, the Crotoniat, one of Orcutes' slaves,
117; he cures Darius's foot, 117; is richly re-
warded, 117; his early history and skill in medi-
cine, 117; stands in high favour with King
Darius, 117, 118; cures the queen's abscess, 118;
his escape, 119; the Crotoniats save him from
reconquest by the Persians, 119; marries Milo
the wrestler's daughter, 119

Demonax, Mantinean law-giver, enrolls the Cyre-
naeans in three tribes, 152, 153

Diana, festival in honour of, 61; worshipped by
the Thracians, 161

Dictycs, animals found in Africa, 157

Dieneces, the Spartan, distinguishes himself at
Thermopylae, 256; reported saying of, 256

Dionysius, the Phoca>an, disciplines the Ionian
Meet, 187, 1 88; establishes himself as a corsair,
189

Dodona, most ancient oracle in Greece, 60, 61

Dorians, 33; their several invasions of Attica, 174;
furnish ships to Xerxes' fleet, 231

Dorieus, son of the King of Sparta, 167; colonises
a spot in Libya, 168; returns to Greece and
helps the Crotoniats against Sybaris, 168; sails
tor Sicily and helps the Selmusians against their
tyrant, Peithagoras, 168; is, in his turn, slain by
the Selmusians, 168

Doribcus, Xerxes numbers his troops at, 227

Dust, omen of the cloud of, 270

Eclipses, 223, 290

Egma, its grudge against Samos, 102; sends help
to Thebes against Athens, 175; origin of its
feud with Athens, 175-177; the Eginetans rav-
age the sea-coast of Attica, 177; consent to give
earth and water to Darius, 194; accused of
being traitors to Greece, 194; they resist the in-
terference of Sparta, 194; are forced to give
hostages, 199; insist on their return, 201; the
Athenians refuse to give them up, 201, 202;
they seize the holy vessel of the Athenians, 202;
the Athenians plan to attack them, 202; they
put the followers of Nicodromus to death and
commit sacrilege, 203; are defeated at sea by the
Athenians, 203; they fall on the Athenian fleet
and capture part, 203; end of war, 240; distin-
guish themselves at Salamis, 275, 276; their
offerings to Delphi, 282; Greek fleet at, 284;
origin of their great wealth, 305

Egypt, account of, 50 ff.; elevation of the soil in,
51, 78; the Delta, 52; boundary and extent of
the country, 52; intersected by canals, 70; in-
vaded by the Ethiopians, 78; divided into
twelve districts under separate kings, 80; Greeks
settled in, 82; cantons of, 84, 85; importation
by, of wine from Greece and Phoenicia, 90; use

INDEX

331

made of the jars, 90; revolt of, against Darius,
214; subdued by Xerxes, 215

Egyptians, 49; their religion, 49; their discoveries,
49, 50, 65; their women, 56; dress of men and
women, 56; certain of their customs and their
writing, 56, 57; their priests, 56, 57; their ex-
amination and marking of beasts for sacrifice,
57; manner of sacrifice, 57; female kinc sacred
to Isis, 57; the sepulture of their cattle, 58; their
gods, 58; why they abstain from sacrificing
goats, 59; their manner of sacrificing swine to
Bacchus and the moon, 59; introduction of their
gods into Greece, 60; their solemn assemblies,
6 1, 62; their sacred and domestic animals, birds,
and reptiles, 62-64; their burial of animals, 63;
their manner of living, and food, 64; national
customs and song, 65; dress, 65; divination, 65;
funerals and embalming, 65, 66; inhabitants of
the marsh country, their peculiar customs, 66,
67; their contrivances against gnats, 67; the fish
of the country, 67; their vessels, 67, 68; their
kings, 68-70; geometry first known to, 70; elect
twelve kings, 80; divided into seven classes, 84;
thickness of their skulls, 91; routed by the
Cyrenaeans, 152; with the Persian army, 221,
222; and with fleet, 231

Elephantine, 86, 93

Enarees, woman-like men, soothsayers of Scythia,

135
Epaphus(Apis), god of the Egyptians, 57; appears

to the Egyptians, 82, 95; Cambyses slays priests

of, 95

Ephesus, temple of, 80
Ephialtes, tells Xerxes of the mountain path, 254;

leads the "Immortals" over, 254, 255
Epidaurians, Eginetans revolt from, 176
Epilepsy, the "sacred sickness," 96
Epizelus, story of his blindness, 208
Erasinus, the, river, 199, 200
Eretria, Darius sends expedition against, 203;

assaulted and captured by the Persians, 204,

205; inhabitants settled by Darius in Cissia,

208

Eridanus (Rhodanus), the, 114
Erythra-an Sea, islanders from, in Xerxes' army,

229; furnish ships for Xerxes' fleet, 231
Ethiopia, gold in, 113; its animals and trees, 113;

handsome appearance and long life of its men,

J?3 .
Ethiopians, 54, 55; their invasion of Egypt, 78;

Cambyses plans to attack them, 93; their height
and good looks, 93; their reception of the spies
sent by Cambyses, and their haughty answers to
the latter's message, 93, 94; their longevity, 94;
their food, their strange manner of burial, 94;
failure of Cambyses' expedition against, 94; ex-
empted from paying tribute to Persia, in; their
food and dwelling-houses, in; gifts brought
by, in; in Xerxes' army, their equipment for
war, 228

Euesperites, the, fertility of their country, 158
Euphrates, the, 40; its course altered, 41, 170

Europe, northern parts the richer in gold, 114;

extent of, 130, 131; boundaries unknown, 131,

132; origin of name, 132
Europe, i

Eury bates, the Argive, 203
Eurybiades, commander of the Greek fleet, 260,

267; determines to stay and give fight at Sala-

mis, 270; opposes the advice of Themistocles to

pursue the Persian fleet, 279; receives prize of

valour, 282
Euxine Sea, nations dwelling around it, 132;

brazen bowl at the entrance of, 138; Darius

surveys it from a temple, 139; its length, 139
Evelthon, ruler of Salamis, refuses to help Pherc-

tima recover Gyrene, 153
Evenius and Deiphonus, 307, 308
Exampacus, bowl made of arrowheads standing

in, 138

Feathers, said by Scythians to fill the air in the

regions north of them, 129
Fish, the, in Egypt, 67
Fountain of the Sun, the, in Africa, 156

Gandarians, in Xerxes' army, 228

Garamantians, the, African tribe, 156; their four-
horsed chariots, 156

Gelo, ancestry of, 242, 243; history of, 243; be-
comes King of Gela and makes Syracuse his
capital, 243; his conquests in Sicily, 243; his
answer to the Greek envoys, 244; to Syagrus,
the Spartan, 244; his final answer to the Athe-
nian envoy, 244-5; sends Cadmus to Delphi to
watch the war between Greeks and Persians,
245; defeats Hamilcar, 245

Geloni, their origin and language, 143; their
manner of life and food, 143; they obtain fur
and a medical remedy from a certain animal,
143; agree to help the Scythians, 144

Gelonus, city built of wood, 142; destroyed by
Darius, 145

Geometry first known in Egypt, 70

Gephyra?ans, history of the, murderers of Hippar-
chus, 170, 171

Gerrhus, the Scythian river, 133

Getar, the, subdued by Darius, 140; their god
Zalmoxis, 140, 141; their belief in immortality,
140

Gilligamma?, African tribe, 154

Gindanes, the, African tribe, 155

Glaucus, tale of, 201, 202

Gnats, contrivances against, 67

Gods, origin of the, 60; their age and order, 80;
Egyptian names for, 83

Gold dust, drawn up from the lake on the island
of Cyraunis, 158

Golden vine, the, 221

Gorgo, daughter of Clcomcncs, King of Sparta,
and wife of Leonidas, anecdote of, 169, 170; and
the waxed tablet sent by Demaratus, 259

Greece, first landing of Persians in, 1 19

Greeks, their worship and practices borrowed

332

INDEX

from the Egyptians, 60; from the Pelasgians,
60; settled at Memphis, 82, their intercourse
with Egypt, 82; Greek troops in pay of the
King of Egypt, 84; their notions about trade, 85;
tity and lands granted to, by Amasis, 87; their
reception of the Persian heralds, 237, 238, 239;
they make up their feuds in face of the com-
mon enemy, 240; send spies into Asia, 241;
Xerxes' treatment of, 241; send embassy to
Argos, 241; the Argives' reply, 241, 242; send
embassy to Gelo, King of Syracuse, 242; result
of, 243-245; embassy to Corcyra, 245; to Crete,
246; they occupy the defile of Tempe, 247; re-
tire at the advice of Alexander of Macedon,
247; determine to guard the pass of Thermo-
pylae and send the fleet to Artemisium, 247, 248;
oracle advises them to pray to the winds, 248;
first encounter with Persian fleet, 248; their
fleet removes to Chains, 249; returns to Artemi-
sium, 250; capture fifteen of the Persian ships,
251 ; composition of army assembled at Thermo-
pyla% 252; they hold the pass against the Per-
sians, 253, 254; are warned by Megistias, the
seer, of their impending destruction, 255; only
a certain number remain with Leomdas, 256;
their final struggle at Thermopylae, 256, 257;
composition of Greek fleet at Artemisium, 260;
naval engagements with Persians oft Artemi-
sium, 261, 262, 263; the fleet proceeds to Sala-
mis, 266; nations composing the fleet, 267, 268;
assemble at the Isthmus under Cleombrotus,
272; the fleet at Salamis makes ready to fight,
274; battle of Salamis, 274, 275, resolve not to
pursue the Persians, 280; besiege Andros, 280;
their offerings to the gods, 282; award the prize
of valour, 282; their fleet at Egina, 284; assem-
ble at the Isthmus and march to Elcusis, 292,
engagement with the Persian horse under
Masistius, 292, 293; they move on to Plata'a,
293; order and number of the Greek troops at
Plataea, 294, 295; their soothsayer, 295, 296;
their convoys cut off, 297; harassed by the Per-
sian cavalry, 297; warned by Alexander of
Macedon, 298; resolve to move to the Ocroe,
299; their retreat, 300, 301; pursued by the Per-
sians, 301; the allies flee, 301; battle of Plata-a,
301-303; further fighting and slaughter of the
Persians, 303; booty divided among, 305; they
bury their dead, 306; they besiege Thebes, 306;
sail to Samos, 308; battle of Mycalc, 308-310;
they slaughter the Persians, 310; they sail to the
Hellespont, 310, 311, 312; lay siege to Sestos,

312' 3f3
Griffins, the gold-guarding, 126

Gyga'a, Lake, 22

Gyges, 2; becomes King of Lydia, 3, 4

Gyndes, Cyrus revenges himself on the river, 42;

and disperses it, 42
Gyzantians, the, African tribe, 158

Halys, the, Xerxes at, 221

Hamilcar, the Carthaginian, invades Sicily and is

defeated by Gelo, 245; his strange disappear-
ance, 245

Hares and their young, 113

Harpagus, ordered to slay the infant Cyrus, 25;
horrible punishment for his disobedience, 28;
his revenge, 29, 30; in command of troops
under Cyrus, 37; attacks Phocaea, 37; subdues
Ionia, 38; attacks the Carians, Caunians, and
Lycians, 38, 39, 40; takes Histia-us prisoner,
190, 191

Hccataeus tries to dissuade Anstagoras from re-
volting against Darius, 166, 167

Hcgcsistratus, Persian soothsayer, 296, 297, 307

Helen of Troy, i; in Egypt, 71, 72

Hellemum, the, temple built by the Greeks, 87

Hellespont, 139; places bordering on, 191; Xerxes
orders it to be scourged, 222; construction of
bridge over, 223, passage of Persian army over,
226

Hellespontians, furnish ships for Xerxes' fleet, 231

I Iclots, the, 294

Herachdes, the, 2

Hercules, the Egyptian god, 58; and the Greek,
58, 59, 80; his footprint on rock near the
Tyrus, i 38, 1 39

Hcrmotimus, story of, 278, 279

I lermotybians, warrior class in Egypt, 84, 85

Herodotus, the Chian, his embassy, 284

Hill of the Graces, m Africa, 155

Hipparchus, tyrant of Athens, his death, 170; his
dream, 170

Hippias, tyrant of Athens, 171; sent for by the
Lacedaemonians, 177; retires to Sigeum, 180;
his efforts to bring Athens into subjection, 180,
his dream, 206; acts as guide to the Persians,
206; anecdote of his tooth, 206

Hippocrates, tyrant of Athens, 12

I Iippocrates, tyrant of Gela, his treachery towards
the Zancl.vans, 190

Hippopotamus, the, 63, 64

Histiaeus, refuses to consent to destroy the bridge
over the Ister, 148; assists the Persians to escape.
148; Darius gives him the town of Myrcinus as
a reward, 161; Magabazus warns Darius con-
cerning him, 164; the King sends for him and
makes him his counsellor, 164; tired of his life
at Susa he sends messenger to Aristagoras urg-
ing him to revolt, 166; deceives Darius and is
sent down to the coast, 182; Artaphernes dis-
covers his machinations, 186; he deceives the
lonians, 186; Milesians refuse to receive him,
1 86; sails to the Hellespont, 186; attacks and
takes Chios, 190; taken prisoner on the main-
land by Harpagus, 190-1; his death, 191

Homer and the Cypna, 72

Honey, manufacture of, 158, 222

Hoplites, the, 295

Horses, long-haired, of the Sigynnae, 161

Hyacmthia, feast of, 289

Hydarnes, leader of the "Immortals," 254; ac-
companies Eph lakes, 254

Hydrea, island of, bought by the Samians, 102

INDEX

333

Hypacyris, the, Scythian river, 133

Hypanis (Bug, or Boug), the, nations along its

course, 127; description of, 133
Hyperboreans, the, 126, 129; send damsels with

offerings to Delos, 129, 130
Hyrcanians in Xerxes' army, 228
Hystaspes, father of Darius, 47

Ibis, the, 64

Ichthyophagi, the, 93; sent as spies with presents
to the Ethiopians, 93; their reception, 93, 94;
anger of Cambyses on receiving report of their
visit, 94, 95

Ida, Mount, Xerxes' army at, 224

"Immortals," the, 230; failure of their first attack
on Thermopylae, 254; are led over the moun-
tains by Ephialtes, 254, 255; victory at Thermo
pyLt, 256; remain in Greece with Mardonius,28o

India, gold in, in, 112; beasts and birds, 112;
wild trees and tree-wool, 112

Indian tribes, their yearly tribute of gold dust to
Persia, in; their food, in; cannibalism of
some, in; others who refuse to take life, in;
enormous ants (ant-eaters?) in north India,
in, 112; their manner of obtaining gold, 112

Indians, in Xerxes' army, their equipment for
war, 228, 230

Intaphernes, one of the seven conspirators against
the Magus, his rash behaviour and punishment,
114; his wife's pleading moves the heart of
Darius, 114, 115; her reasons for begging the
life of her brother, 115

lo, legend of, i, 2

ionians, 32, 33; of Asia, 34, 38, 49; assist Psam-
metichus, 82; Darius gives them charge of
bridge over the Ister, 141; Scythians advise
them to retire, 147; and to break the bridge,
147, 148; they pretend to follow their advice,
148; Scythian saying concerning, 149; tyrants
over, put down by Anstagoras, 167; they adopt
Phoenician letters, 171; and use parchment for
writing upon, 171; their revolt from Persia,
1 80, 181; joined by Athenian fleet, 181; they
take Sardis, 181; are defeated by Persians at
Ephesus, 181; the Carians and Cyprians es-
pouse their cause, 182; give help to Cyprus, 183;
and defeat the Phoenicians, 183; cities of, fall
one by one before the Persians, 185; the entire
Ionian fleet is assembled, 187; sea-fight with the
Persians off Lade, 188; treatment of the Ionian
cities and the inhabitants by the victorious Per-
sians, 191; their country peacefully settled, and
democracies established in, 193; they furnish
ships for Xerxes' fleet, 231; original name of,
231; second revolt from the Persians, 310

Isagoras, shares government of Athens with
Clisthenes, 172; makes a party against, with
Cleomenes, King of Sparta, 173; they en-
deavour to change the government, are be-
sieged in the citadel, and finally accept terms,

174
Isis, goddess of the Egyptians, 57; feast of, 61, 83

Issedonians, the, 126; their customs on the death

of a father, 128
Ister, the (Danube), 56, 132; its tributaries, 132;

compared with the Nile, 132, 133; Darius at,

141; escapes with his army across, 148; region

north of, 161
Iyrc«e, the, 128; their method of hunting, 128

Jupiter, as represented by the Egyptians, 58; the

Theban, 156
Jupiter Laphystius, story of the temple of, 251

Labynetus, King of the Assyrians, 18; expedition
of Cyrus against, 42

Labyrinth, the, 80, 81

Lacedemonians, the, 14; contest with the Tege-
ans, 14, 15; alliance with Croesus, 15; fight
with the Argives, 19; send deputies to Cyrus,
35; their contempt of trade, 85; send force
against Polycrates in aid of the revolting Sami-
ans, 98, 99; their anger at the theft by Samians
of presents sent by, and to them, 99; the siege
of Samos, 101; are bidden by the Delphian
oracle to free Athens from Hippias, 171; fate
of the first army sent under Anchimolius, 172;
second force sent under Cleomenes, 172; their
army broken up at Eleusis, 174; they get posses-
sion of oracles, and send for Hippias, 177; the
address of Sosicles to the allies, 178-180; Phei-
dippides sent to, from Athens, 205; their readi-
ness to help the Athenians, 205; they march to
view the field of Marathon, 208; description of,
given by Demaratus to Xerxes, 232-233; their
reply to the Argive council, 242; Leonidas and
his three hundred, 252, 253; the Persian spy
observes them, 253; Demaratus again warns
Xerxes of their prowess, 253; first assault on,
by Medes, 253, 254; second by the "Immortals,"
254; the final struggle at Thermopylae, 256, 257;
inscription set up in honour of, 257; how they
first received warning of the Persian expedition,
259; demand satisfaction from Xerxes for death
of Leonidas, 281; send envoys to Athens, 286;
their speech, 287; answer of the Athenians, 287;
Athenian embassy to, 289; indecision of the
Ephors, 289; send forces to the Isthmus, 289,
290; march to Eleusis, 292; they change places
with the Athenians, 298; Mardonius insults
them, 299; their retreat, 300, 301; they and
Tegeans are left to withstand the Persians, 301;
battle of Plata%a, 301-303; attack on the Persian
carnp, 303; their prowess, 303; they bury their
dead, 306; at Mycale, 310

Lake-dwellers, 162

Lampon, the Eginetan, his evil counsel to Pausa-
nias, 305

Land-crocodiles, 157

Latona, feast in honour of, 61, 62; oracle of, 82;
legend of, 83

Lemnos, withstands the Persians, and is finally
reduced, 164; its history, 212, 213; captured by
Miltiades, 213

334

INDEX

Leomtlas, King of Sparta, and his three hundred
at Thermopyhu, 252, 256; fierce tight over his
body, 256; stone lion set up to, 256; inscription
over, 257; his body shamefully treated by
Xerxes, 258, 259; satisfaction for his death de-
manded by the Spartans, 281

Leotychides, conspires with Cleomenes to depose
Demaratus, 197; is made King of Sparta in the
latter's stead, 198; he is guilty of accepting a
bribe and banished, 199; is ordered by his coun-
trymen to be exchanged for the Eginctan hos-
tages, 201 ; he cannot persuade the Athenians to
give them up, 201, 202; embassy to, from
Samos, 307; at Mycalc, 309

Lesbos, reduced by the Persians, 191

Libya, account of, 55; source of the Nile in (?),
56; oracle of Ammon in, 60, 61; circumnavi-
gated by the Phoenicians, 130, 131; by the
Carthaginians, 131; dwarfish race in, 131; origin
of name, 131; various accounts of its colonisa-
tion, 150 ff.; Greeks settle at Cyrene, 152; dif-
ferent tribes in, 154 fT.; animals in, 157, 158;
indigenous and alien tribes in, 158; its soil in-
ferior to that of Europe or Asia, 158

Libyans, desire to be freed from the religious ob-
servances of the Egyptians, 52; their worship of
Neptune, 60; submit to Cambyses, 91; defeat
the Cyren.vans, 152; their different tribes and
customs, 154 ff.; they abstain from cow's flesh,
J5^> 157; custom of burning the veins of their
children's heads, 157; their worship and sacri-
fices, 157; their chariots, 157; manner of burial,
and dwellings, 157; in Xerxes' army, their
equipment for war, 228, 230

Lioness and cubs, 1 1 }

Lions, fall on the camels in Xerxes' army, 236;
found only in a certain region of Europe, 236

Locnans, join the Greeks at Thermopyla!, 252

Locusts, caught, ground to powder, sprinkled in
milk, and so drunk by the Nasnmonians, 154

Lotophagi, the, African tube, the fruit of the
lotus-tree their only food, 155

Lotus, the, 67

Lotus- tree, the, 155

Lycarctus, brother to M«randrius, endeavours to
secure his succession to the government of
Samos, 120

Lycians, 39, 40; ships furnished by, to Xerxes'
fleet, 231; equipment of their crews, 231; orig-
inal name of, 2^1

Lycidas, anger of Athenian women against, 288

Lycophron, son of Periander, 100, 101

Lycurgus, 14

Lycus, the, falls into Lake Marotis, 145; Xerxes at,
222

Lydia, 18; gold dust in, 22; customs of the people,
22; their invention of games, 22; conquests of,
by Cyrus, 20; in Xerxes' army, their equipment
for war, 229

Macac, the, African tribe, 155

Macedonia, its submission to Persia, 162, 163;

story of the Persian ambassadors to, 163; further
enslavery by Mardomus, 193

Machlyans, the, African tribe, 155

Meander, the, sources of, 221

M^eandrius, secretary to Polycrates, 115; his offer-
ing of the latter's furniture to Juno, 115; depu-
ty-governor of Samos, 120; his resignation of
office and address to the people, 120; retains the
sovereign power and falls sick, 120; makes
terms with the Persian invaders, 120; he flees to
Lacedaemon, 121; his conversation and offer of
plate to Cleomenes, 121; ordered to leave the
city, 121

Ma.ot.is, Lake, 139; rivers falling into, 145

Magi, the, 32, 33

Magophonia, festival among the Persians, 107

Males, description of, 210

Mantyes, see Pigres

Marathon, battle of, 206-208

Mardonius, appointed general by Darius, 193; es-
tablishes democracies in Ionia, 193; and carries
expedition into Greece, 193; disaster to his fleet,
193; and to his army on land, 193; return of
expedition, 194; deprived of his command, 203;
urges Xerxes to attack Greece, 214, 215; his
address to the council, 216; blame laid on, at
Susa, 277; his advice to Xerxes, 277, 278; left
behind with troops by Xerxes, 279; chooses his
men, 280; winters in Thessaly, 283, 284, des-
patches Mys to consult the oracles, 284, 285,
sends Alexander as envoy to Athens, 285;
marches against Athens, 288; advice of the
Thebans to, 288; occupies the city, 288; sends a
second envoy to the Athenians, 288; hears that
the Spartans are marching towards the Isthmus,
290; he retreats from Attica, 290; encamps on
the Asopus, 291; banquet given him at Thebes,
291; and the Phocian horsemen, 291, 292, mar-
shalling of his troops at Plataea, 295; his sooth-
sayer, 296 ; keeps watch on the passes of Cith.r-
ron, 297; he opposes Artabazus in the council
of war, 297, 298; his insulting words to the
Spartans, 299; orders his horse to charge, 299;
Mardonius hears of the enemy's retreat, his
speech thereon, 301; pursues the Greeks, 301;
his death at Plataea, 302; his tent plundered,
303; his prowess, 303; feast held in his tent
by Pausanias, 306; disappearance of his body,
306

Mares, the, in Xerxes' army, their equipment for
war, 229

Mars, feast in honour of, 61, 62; rites paid by
Scythians to, 134; worshipped by the Thracians,
161

Marsyas, his skin hung up at Celaenae, 221

Mascames, appointed governor of Doriscus, 233

Masistcs, son of Darius, Xerxes falls in love with
his wife and his daughter, 311; interview with
Xerxes, 312; queen's revenge on his wife, 312;
is killed by Xerxes' orders, 312

Masistius, commander of the Persian cavalry, his
encounter with the Greeks, and death, 292, 293;

INDEX

335

lament of Persians over, 293; his stature and
beauty, 293

Massagetiu, the, 45, 46; their dress and mode of
living, 48

Matieni, die, 169

Maxyans, the, African tribe, 157

Mazares, quells Lydian revolt, 36; takes Priene,
overruns Magnesia, and dies, 36, 37

Medea, I, 2

Medes, in Xerxes' army, their warlike equipment,
227, 230; ancient name of, 227; their attack at
Thermopylae, 253, 254

Media, its revolt from Assyria, and early history
as a kingdom, 23, 24; conquered by Scythians,
24; by the Persians under Cyrus, 30

Megabates, in command of the fleet sent against
Naxos by the Persians, 165; his quarrel with
Anaxagoras, 166; he warns the Naxians of their
danger, 166; failure of the fleet to get posses-
sion of the island, 166

Megabazus, left by Darius in command of the
Hellespont, 148; compliment paid him by Dari-
us, 149; his long-remembered speech, 149, over-
comes the Permthians, 160; his conquest of
Thrace, 160; makes successful war on Etonians,
162; his embassy to Macedonia, 162; story of
the ambassadors, 162, 163, he returns to Sardis,
164; warns Darius against Histi.eus, 164

Mcgabyzus, one of the conspirators against Smer-
dis, recommends an oligarchic government for
Persia, 107, 108

Megacles, the chosen suitor of Agansta, 210

Megistias, the seer, warns the Greeks of their
danger, 255; refuses to leave Leonidas, 256;
tomb and inscription over, 257

Melanchacni (Black-Robes), the, 127, 142; they
refuse to help the Scythians, 144; the Scythians
lead the enemy through their country, 145; they
flee to the deserts, 146

Meles, king of Sardis, 19

Memnon, or Susa, 170

Memphis, temple of Vulcan at, 68, 70, 77, 82, 87;
temple to Venus at, 71; Greeks settled at, 82;
temple of Isis at, 87; taken by Cambyses, 91

Men (Menes), first King of Egypt, 50; his works,
68

Mercury, as worshipped by the Pelasgians, 60;
by thcThracian kings, 161

Mermnadx, the, 2, 3

Mice, three kinds found in Africa, 157, 158

Midas, 4

Milesia, war with the Lydians, 4, 5

Milesians, alliance with Cyrus, 33, 38; betray the
Persians, 310

Miletus, the glory of Ionia, 164; civil strife in,
healed by the Parians, 164; besieged and taken
by the Persians, 189; bereft of its inhabitants,
189. See Aristagoras

Miltiades, son of Cimon, advises destruction of
bridge over the Ister, 148; governor of the
Chersonese, 192; flees before the Scyths, 192; his
escape to Athens, 193; account of, 205; is deter-

mined to fight the Persians, 206, 207; com-
mands at Marathon, 207; his expedition against
Paros, 2ii ; his trial and death, 211,212; account
of his capture of Lemnos, 212, 213

Miltiades, son of Cypselus, obtains possession of
the Chersonese, 191, 192; his death, 192

Milya:, the, known originally as the Solymi, 39

Milyans, in Xerxes' army, their equipment for
war, 229

Minerva, feast in honour of, 61, 62; temple of, at
Sais, 86, 87; feast of Ausean maidens in honour
of, 155; dress of Libyan statues of, 157

Minos, King of Crete, 38, 39; mythic history of,
246

Minya!, the, descendants of the Argonauts, 149;
they settle in Laccd.cmon, 149; are delivered
from prison by their wives, 149; station them-
selves on Mount Taygctum, 150; they follow
Thcras to Calliste, 150

MaTis, Lake, 81; subterranean passage from, 81

Monkeys, eaten by the Gy/atians, 158

Moschians, in Xerxes' army, their equipment for
war, 229

Mules, not bred in Elis, 129; or in Scythia, 146,
their appearance frightens the Scythian horse,
146

Murychides, Persian envoy to the Athenians, 288

Musarus, prophesies of, 215, 276

Mycale, defeat of Persians at, 307, 309, 310

Mycermus, king of Egypt, entombs his daughter
in a cow, 76; his death foretold by oracle, 77,
pyramid built by, 77

Mycians, in Xerxes' army, 228

Mys, sent by Mardomus to consult the oracles,
284, 285

Mysia, route of Xerxes' army through, 224

Mysians, in Xerxes' army, their equipment for
war, 229

Nasamonians, their exploration of Libya, 55, 56;
their practice of augury, 154; their manner of
burial, 157

Naucratis, entrepot for Greek merchandise, 87

Naxos, its prosperity, 164; banished citr/ens ap-
peal to Aristagoras of Miletus for help, 165;
Persians send fleet under Megabates against,
166; the Naxians are warned of their danger,
1 66; the Persian expedition fails, 166; later at-
tack of Persians and destruction of town, 204

Necos, King of Egypt, begins construction of Red
Sea canal, 83; builds a fleet of triremes, 83; his
conquests, 83

Neptune, not among the Egyptian gods, 58, 60;
worship of, in Libya, Co, 157

Nestus, the, passage of, by Xerxes, 2 34

Netting, barbarian habit of netting the inhabitants
of conquered islands, 191

Neuri, the, 142; afflicted by a scourge of serpents,
142; once a year they change into wolves, 142;
they refuse to help the Scythians, 144; the
Scythians lead the enemy through their country,
145; they flee to the deserts, 146

336

INDEX

Nicodromus, Egmctan traitor, 202; offers help to
Athens, 202; escapes and is settled with his fol-
lowers at Sunium, 203

Nile, the, 51; its course, 52; causes of inundation,
53, 54; its sources, 54-56, 67, 68; new course of,
dug by Menes, 68; compared with the Ister,
1*2,133

Nineveh, 41, 81

Nisd-an horse, the, 224

Nitetis, legend of, 89

Nuocns, Queen, 41; her great works, 41, 42; her
tomb, 42

Oarus, the, falls into Lake Maeotis, 145; Darius

halts his army upon, 145
Oasis, city, 95

Octamasadas, heads Scythian revolt, 138
(Eobazus, a Persian of Susa, asks that one son may

remain with him: answer and cruelty of Darius,

139

(Eobazus, a Persian, at Sestos, 313; flees into
Thrace, 31 3; is sacrificed by the inhabitants, 313

Oeroe, Cireek forces remove to, 299

Olbiopolites, see Borysthenites

Olive, the sacred, at Athens, 269

Olympic Games, 83

Onomacntus, banished from Athens, 215; urges
Xerxes to attack Greece, 215

Orestes, discovery of his bones, 15

Onrtcs, governor of Sardis, 115; his desire to de-
stroy Polycrates, 115; his message to the latter,
115; his fraudulent device to tempt the latter's
cupidity, i if>; slays Polycrates on his arrival at
Magnesia, 116; his cruel and insolent behaviour,
1 1 6; Darius determines to take vengeance upon
him, 116; and accomplishes Ora-tcs' death,
116, 117

Oryxes, their horns used for curved sides of
citherns, 157

Osiris, 6 1 ; burial-place of, 85; mysteries of, 85

Otanes, heads the conspiracy against Smerdis,
104-106; recommends a democratic government
for Persia, 107; withdraws his candidature for
the throne on condition of perfect freedom
being accorded to himself and heirs, 108;
special privileges granted to, 108; leads army of
Darius against Samos, 120; makes terms with
Ma:andrius, 120; surprised by Chanlaus and his
mercenaries, 121; slaughters the Samian men
and boys, 121; is induced by a dream to repeo-
ple Samos, 121; is appointed judge in his
father's room, 164; succeeds Mcgabazus in his
command, 164; his conquests, 164; leads the
Persians under Xerxes, 227

Otters, 143

Oxen, hornless, of Scythia, 129; with curved
horns, that walk backwards as they graze, 156

Pactolus, the, gold dust carried down by, to Sar-
dis, 181

Pactyans, in Xerxes' army, their equipment for
war, 228

Pactyas, urges the Lydians to rise against Cyrus,
35; he flees to Cyme, 36; Cymaeans refuse to
give him up, 36; is delivered up by the Chians,

*•.

Paeonia, Xerxes' march through, 234

Pa.-onians, the, 160; Darius makes war on them
and carries them into Asia, 161, 162; descrip-
tion of their lake-dwellings, 162; their escape
from Phrygia, 181

Palms in Africa, 156

Pamphylians, vessels furnished by, to Xerxes' fleet,
231, their descent, 231

Pan, the god, 59, 80

Paniomum, the, 33, 34, 38

Panticapes, the, Scythian river, 127, 133

Paphlagomans, in Xerxes' army, their equipment
for war, 229

Papyrus, 67

Parchment used by the lonians, 171

Parians, the, set the Milesian government in order,

I64 .
Paricanians, in Xerxes' army, 228

Paros, expedition of Miltiades against, 21 1

Parthians, in Xerxes army, their equipment for
war, 228

Pausamas, commander of the expedition to the
Isthmus, 290, 292, 298; agrees that the Athe-
nians and Spartans should change places, 298;
orders his Spartans to strike their tents, 300;
Amompharetus refuses, 300, 301; his retreat,
301 ; sends horseman to the Athenians begging
for their support, 301; battle of Plataea, 301-303;
a woman appeals to him, 304; his answer to
Lampon's evil counsel, 305; his disposal of the
booty, 305; orders a Persian feast, 306; his
treatment of the Thebans, 307

Pedasians, the, 39, 40

Pelasgi, the, 12

"Pelasgi of the Sea-shore," original name of the
lonians, 231

Pelasgians, their worship of Mercury, 60; adopt
the Egyptian names for their gods, 60; settle in
Lemnos, 212; carry off Athenian women, 212;
and slay their women and sons, 212; refuse to
make amends to Athens, 213; reduced by Milti-
ades, 213

Pcloponncse, the, news of Leonidas' death reaches,
272; the nations of, encamp at the Isthmus, 272;
seven nations inhabiting, 272; they join the
Lacedaemonians at the Isthmus and march to
Eleusis, 292

Pcneus, the, and its tributaries, 237; Xerxes en-
quires concerning, 237

Perdiccas, legend of, 285, 286; Alexander, son of
Amyntas, descended from, 286

Penander, tyrant of Corinth, 4, 5; his revenge on
the Corcyra*ans, 99, 100; kills his wife, 100;
drives his younger son from home, 100, 101;
goes to war with his father-in-law, 101; en-
deavours to persuade his son to return, 101;
takes vengeance of the Corcyaeans for killing
the latter, 101, 179

INDEX

337

Pericles, his parentage and descent, 21 1

Perinthians, the, their fight with the Paeonians,
160; are overcome by Megabazus and the Per-
sians, 160

Perseus, worship of, at Chemmis, 66

Persia, tribes comprising nation of, 29, 30; throws
off the Median yoke, 30; divided into satrapies,
109; tribute paid to, by the latter, 109, no;
countries exempt from tribute to, in

Persians, the, their religious and social customs,
31, 32; thinness of their skulls, 91 ; length of life
among, 94; sent from Egypt to besiege Barca,
159; they overcome the city by fraud, 159; their
treatment of the inhabitants, 159; incidents of
their homeward march, 159; their weapons and
dress in the field, 169; defeat the lonians at
Ephesus, 181; take repossession of Cyprus,
183, 184; victory over the Carians, 184; whole
army destroyed, 184; further conquests in Ionia,
185; their expedition against Miletus, 187; de-
feat the Ionian fleet, 188; besiege and take Mile-
tus, 189; their treatment of the conquered loni-
ans, 191; their conquests on the Hellespont,
191; expedition into Greece, 203-205; battle of
Marathon, 206-208; expedition into Greece
headed by Xerxes, 220 ff.; order of their march
from Sardis, 223, 224; route of the army through
Mysia, 224; passage of the Hellespont, 226;
dress of the army, 227; ancient name of, 227;
nations serving with, under Xerxes, 227-232;
their generals, 230; magnificence of their troops,
230; commanders of their fleet, 232; further
march through Thrace and Pa*onia, 233-235;
preparations for, and cost of feeding the army,
235; course of fleet, 236; fleet leaves Therma and
captures three Greek vessels, 248; erects a pillar
on the "Ant," 249, and reaches Sepias, 249; esti-
mate of the Persian forces, 249; number of
host, including women, etc., 249, water of the
rivers insufficient for, 249; a storm partly de-
stroys their fleet, 250; fifteen ships taken by the
Greeks, 251; the remainder reach Apheta:, 251;
at Thermopylae, failure of first assaults, 254;
final struggle and victory at, 256, 257; famous
Persians slain at, 256; mamtuvres of the Persian
fleet, 261, first naval engagement with the
Greeks at Artemisium, 261, 262; storm destroys
a part of their fleet, 262; second and third en-
gagements, 262, 263; the sailors visit Thcrmo-
pyl.v, 264, they ravage Phocis, 265; their attack
on Delphi and discomfiture, 266; they reach
Athens, 268; capture the Acropolis, 268; occupy
Psyttaleia, 273; battle of Salamis, 274, 275; rout
of the fleet, 275, 276; surviving ships gather at
Phalerum, 276; Persians on Psyttaleia slain, 276;
their postal service, 276; fleet sails to the Helles-
pont, 279; line of Xerxes' retreat, 280, 281; suf-
ferings of the soldiers, 281; at Abydos, 281; re-
turn of remainder to Sardis, 281; Persian fleet
at Samos, 284; take possession of Athens, 288;
retreat from Attica, 290; furthest point reached
by, 290; engagement of the Persian horse, un-

der Masistius, with the Greeks, 291-293; order
of Persian army at Platva, 295; their soothsayer,
296; cut off the Greek convoys, 297; hold a
council of war, 297, 298; they charge the
Greeks, 299; choke the fountain of Gargaphia,
299; pursue the Greeks, 301; battle of Platan,
3OI-3°3; their flight, 303; they defend their
camp, 303; general slaughter of, 303; courage
shown by, 303; their defeat at Mycalc, 307, 309
310; slaughter of, 310; retreat of remainder to
Sardis, 311; incident along the road, 311

Phalerum, remainder of Persian fleet at, 276

Phanes, Greek mercenary, deserts to Cambyscs,
90; revenge on, by the other mercenaries, gr

Pheidippides, sent as envoy to Sparta, 205; appear-
ance of Pan to, 205

Pheretima, wife of King Battus, appeals to the
ruler of Salamis to help her regain Gyrene, 153;
appeals to the governor of Egypt to help her
avenge her son's death, 153; he sends Persians
to besiege Barca, 159; they take it by fraud, 159;
her barbarous cruelty to the inhabitants, 159;
her own hideous death, 159

Pheron, King of Egypt, 70, 71

Philip, son of Butacidas, accompanies Dorieus and
dies with him, i(>8; hero-temple raised to his
memory on account of his beauty, 168, 169

Phocaja, siege of, 37

Phoc.tans, the, 37; leave their city and sail for
Chios, 37; establish themselves in Corsica, 37,
38; attacked and flee to Rhegium and found city
of Vela, 38

Phocians, join the Greeks at Thermopylae, 252;
they hear the Persians approaching and take
their stand, 255; their wars with the Thcssah-
ans, 264, 265; their country ravaged by the Per-
sians, 265; they make a courageous stand
against Mardonius and his men, 291, 202

Plurnicians, 69, 71; icfuse to help Cambyscs
against the Carthaginians, 93; sail round Africa,
131; introduce a variety of arts and letters into
Greece, 171; defeated at sea by the lonians,
183; at the sea-fight to Lade, 188; their con-
quests on the Hellespont, 191; their skill in dig-
ging the canal of Athos, 221; their cables, 221;
construct bridge at Abydos, 222; win the sailing
match on the Hellespont, 224; vessels furnished
by, to Xerxes fleet, 230, 231; accouticmcnts of
their crews, 231

Phcrnix, the, 64

Phraortcs, King of the Mcdes, 24

Phrygia, Xerxes' march through, 221, 222

Phrygians, their antiquity, 49; in Xerxes' army,
their equipment for war, 229

Phrynichus, his drama of the capture of Miletus,
189

Pigmies, the, 56

Pigres and Mantyes, the Paeonians, story of, 161,
162

Pillars of Hercules, 131

Pisistratida', the, 171; they defeat the Lacedemo-
nians on the plain of Plulcrum, 172; they

338

INDEX

agree to quit Athens as a ransom for their cap-
tive children, 172; their descent, 172; urge
Darius to make war on their own country, 203;
urge Xerxes to attack Greece, 215

Pisistratus, 12; master of Athens, 12; exile and re-
turn, 12-14

Pitch, method of obtaining, from lake in Zacyn-
thus, 158

Plane-tree, magnificent tree presented with gold
ornaments by Xerxes, 222

Plata-a, Greek and Persian armies at, 294, 295; bat-
tle of, 301-303; wonderful things found later on
the battlefield, 306

Platarans, the, join the Athenians at Marathon, 206

Platca (Bomba), island of, colonised by the Ther-
a?ans, 150, 151

Polycrates, master of Samos, 98; his contract of
friendship with Amasis, King of Egypt, 98; his
fame and success in arms, 98; letter of advice
from Amasis to, 98; flings his ring into the sea,
98; it is found in the belly of a fish, 98; Amasis
in consequence dissolves his contract with, 99;
sends men to help Cambyses, 99, defeats the
exiled Samians, 99; forces the Lacedemonians
to raise the siege of Samos, 101 ; the first to con-
ceive the design of gaining the empire of the
sea, 115; is fraudulently induced by Orcutes to
repair to Magnesia, 115, lift; warned against
the expedition by his daughter and the sooth-
sayers, lift; his miserable end, lift

Polycritus, exploits of, at Salamis, 27ft

Ponticum, the, species of wild cherries, used for
food and drink by the Argippeans, 128

PoluU'a, Artabazus lays siege to, 283

Prexaspes, is ordered to kill Smerdis, Cambyses'
brother, 95; his son killed by the king, 97; and
Smerdis the Magus, 103, loft; his end, 106

Propontis, the, 139

Proteus, King of Egypt, 71; and Alexander and
Helen of Troy, 71,72

Psammenitus, King of Egypt, defeated by Cam-
byses, 90, 91; treatment of, by the conqueror,
91, 92; plots evil and is killed, 92

Psammetichus, King of Egypt, checks the advance
of the Scythians, 25; his method of determining
the relative antiquity of Egyptians and Phry-
gians, 49; tries to sound the fountains of the
Nile, 54; and the "Deserters," 55; his banish-
ment by the other eleven kings, 81, 82; becomes
sole King of Egypt, 82; his siege of Azotus, 83

P&nmmis, King of Egypt, receives ambassadors
from Elis, 83, 84; attacks Ethiopia, 84; his short
reign, 84

Psylli, the, African tribe, 154; completely destroyed
by a sandstorm, 155

Psyttaleia, Persians occupy, 273; and are slain by
Aristides, 276

Pyramid, Great, of Cheops, and causeway, build-
ing of, 75, 76; pyramid built by his daughter,
7ft; by Chephren, 7ft; by Mycennus, 77; by
Asychis, 78; in Lake Mocris, 81

Pythius, the Lydian, entertains Xerxes and his

army, 221 ; his enormous riches, 221; his request
to Xerxes, 223; king's anger and cruel answer,
223

Red Sea canal, 83

Rhampsinitus, King of Egypt, his monuments,

73; story of his treasure-chamber and the thief,

73, 74; his descent into Hades, 75
Rhodopis, 77; her present of spits to Delphi, 77
Royal Road between Sardis and Susa, stations

along, 170; distance of, 170

Sabacos, King of the Ethiopians, 78

Saca!, the, sec Scythians

Sadyattes, King of Lydia, 4

Sagartians, the, in Xerxes' army, their dress and
manner of fighting, 230

Sais, golden cow and colossal figures at, 76, 77;
king's palace at, 84; sepulchre of kings at, 85;
lake at, 85; temple of Minerva at 86, 87; stone
colossus at, 87

Salamis, Greek fleet arrive at, 266; council of war
at, 2ft8; battle of, 274, 275; Greeks seek refuge
at, 288

Salt, houses built of, 156; different colours of salt
quarried in Africa, 156

Salt-hills in Africa, 156

Samos (and the Samians), temple of, 80; Poly-
crates master of, 98; seek help from the Lace-
demonians, 99; deliver the Corcyra*an boys, 99,
100; besieged by the Lacedaemonians, 101;
Samians attack and defeat the Siphnians, 102;
buy the island of Hydrea, 102; found Cydonia
in Crete, 102; attacked and defeated by the
Eginetans, 102; their great engineering works,
102; and largest Greek temple built by, 102; be-
sieged and taken by Darius, 119; stripped of its
men and delivered to Syloson, 121; their mer-
cantile success, 150; splendid offerings to Juno,
151; they escape the yoke of the Medes, 190;
Persian fleet at, 284; their embassy to Leoty-
chides, 307; Greeks sail to, 308; battle of My-
cale, 308-310

Sarangians, in Xerxes' army, their equipment for
war, 228

Sardanapalus, his vast treasures, 81

Sardis, defeat of Croesus at, 18, 19; taken by
Cyrus, 18; revolt of, 35; taken and burnt by the
lonians, 181; conspiracy in, discovered, i8ft;
Xerxes at, 222; the Persian army march out
from, 224; return of Xerxes and the army to, 281

Saspirians, in Xerxes' army, 229

Sataspes, the Acharmenian, fails to circumnavigate
Lydia, 131; and is impaled, 131

Sauromat.x, the, 127; their descent from the Ama-
zons, 143, 144; their language, customs, and
dress, 144; they agree to help the Scythians, 144

Scamander, the, Xerxes at, 224

Scylas, King of Scythia, his attachment to Greek
customs, 137; is initiated into the Bacchic rites,
138; his people consequently revolt, 138; is be-
headed by his successor, 138

INDEX

339

Scyllias the Diver, goes over to the Greeks, 261

Scythas, King of the Zancbeans, 189, 190

Scythia, its geography and people, 127, 128; un-
known regions beyond, 128; rigour of its win-
ters, 128, 129; rivers in, 132; hemp grown in,
J3^> J375 population of, 138; measurements of
its sea-shore, 141, 142; its boundaries, 142

Scythians, their conquest of Asia, 24; they plun-
der the temple of Venus, 25; are massacred by
the Medcs, 25; lords of Upper Asia, 124; over-
throw the Medes, 124; their wives intermarry
with slaves during the men's absence, 124; their
method of obtaining mares' milk, and habit of
blinding their slaves, 124; their conflict with the
slaves on their return home, 124; account of
their origin, 124, 125; Greek legend concern-
ing, 125, 126; they conquer the land of the
Cimmerians, 126; Scythian husbandmen, 127;
wandering Scythians, 127; the Royal Scythians,
127; they are unconquerable, 132; gods wor-
shipped by, 134; their sacrifices, 134; special
rites paid to Mars, 134; their warlike customs,
134, 135; the skulls of their enemies used for
drinking-horns, 135; their soothsayers, 135, 136;
ceremonies accompanying their oaths, 136; the
royal tombs, 136; burial of their kings, 136; or-
dinary burials, 136; mode of cleaning them-
selves, 136, 137; their hatred of foreign customs,
137; send to the neighbouring tribes for help
against Darius, 142, 144; their plan of war, 144,
145; they march to meet Darius, 145; they con-
tinue to draw him on through their country,
145; their haughty answer to the message sent
by Darius, 146; they assault the Persian camp,
146; their horses alarmed by the braying of
asses, 146; send symbolic gifts to Darius, 146;
they march to the Ister and advise the lonians to
break the bridge, 147, 148; they miss the Per-
sian army, 148; their marauding expedition as
far as the Chersonese, 192; send ambassadors to
Sparta, 201; drink wme unmixed with water,
201; their equipment for war, 228; serve under
Xerxes, 228

Semiramis, Queen, 41

Sennacherib, marches into Egypt, 79; mice de-
stroy his arms and bow-strings, 79

Serpents, plague of, 142; winged, 64

Sesostris, King of Egypt, and Ethiopia, 69; his
exploits, 69; pillars erected by, 69; figures of,
69, 70; treachery of his brother, 70; intersects
the country with canals, 70; divides the soil, 70

Sestos, siege of, by the Greeks, 312, 313

Sethos, King of Egypt, neglects the warrior class,
79; attacked by Sennacherib, 79; saved by mice,

79
Sicyonians, names given to the tribes by their

king, Clisthenes, 173

Sidon, King of, with Xerxes at Athens, 271
Sigeum, passes under the dominion of Athens,

1 80; Hippias retires to, 180
Sigynna?, the, short, flat-nosed race dwelling north

of the Ister, 161

Silphium, the, celebrated as an article of food and
for its medicinal virtues, 154

Siphnos, rich mines in, 101; its people consult the
oracle, 102; are defeated by the Samians, 102

Sisamnes, slain and Hayed by Cambyses for giving
an unjust sentence, 164

Smerdis, killed by his brother Cambyses, 95

Smerdis, the Magus, pretends he is the son of
Cyrus, 102; succeeds Cambyses, 104; his fraud
discovered, 104, 105; conspiracy against, 105-
107; he and his brother are slain, 107

Snakes, horned, 157

Sogdians, in Xerxes' army, 228

Solon of Athens, 6; and Croesus, 6-8; borrows a
law from the Egyptians, 87

Solymi, the, 39

Soothsayers in Scythia, 135; mode of executing
them, 135, 136

Sophanes, most distinguished of the Athenians at
Plataea, 304

Sosicles, deputy of Corinth, his speech to die Lace-
da:monians and their allies, 178-180

Spargapises, son of Tomyns, overcome by the
Persians, 47; slays himself, 47

Sparta, law passed forbidding both kings to go
out together with the army, 174; double sov-
ereignty at, 194; descent and prerogatives of
the kings, 194, 195; honours done to the kings
in life and death, 195, 196; certain occupations
hereditary in, 196; death of Persian heralds at,
237, 238; atonement made for, 238; Carneian
festival at, 253

Spartans, see Lacedaemonians

Sperthias, story of, and Buhs, 238, 239

Stesagoras, successor of Miltiades the elder, 192

Strymon, the, passage of, by Xerxes, 235

Styx, the, waters of, 199

Sun, feast in honour of, 61, 62

Susa, Darius retires to, 164; his treasuries at, 169;
Royal Road to, from Sardis, 170; display of
feeling at, on receipt of the king's messages,

277

Syagrus, the Spartan, his indignation at Gelo's an-
swer to the Greek envoys, 244

Sybaris, taken by the Crotoniats, 168

Syloson, story of his cloak, and Darius, 119, 120;
begs Darius to restore Samos to him, 120; the
Persians deliver it to him, 121

Syrgis (Hyrgis), the, falls into Lake Ma-otis, 145

Syria, desert of, water earned to, in old wine jars,
90

Table of the Sun, 93

Tamarisk, the, 222

Tanais (Don), the, 133, 134; falls into Lake Maeo-
tis, 145

Tattooing among the Thracians, 161

Tauri, the, their mode of sacrifice, 142

Tauric territory, the, 141

Tearus, the, curative qualities of its waters, 140;
Darius pitches his camp beside it, 140; pillar
and inscription left by the king, 140

340

INDEX

Tcgeans, 14, 15; quarrel with the Athenians as to
their rightful post in battle, 293; they and the
Lacedemonians arc left to withstand the Per-
sians at Plataea, 301 ; attack on the Persian camp,

303

Tellus of Athens, 6

Tempe, defile of, Greeks occupy, 247

Tenedos, island of, falls into the hands of the
Persians, 191

Teos, people of, found city of Abdera, 38

Thales, the Milesian, 17; advice to lonians, 38

Thasos, suspected revolt of, 193, 194; gold mines
on, 194

Thebans, make war on Athens, 175; seek help
from Egina, 175; kept by Leonidas as hostages,
256; their cowardly conduct and fate, 257; ad-
vise Marclomus not to march on Athens, 288; at
Plat.ra, 302, 303; Pausanias and, 506, 307

Thebes, in Egypt, fall of rain at, 91

Thebes, banquet to Mardomus at, 291; besieged
by the Greeks, 306

Them, island of, history of its colonisation, 149,
150; Therarans commanded by oracle to colonise
Libya, 150; they settle on the island of Platea,
150, various versions of the story, 151

Thcras, leads colony of Lacedemonians and
Miny.i: to Callistc, 149, 150

Thersandcr, his account of the feast given to the
Persians at Thebes, 291

Themistocles, his interpretation of the oracle, 240;
advises the Athenians to build a fleet, 240; bribes
the Greek admiral to remain at Artemisium,
260; Ins strategem for detaching the lonians
from the Persians, 263, 264; urges Eurybiades to
remain with the fleet at Salamis, 269, 270; sends
secret message to the enemy, 272, 27 3; his con-
ference with Anstidcs, 273, 274; advises the pur-
suit of the Persian licet, 279; opposed by Eury-
biaclcs, 279; his further advice, 279, 280; his
message to the king, 280; gathers contributions,
280; receives the prize of wisdom, 282; other
honours paid him, 282; his speech to Timo-
dcmus, 283

ThcrmopyLi, description of, 247, 248; Greeks de-
cide to take their stand there against the Per-
sians, .148; Leonidas and his three hundred at,
252, 253, 254; final struggle at, between his
Greeks and the Persians, 255-257; graves and in-
scriptions at, 257; Persian sailors visit the field
of battle, 204

Thespians, remain with Leonidas at Thermopylae,
256; their bravery, 256; especial valour of Dithy-
rambus, 257

Thessalians, ofTer to defend the pass of Olym-
pus against the Persians, 247; forsaken by the
Greeks they side with the enemy, 247; match
their horses with the Persian coursers, 251; their
wars with the Phocians, 264, 265; they lead the
Persians against, 265

Thessaly, description of, 237

Thrace, region lying north of, ifii; Xerxes* march
through, 233, 234; tribes along his route, 234

Thracian king, story of a, 281

Thracians, the, subdued by Darius, 140; position
of, 141; their different tribes and customs, 160,
161; their gods, 161; their mode of burial, 161;
their equipment for war, 229

Thrasybulus, tyrant of Miletus, 4, 5

Thyrea, 19

Thyssagetae, the, 127, 145

Tigris, the, 42, 43, 81, 170

Timodemus of Aphidnae, his jealousy of Themis-
tocles, 283

Timoxenus, his plot to betray Potidara, 283

Tisamenus, Grecian soothsayer, story of, 295, 296

Tomyris, Queen of the MassagctcT, refuses to re-
ceive the embassy from Cyrus, 46; sends mes-
sage to the king, 46; defeat and death of her
son, 47; gives Cyrus battle, 47; defeats the Per-
sians, 48; fulfils her threat to Cyrus, 48

Transmigration of souls, 75

Trausi, the, a people of Thrace, their customs at
births and deaths, 160

Tntonis, Lake, legend in connection with, 155

Troglodytes, in Africa, their food and strange lan-
guage, 156

Trojan war, 72, 73

Troy, Xerxes and his army at, 224

Tyrants, put down by Aristagoras, 167

Tyras, the, Scythian river, 133; footprint of Her-
cules on rock near, 138, 139

Tyre, King of, fights the Egyptians, 84; with
Xerxes at Athens, 271

TyntiT, Greek dwellers on the Tyras, 1 33

Tyrrhenians, their settlement in Umbria, 23

Urania, Arabian name for, 90
Utians, in Xerxes' army, 228

Vulcan, temple of, at Memphis, 68, 70, 77, 78, 82,
87; priests of, 79; figure of, 97

Xanthippus, leader of the Athenians against Ses-
tos, 312, 313; his execution of Arayctes, 222, 314

Xanthus, taken by Harpagus, 40

Xerxes, meaning of name, 41, 204; appointed his
heir by Darius, 214; urged by Mardonius to at-
tack Greece, 215; and by Onornacntus, 215;
subdues Egypt, 215; addresses his council, 215,
2 16; his answer to the speech of Artabanus,
218; his dreams, 218-220; his third vision, 220;
his preparations for war, 220; immensity of the
expedition, 220; his canal of Athos, 220, 221;
his collection of stores, 221; his march from
Critalla, 221; crosses the Halys and marches
through Phrygia, 221; reaches Celsenx, 221; he
and his army entertained by Pythius, 221; his
further march, 222; reaches Sardis, 222; sends
heralds into Greece, 222; his fury at the de-
struction of the bridge of Abydos, 222; orders
the Hellespont to be scourged, 223; alarmed at
a sudden darkness, 223; his anger at the request
of Pythius the Lydian, 22^; rides forth from
Sardis, 224; magnificence of his .spearmen and

INDEX

341

cavalry, 224; he reaches Troy, 224; reaches Aby-
dos, and there views his armament, 224; his con-
versation with Artabanus, 224-226; his address
to the Persian army, 226; his libation, prayer,
and offerings at the Hellespont, 226; he watches
his army crossing, 226; despises the omens, 227;
he marches to Doriscus, 227; numbers his
troops, 227; nations taking part in his expedi-
tion, 227-231; his generals, 230; commanders
and officers of his fleet, 232; reviews his entire
army and fleet, 232; enquires of Demaratus
concerning the Greeks, 232, 233; marches
through Thrace, 233, 234; marches through
Paeonia, 234, 235; his passage of the Strymon,
235; reaches Acanthus, 235; joins his fleet at
Therma, 236; he views the Peneus and shows
how Thessaly could be submerged, 237; sends
his heralds into Greece, 237; his treatment of
the Greek spies, 241 ; success and progress of his
fleet, 248, 249; number of his host, 249; his
beauty and stature, 249; loss by storm and cap-
ture to his fleet, 250, 251; hears the tale of the
Temple of Laphystian Jupiter, 251 ; enters Malis,
251; at Thermopylae, 252; sends mounted spy
to observe the enemy, 253; consults with De-
maratus, 253; sends troops forward to take the
pass, 253; his terror at witnessing their defeat,
254; Ephialtes tells him of the mountain path,
254; victory of his Persians at Thermopylae 256,
257; again questions Demaratus concerning the

Spartans, 258; Demaratus and Acharmenes do
not agree in their advice to him, 258; Xerxes'
answer to the latter, 258; his treatment of
Leonidas' body, 258, 259; takes possession of
Athens, 268; his message to Artabanus, 268,
269; he consults the kings and sea captains with
him as to risking a sea-fight, 271; Artemisia's
answer, 271; watches the battle of Salamis, 275;
determines to fly, 277; advice of Mardomus to,
277, 278; he consults Artemisia, 278; confides
some of his children to her, 278, 279; he leaves
Mardonius with troops and sails to the Helles-
pont, 279; receives message from Thcmistocles,
279, 280; line of his retreat, 280, 281; his an-
swer to the Spartan heralds, 281; his march to
the Hellespont, 281; his return to Sardis, 281;
talcs of his return journey, 281, 282; falls in
lo\e with Masistes' wife, 311; his love affair
with Artaynta, 311; his wife's revenge, 312; he
slays his brother Masistes, 312

Zacynthus, pitch obtained from lake in, 158
Zalmoxis, god of the Gct.v, 140; stoiy of, 140-141
ZancKians, the, betrayed to the Samians by Hip-
pocrates, 190

/ancle, seized bv the Samians, 190
Zopyrus, one of his mules gives birth to a foal,
122; his successful ruse for securing Babylon,
I22-I2V, is made governor of Habylon, and
loaded with gifts and honours, 123

THUCYDIDES: THE HISTORY OF
THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
THUCYDIDES, (7.460-^.400 B.C.

THUCYDIDES records that he began writing
his History of the Pcloponnesian War "at the
moment that it broke out" and that he was
then "of an age to comprehend events." From
this it is inferred he was somewhere between
twenty-five and forty years of age at that time,
which would place his birth between 471 and
455 B.C.

His father, Olorus, was an Athenian citizen
and perhaps related to the Thracian prince,
Cimon, son of Miltiades. He derived consider-
able wealth from the possession of the gold
mines on the coast opposite Thasos. Thucyd-
ides by birth thus enjoyed two homes, one in
Athens and the other in Thrace, and a position
in society which gave him access to the leading
figures of his time.

It is uncertain how much of his youth
was passed in Athens, but, according to the
ancient biographers, he studied philosophy
with Anaxagoras and rhetoric with Antiphon,
the oligarch famous for his oratory, whom
Thucydides praised as "one of the best men of
his day in Athens." During his youth Athen-
ian power was at its height, and he was pre-
sumably a member of the brilliant circle about
Pericles.

Thucydides was in Athens when the Pelo-
ponnesian war broke out in 431 B.C. and also
the following year during the great plague,
when, as he records, "I had the disease my-
self and watched its operation in the case of
others." The turning-point in his career came
six years later, in 424. He had attained a posi-
tion of sufficient importance to have been ap-
pointed one of the two generals assigned to
guard the Athenian interests in "the regions
towards Thrace." His colleague, Euclcs, com-
manded the land forces while he had charge of
the navy. The town of Amphipohs was the
Athenian stronghold in that region, and to

guard it was then a matter of particular
urgency since the ablest ot the Spartan leaders,
Brasidas, was then making rapid gams in the
vicinity. Thucydides with the seven ships
under his command was anchored at the isle
oi Thasos, half a day's sail away. He records
that "Brasidas, afraid of help arriving by sea
from Thasos, and learning that Thucydides
possessed the right of working the gold mines
in that part of Thrace, and had thus great in-
fluence with the inhabitants of the continent,
hastened to gam the town." By the ofTer of
generous terms and the aid of the disaffected
part of the population, he succeeded in his
object before Thucydides could bring relief.
"The news that Amphipohs was in the hands
of the enemy caused great alarm at Athens,"
and Thucydides for his share in the disaster
was relieved of his command and exiled.

His exile from Athens lasted for twenty
years and is supposed to have been passed lor
the most part at his property in Thrace. He
probably took advantage of his position as an
Athenian exile to visit the countries of the
Peloponnesian allies, including Sparta and per-
haps Sicily. The main purpose of such travels
was undoubtedly to gather material for his
History, for, as he noted, "being present with
both parties, and more especially with the Pelo-
ponncsians by reason of my exile, I had leisure
to observe affairs somewhat particularly."

His own words make it clear that he re-
turned to Athens, at least for a time, in 404.
The general amnesty of that year would have
made it possible if he had not already received
a special pardon, as is sometimes claimed. Ac-
cording to ancient testimony, he soon after-
wards met his death at the hands of an assassin.
Plutarch declares that he was killed at his
home in Thrace and buried at Athens in the
vault of Cimon's family.

345

CONTENTS

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE, 345

THE FIRST BOOK

I. The State of Greece from the earliest

Times to the Commencement of the

Peloponnesian War 349

II. Causes of the War. The Affair of Epi-

damnus. The Affair of Potidaea 355

III. Congress of the Peloponnesian Con-
federacy at Lacedaemon 365

IV. From the End of the Persian to the be-
ginning of the Peloponnesian War.
The Progress from Supremacy to Em-
pire 371

V. Second Congress at Lacedaemon.
Preparations for War and Diplomatic
Skirmishes. Cylon. Pausanias. Themi-
stocles 378

THE SECOND BOOK

VI. Beginning of the Peloponnesian War.
First Invasion of Attica. Funeral Ora-
tion of Pericles 387
VII. Second Year of the War. The Plague
of Athens. Position and Policy of Peri-
cles. Fall of Potidaea 399
VIII. Third Year of the War. Investment of
Plataea. Naval Victories ot Phormio.
Thracian Irruption into Macedonia
under Sitalces 406

THE THIRD BOOK

IX. Fourth and Fifth Years of the War.
Revolt of Mitylene 417

X. Fifth Year of the War. Trial and Exe-
cution of the Plataeans. Corcyraean
Revolution 429

XI. Sixth Year of the War. Campaigns of
Demosthenes in Western Greece. Ruin
of Ambracia 438

THE FOURTH BOOK

XII. Seventh Year of the War. Occupation
of Pylos. Surrender of the Spartan
Army in Sphactena 447

XIII. Seventh and Eighth Years of the War.
End of Corcyraean Revolution. Peace
of Gela. Capture of Nisaea 457

XIV. Eighth and Ninth Years of the War.
Invasion of Bocotia. Fall of Amphipo-
lis. Brilliant Successes of Brasidas 465

THE FIFTH BOOK

XV. Tenth Year of the War. Death of Cle-

on and Brasidas. Peace of Nicias 482

XVI. Feeling against Sparta in Pcloponnese.

League of the Mantineans, Eleans, Ar-

gives, and Athenians. Battle of Manti-

nea and breakingupof the League 488

XVII. Sixteenth Year of the War. The Meh-

an Conference. Fate of Melos 504

THE SIXTH BOOK

XVIII. Seventeenth Year of the War. The
Sicilian Campaign. Affair of the Her-
mae. Departure ot the Expedition 509
XIX. Seventeenth Year of the War. Parties
at Syracuse. Story of Harmodius and
Aristogiton. Disgrace of Alcibiades 518
XX. Seventeenth and Eighteenth Years of
the War. Inaction of the Athenian
Army. Alcibiades at Sparta. Invest-
ment of Syracuse 525

THE SEVENTH BOOK

XXI. Eighteenth and Nineteenth Years of
the War. Arrival of Gylippus at Syra-
cuse. Fortification of Dccelea. Suc-
cesses of the Syracusans 538
XXII. Nineteenth Year of the War. Arrival
of Demosthenes. Defeat of the Atheni-
ans at Epipolae. Folly and Obstinacy
of Nicias 549

XXIII. Nineteenth Year of the War. Battles
in the Great Harbour. Retreat and An-
nihilation of the Athenian Army 552

THE EIGHTH BOOK

XXIV. Nineteenth and Twentieth Years of
the War. Revolt of Ionia. Intervention
of Persia. The War in Ionia 564

XXV. Twentieth and Twenty-first Years of
the War. Intrigues of Alcibiades.
Withdrawal of the Persian Subsidies.

347

348 CONTENTS

Oligarchical Coup tTEtat at Athens. Alcibiades to Samos. Revolt of Euboea

Patriotism of the Army at Samos 574 and Downfall of the Four Hundred.

XXVI. Twenty -first Year of the War. Recall of Battle of Cynossema 584

MAPS, p. 596

I. THE GREEK WORLD, 431 B.C.
II. GREECE

III. ATHENS AND THE PIRAEUS

IV. PYLOS AND SPHACTERIA
V. SYRACUSE, 415-413 B.C.

INDEX, p. 603

The First Book

CHAPTER I

The State of Greece from the earliest Times to the
Commencement of the Peloponnestan War

[i] THUCYDIDES, an Athenian, wrote the his-
tory of the war between the Peloponnesians
and the Athenians, beginning at the moment
that it broke out, and believing that it would be
a great war and more worthy of relation than
any that had preceded it. This belief was not
without its grounds. The preparations of both
the combatants were in every department in
the last state of perfection; and he could see the
rest of the Hellenic race taking sides in the
quarrel; those who delayed doing so at once
having it in contemplation. Indeed this was
the greatest movement yet known in history,
not only of the Hellenes, but of a large part of
the barbarian world — I had almost said of
mankind. For though the events of remote an-
tiquity, and even those that more immediately
preceded the war, could not from lapse of time
be clearly ascertained, yet the evidences which
an inquiry carried as far back as was practi-
cable leads me to trust, all point to the conclu-
sion that there was nothing on a great scale,
either in war or in other matters.

[2] For instance, it is evident that the coun-
try now called Hellas had in ancient times no
settled population; on the contrary, migrations
were of frequent occurrence, the several tribes
readily abandoning their homes under the
pressure of superior numbers. Without com-
merce, without freedom of communication
either by land or sea, cultivating no more of
their territory than the exigencies of life re-
quired, destitute of capital, never planting
their land (for they could not tell when an in-
vader might not come and take it all away, and
when he did come they had no walls to stop

[GENERAL NOTE: The bracketed italic num-
bers indicate the usual chapter divisions. The
twenty-six chapter headings are arbitrary sub-
divisions devised by the translator.]

him), thinking that the necessities of daily sus-
tenance could be supplied at one place as well
as another, they cared little for shifting their
habitation, and consequently neither built large
cities nor attained to any other form of great-
ness. The richest soils were always most sub-
ject to this change of masters; such as the dis-
trict now called Thessaly, Boeotia, most of the
Peloponnese, Arcadia excepted, and the most
fertile parts of the rest of Hellas. The goodness
of the land favoured the aggrandizement of
particular individuals, and thus created faction
which proved a fertile source of ruin. It also in-
vited invasion. Accordingly Attica, from the
poverty of its soil enjoying from a very remote
period freedom from faction, never changed its
inhabitants. And here is no inconsiderable ex-
emplification of my assertion that the migra-
tions were the cause of there being no corre-
spondent growth in other parts. The most pow-
erful victims of war or faction from the rest of
Hellas took refuge with the Athenians as a safe
retreat; and at an early period, becoming nat-
uralized, swelled the already large population
of the city to such a height that Attica became
at last too small to hold them, and they had to
send out colonies to Ionia.

[3] There is also another circumstance that
contributes not a little to my conviction of the
weakness of ancient times. Before the Trojan
war there is no indication of any common ac-
tion in Hellas, nor indeed of the universal
prevalence of the name; on the contrary, before
the time of Hellen, son of Deucalion, no such
appellation existed, but the country went by
the names of the different tribes, in particular
of the Pelasgian. It was not till Hellen and his
sons grew strong in Phthiotis, and were in-
vited as allies into the other cities, that one by
one they gradually acquired from the connec-
tion the name of Hellenes; though a long time
elapsed before that name could fasten itself
upon all. The best proof of this is furnished by
Homer. Born long after the Trojan War, he

349

350

THUCYDIDES

f BOOK i

nowhere calls ail of them by that name, nor in-
deed any of them except the followers of Achil-
les from Phthiotis, who were the original Hel-
lenes: in his poems they are called Danaans,
Argives, and Achaeans. He does not even use
the term barbarian, probably because the Hel-
lenes had not yet been marked off from the
rest of the world by one distinctive appellation.
It appears therefore that the several Hellenic
communities, comprising not only those who
first acquired the name, city by city, as they
came to understand each other, but also those
who assumed it afterwards as the name of the
whole people, were before the Trojan war pre-
vented by their want of strength and the ab-
sence of mutual intercourse from displaying
any collective action.

[4] Indeed, they could not unite for this ex-
pedition till they had gained increased famili-
arity with the sea. And the first person known
to us by tradition as having established a navy
is Minos. He made himself master of what is
now called the Hellenic sea, and ruled over the
Cyclades, into most of which he sent the first
colonies, expelling the Carians and appointing
his own sons governors; and thus did his best
to put down piracy in those waters, a necessary
step to secure the revenues for his own use.

/57 For in early times the Hellenes and the
barbarians of the coast and islands, as com-
munication by sea became more common, were
tempted to turn pirates, under the conduct of
their most powerful men; the motives being to
serve their own cupidity and to support the
needy. They would tall upon a town unpro-
tected by walls, and consisting ot a mere col-
lection of villages, and would plunder it; in-
deed, this came to be the main ssource of their
livelihood, no disgrace being yet attached to
such an achievement, but even some glory. An
illustration of this is furnished by the honour
with which some of the inhabitants of the con-
tinent still regard a successiul marauder, and
by the question we find the old poets every-
where representing the people as asking of
voyagers — "Are they pirates?" — as if those
who are asked the question would have no idea
of disclaiming the imputation, or their interro-
gators of reproaching them for it. The same
rapine prevailed also by land.

[6] And even at the present day many parts
of Hellas still follow the old fashion, the Ozo-
han Locrians for instance, the Aetolians, the
Acarnanians, and that region of the continent;
and the custom of carrying arms is still kept
up among these continentals, from the old pi-

ratical habits. The whole of Hellas used once
to carry arms, their habitations being unpro-
tected and their communication with each
other unsafe; indeed, to wear arms was as
much a part of everyday life with them as with
the barbarians. And the fact that the people in
these parts of Hellas are still living in the old
way points to a time when the same mode of
life was once equally common to all. The
Athenians were the first to lay aside their wea-
pons, and to adopt an easier and more luxuri-
ous mode of life; indeed, it is only lately that
their rich old men left off the luxury of wear-
ing undergarments of linen, and fastening a
knot of their hair with a tie of golden grass-
hoppers, a fashion which spread to their Ionian
kindred and long prevailed among the old
men there. On the contrary, a modest style of
dressing, more in conformity with modern
ideas, was first adopted by the Lacedaemon-
ians, the rich doing their best to assimilate
their way of life to that of the common people.
They also set the example of contending
naked, publicly stripping and anointing them-
selves with oil in their gymnastic exercises.
Formerly, even in the Olympic contests, the
athletes who contended wore belts across their
middles; and it is but a few years since that the
practice ceased. To this day among some of the
barbarians, especially in Asia, when prizes for
boxing and wrestling are offered, belts are
worn by the combatants. And there are many
other points in which a likeness might be
shown between the life of the Hellenic world
of old and the barbarian of to-day.

[j] With respect to their towns, later on, at
an era of increased facilities of navigation and
a greater supply of capital, we find the shores
becoming the site of walled towns, and the
isthmuses being occupied for the purposes ol
commerce and defence against a neighbour.
But the old towns, on account of the great
prevalence of piracy, were built away from the
sea, whether on the islands or the continent,
and still remain in their old sites. For the pirates
used to plunder one another, and indeed all
coast populations, whether seafaring or not.

[8J The islanders, too, were great pirates.
These islanders were Carians and Phoenicians,
by whom most of the islands were colonized,
as was proved by the following fact. During
the purification of Delos by Athens in this war
all the graves in the island were taken up, and
it was found that above half their inmates were
Carians: they were identified by the fashion of
the arms buried with them, and by the method

4-io

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

351

of interment, which was the same as the Cari-
ans still follow. But as soon as Minos had
formed his navy, communication by sea be-
came easier, as he colonized most of the islands,
and thus expelled the malefactors. The coast
population now began to apply themselves
more closely to the acquisition of wealth, and
their life became more settled; some even began
to build themselves walls on the strength of
their newly acquired riches. For the love of
gam would reconcile the weaker to the domin-
ion of the stronger, and the possession of capital
enabled the more powerful to reduce the
smaller towns to subjection. And it was at a
somewhat later stage of this development that
they went on the expedition against Troy.

[9] What enabled Agamemnon to raise the
armament was more, in my opinion, his supe-
riority in strength, than the oaths of Tynda-
reus, which bound the suitors to follow him.
Indeed, the account given by those Pelopon-
nesians who have been the recipients of the
most credible tradition is this. First of all
Pelops, arriving among a needy population
from Asia with vast wealth, acquired such
power that, stranger though he was, the coun-
try was called after him; and this power for-
tune saw lit materially to increase in the hands
of his descendants. Eurystheus had been killed
in Attica by the Heraclids. Atreus was his
mother's brother; and to the hands of his rela-
tion, who had left his father on account of the
death of Chrysippus, Eurystheus, when he set
out on his expedition, had committed Mycenae
and the government. As time went on and
Eurystheus did not return, Atreus complied
with the wishes of the Mycenaeans, who were
influenced by fear of the Heraclids — besides,
his power seemed considerable, and he had not
neglected to court the favour of the populace
— and assumed the sceptre of Mycenae and the
rest of the dominions of Eurystheus. And so
the power of the descendants of Pelops came to
be greater than that of the descendants of Per-
seus. To all this Agamemnon succeeded. He
had also a navy far stronger than his contem-
poraries, so that, in my opinion, fear was quite
as strong an element as love in the formation of
the confederate expedition. The strength of his
navy is shown by the fact that his own was the
largest contingent, and that of the Arcadians
was furnished by him; this at least is what
Homer says, if his testimony is deemed suffi-
cient. Besides, in his account of the transmis-
sion of the sceptre, he calls him

Of many an isle, and of all Argos 1(ing.

Now Agamemnon's was a continental power;
and he could not have been master of any ex-
cept the adjacent islands (and these would not
be many), but through the possession of a fleet.
[10] And from this expedition we may in-
fer the character of earlier enterprises. Now
Mycenae may have been a small place, and
many of the towns of that age may appear
comparatively insignificant, but no exact ob-
server would therefore feel justified in reject-
ing the estimate given by the poets and by tra-
dition of the magnitude of the armament. For I
suppose if Lacedaemon were to become deso-
late, and the temples and the foundations of
the public buildings were left, that as time
went on there would be a strong disposition
with posterity to refuse to accept her fame as a
true exponent of her power. And yet they oc-
cupy two-fifths of Peloponnese and lead the
whole, not to speak of their numerous allies
without. Still, as the city is neither built in a
compact form nor adorned with magnificent
temples and public edifices, but composed ol
villages alter the old fashion of Hellas, there
would be an impression of inadequacy. Where-
as, if Athens were to suffer the same misfor-
tune, I suppose that any inference from the ap-
pearance presented to the eye would make her
power to have been twice as great as it is. We
have therefore no right to be sceptical, nor to
content ourselves with an inspection of a town
to the exclusion of a consideration of its power;
but we may safely conclude that the armament
in question surpassed all before it, as it tell
short of modern efforts; if we can here also ac-
cept the testimony of Homer's poems, in
which, without allowing for the exaggeration
which a poet would feel himself licensed to em-
ploy, we can see that it was far from equalling
ours. He has represented it as consisting of
twelve hundred vessels; the Boeotian comple-
ment of each ship being a hundred and twenty
men, that of the ships of Philoctetes fifty. By
this, I conceive, he meant to convey the maxi-
mum and the minimum complement: at any
rate, he does not specify the amount of any
others in his catalogue of the ships. That they
were all rowers as well as warriors we see from
his account of the ships of Philoctetes, in which
all the men at the oar are bowmen. Now it is
improbable that many supernumeraries sailed,
if we except the kings and high officers; espe-
cially as they had to cross the open sea with
munitions of war, in ships, moreover, that had
no decks, but were equipped in the old pirati-
cal fashion. So that if we strike the average of

352

THUCYDIDES

the largest and smallest ships, the number of
those who sailed will appear inconsiderable,
representing, as they did, the whole force of
Hellas, [nj And this was due not so much to
scarcity of men as of money. Difficulty of sub-
sistence made the invaders reduce the numbers
of the army to a point at which it might live on
the country during the prosecution of the war.
Even after the victory they obtained on their
arrival — and a victory there must have been, or
the fortifications of the naval camp could never
have been built — there is no indication of their
whole force having been employed; on the con-
trary, they seem to have turned to cultivation
of the Chersonese and to piracy from want of
supplies. This was what really enabled the
Trojans to keep the field for ten years against
them; the dispersion of the enemy making
them always a match for the detachment left
behind. If they had brought plenty of supplies
with them, and had persevered in the war
without scattering for piracy and agriculture,
they would have easily defeated the Trojans in
the field, since they could hold their own
against them with the division on service. In
short, if they had stuck to the siege, the capture
of Troy would have cost them less time and
less trouble. But as want of money proved the
weakness of earlier expeditions, so from the
same cause even the one in question, more fa-
mous than its predecessors, may be pro-
nounced on the evidence of what it effected to
have been inferior to its renown and to the cur-
rent opinion about it formed under the tuition
of the poets.

[12] Even after the Trojan War, Hellas was
still engaged in removing and settling, and
thus could not attain to the quiet which must
precede growth. The late return of the Hel-
lenes from Ilium caused many revolutions, and
factions ensued almost everywhere; and it was
the citizens thus driven into exile who founded
the cities. Sixty years after the capture of Ilium,
the modern Boeotians were driven out of Arne
by the Thessalians, and settled in the present
Boeotia, the former Cadmeis; though there was
a division of them there before, some of whom
joined the expedition to Ilium. Twenty years
later, the Dorians and the Heraclids became
masters of Peloponnese; so that much had to be
done and many years had to elapse before Hel-
las could attain to a durable tranquillity undis-
turbed by removals, and could begin to send
out colonies, as Athens did to Ionia and most
of the islands, and the Peloponnesians to most
of Italy and Sicily and some places in the rest

[ BOOK i

of Hellas. All these places were founded subse-
quently to the war with Troy.

[13] But as the power of Hellas grew, and
the acquisition of wealth became more an ob-
ject, the revenues of the states increasing, tyran-
nies were by their means established almost
everywhere — the old form of government be-
ing hereditary monarchy with definite prerog-
atives— and Hellas began to fit out fleets and
apply herself more closely to the sea. It is said
that the Corinthians were the first to approach
the modern style of naval architecture, and
that Corinth was the first place in Hellas
where galleys were built; and we have Amein-
ocles, a Corinthian shipwright, making four
ships for the Samians. Dating from the end of
this war, it is nearly three hundred years ago
that Ameinocles went to Samos. Again, the
earliest sea-fight in history was between the
Corinthians and Corcyraeans; this was about
two hundred and sixty years ago, dating from
the same time. Planted on an isthmus, Corinth
had from time out of mind been a commercial
emporium; as formerly almost all communica-
tion between the Hellenes within and without
Peloponnese was carried on overland, and the
Corinthian territory was the highway through
which it travelled. She had consequently great
money resources, as is shown by the epithet
"wealthy" bestowed by the old poets on the
place, and this enabled her, when traffic by sea
became more common, to procure her navy
and put down piracy; and as she could offer a
mart for both branches of the trade, she ac-
quired for herself all the power which a large
revenue affords. Subsequently the lonians at-
tained to great naval strength in the reign of
Cyrus, the first king of the Persians, and of his
son Cambyses, and while they were at war
with the former commanded for a while the
Ionian sea. Polycrates also, the tyrant of Samos,
had a powerful navy in the reign of Cambyses,
with which he reduced many of the islands,
and among them Rhenea, which he conse-
crated to the Delian Apollo. About this time
also the Phocaeans, while they were founding
Marseilles, defeated the Carthaginians in a sea-
fight. [14] These were the most powerful na-
vies. And even these, although so many genera-
tions had elapsed since the Trojan war, seem to
have been principally composed of the old fifty-
oars and long-boats, and to have counted few
galleys among their ranks. Indeed it was only
shortly before the Persian war, and the death
of Darius the successor of Cambyses, that the
Sicilian tyrants and the Corcyraeans acquired

1 1-20 ]

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

353

any large number of galleys. For after these
there were no navies of any account in Hellas
till the expedition of Xerxes; Aegina, Athens,
and others may have possessed a few vessels,
but they were principally fifty-oars. It was
quite at the end of this period that the war
with Aegina and the prospect of the barbarian
invasion enabled Themistocles to persuade the
Athenians to build the fleet with which they
fought at Salamis; and even these vessels had
not complete decks.

[15] The navies, then, of the Hellenes dur-
ing the period we have traversed were what I
have described. All their insignificance did not
prevent their being an element of the greatest
power to those who cultivated them, alike in
revenue and in dominion. They were the
means by which the islands were reached and
reduced, those of the smallest area falling the
easiest prey. Wars by land there were none,
none at least by which power was acquired; we
have the usual border contests, but of distant
expeditions with conquest for object we hear
nothing among the Hellenes. There was no
union of subject cities round a great state, no
spontaneous combination of equals for confed-
erate expeditions; what fighting there was con-
sisted merely of local warfare between rival
neighbours. The nearest approach to a coalition
took place in the old war between Chalcis and
Eretna; this was a quarrel in which the rest of
the Hellenic name did to some extent take sides.

[16] Various, too, were the obstacles which
the national growth encountered in various lo-
calities. The power of the lomans was advanc-
ing with rapid strides, when it came into col-
lision with Persia, under King Cyrus, who,
after having dethroned Croesus and overrun
everything between the Halys and the sea,
stopped not till he had reduced the cities of the
coast; the islands being only left to be subdued
by Darius and the Phoenician navy.
[ij] Again, wherever there were tyrants,
their habit of providing simply for themselves,
of looking solely to their personal comfort and
family aggrandizement, made safety the great
aim of their policy, and prevented anything
great proceeding from them; though they
would each have their affairs with their imme-
diate neighbours. All this is only true of the
mother country, for in Sicily they attained to
very great power. Thus for a long time every-
where in Hellas do we find causes which make
the states alike incapable of combination for
great and national ends, or of any vigorous ac-
tion of their own.

[18] But at last a time came when the ty-
rants of Athens and the far older tyrannies of
the rest of Hellas were, with the exception of
those in Sicily, once and for all put down by
Lacedaemon; for this city, though after the set-
tlement of the Dorians, its present inhabitants,
it suffered from factions for an unparalleled
length of time, still at a very early period ob-
tained good laws, and enjoyed a freedom from
tyrants which was unbroken; it has possessed
the same form of government for more than
four hundred years, reckoning to the end of
the late war, and has thus been in a position to
arrange the affairs of the other states. Not
many years after the deposition of the tyrants,
the battle of Marathon was fought between the
Metles and the Athenians. Ten years after-
wards, the barbarian returned with the armada
for the subjugation of Hellas. In the face of
this great danger, the command of the confed-
erate Hellenes was assumed by the Lacedae-
monians in virtue of their superior power; and
the Athenians, having made up their minds to
abandon their city, broke up their homes,
threw themselves into their ships, and became
a naval people. This coalition, after repulsing
the barbarian, soon afterwards split into two
sections, which included the Hellenes who had
revolted from the King, as well as those who
had aided him in the war. At the end of the
one stood Athens, at the head of the other
1 .acedaemon, one the first naval, the other the
first military power in Hellas. For a short time
the league held together, till the Lacedaemon-
ians and Athenians quarrelled and made war
upon each other with their allies, a duel into
which all the Hellenes sooner or later were
drawn, though some might at first remain
neutral. So that the whole period from the Me-
dian war to this, with some peaceful intervals,
was spent by each power in war, either with its
rival, or with its own revolted allies, and conse-
quently afforded them constant practice in mil-
itary matters, and that experience which is
learnt in the school of danger.

[19] The policy of Lacedaemon was not to
exact tribute from her allies, but merely to se-
cure their subservience to her interests by estab-
lishing oligarchies among them; Athens, on
the contrary, had by degrees deprived hers of
their ships, and imposed instead contributions
in money on all except Chios and Lesbos. Both
found their resources for this war separately to
exceed the sum of their strength when the alli-
ance flourished intact.

[20] Having now given the result of my in-

354

THUCYDIDES

quirics into early times, I grant that there will
be a difficulty in believing every particular de-
tail. The way that most men deal with tradi-
tions, even traditions of their own country, is
to receive them all alike as they are delivered,
without applying any critical test whatever.
The general Athenian public fancy that Hip-
parchus was tyrant when he fell by the hands
of Harmodius and Aristogiton, not knowing
that Hippias, the eldest of the sons of Pisistra-
tus, was really supreme, and that Hipparchus
and Thessalus were his brothers; and that Har-
modius and Aristogiton suspecting, on the very
day, nay at the very moment fixed on for the
deed, that information had been conveyed to
Hippias by their accomplices, concluded that
he had been warned, and did not attack him,
yet, not liking to be apprehended and risk
their lives for nothing, fell upon Hipparchus
near the temple of the daughters of Leos, and
slew him as he was arranging the Panathenaic
procession.

There are many other unfounded ideas cur-
rent among the rest of the Hellenes, even on
matters of contemporary history, which have
not been obscured by time. For instance, there
is the notion that the Lacedaemonian kings
have two votes each, the fact being that they
have only one; and that there is a company of
Pitane, there being simply no such thing. So
little pains do the vulgar take in the investiga-
tion of truth, accepting readily the first story
that comes to hand. [21] On the whole, how-
ever, the conclusions I have drawn from the
proofs quoted may, I believe, safely be relied
on. Assuredly they will not be disturbed either
by the lays of a poet displaying the exaggera-
tion of his craft, or by the compositions of the
chroniclers that are attractive at truth's ex-
pense; the subjects they treat of being out of the
reach of evidence, and time having robbed
most of them of historical value by enthroning
them in the region of legend. Turning from
these, we can rest satisfied with having proceed-
ed upon the clearest data, and having arrived at
conclusions as exact as can be expected in mat-
ters of such antiquity. To come to this war: de-
spite the known disposition of the actors in a
struggle to overrate its importance, and when it
is over to return to their admiration of earlier
events, yet an examination of the facts will
show that it was much greater than the wars
which preceded it.

[22] With reference to the speeches in this
history, some were delivered before the war be-
gan, others while it was going on; some I

[BooK i

heard myself, others I got from various quar-
ters; it was in all cases difficult to carry them
word for word in one's memory, so my habit
has been to make the speakers say what was in
my opinion demanded of them by the various
occasions, of course adhering as closely as pos-
sible to the general sense of what they really
said. And with reference to the narrative of
events, far from permitting myself to derive it
from the first source that came to hand, I did
not even trust my own impressions, but it rests
partly on what I saw myself, partly on what
others saw for me, the accuracy of the report
being always tried by the most severe and de-
tailed tests possible. My conclusions have cost
me some labour from the want of coincidence
between accounts of the same occurrences by
different eye-witnesses, arising sometimes from
imperfect memory, sometimes from undue par-
tiality for one side or the other. The absence of
romance in my history will, I fear, detract
somewhat from its interest; but if it be judged
useful by those inquirers who desire an exact
knowledge of the past as an aid to the interpre-
tation of the future, which in the course of hu-
man things must resemble if it does not reflect
it, I shall be content. In fine, I have written my
work, not as an essay which is to win the ap-
plause of the moment, but as a possession for
all time.

[23] The Median War, the greatest achieve-
ment of past times, yet found a speedy decision
in two actions by sea and two by land. The
Peloponnesian War was prolonged to an im-
mense length, and, long as it was, it was short
without parallel for the misfortunes that it
brought upon Hellas. Never had so many cities
been taken and laid desolate, here by the bar-
barians, here by the parties contending (the old
inhabitants being sometimes removed to make
room for others); never was there so much ban-
ishing and blood-shedding, now on the field
of battle, now in the strife of faction. Old stor-
ies of occurrences handed down by tradition,
but scantily confirmed by experience, suddenly
ceased to be incredible; there were earthquakes
of unparalleled extent and violence; eclipses of
the sun occurred with a frequency unrecorded
in previous history; there were great droughts
in sundry places and consequent famines, and
that most calamitous and awfully fatal visita-
tion, the plague. All this came upon them with
the late war, which was begun by the Athe-
nians and Pcloponnesians by the dissolution of
the thirty years' truce made after the conquest
of Euboea. To the question why they broke the

21-26 ]

treaty, I answer by placing first an account of
their grounds of complaint and points of differ-
ence, that no one may ever have to ask the im-
mediate cause which plunged the Hellenes
into a war of such magnitude. The real cause I
consider to be the one which was formally
most kept out of sight. The growth of the
power of Athens, and the alarm which this
inspired in Lacedaemon, made war inevi-
table. Still it is well to give the grounds al-
leged by either side which led to the dissolu-
tion of the treaty and the breaking out of the
war.

CHAPTER II

Causes of the War — The Affair of Epidamnus —
The Affair of Pottdaca

[24] THE city of Epidamnus stands on the
right of the entrance of the Ionic Gulf. Its vi-
cinity is inhabited by the Taulantians, an II-
lyrian people. The place is a colony from Cor-
cyra, founded by Phalius, son of Eratocleides,
of the family of the Heraclids, who had accord-
ing to ancient usage been summoned for the
purpose from Corinth, the mother country.
The colonists were joined by some Corinthians,
and others of the Dorian race. Now, as time
went on, the city of Epidamnus became great
and populous; but falling a prey to factions
arising, it is said, from a war with her neigh-
bours the barbarians, she became much en-
feebled, and lost a considerable amount of her
power. The last act before the war was the ex-
pulsion of the nobles by the people. The exiled
party joined the barbarians, and proceeded to
plunder those in the city by sea and land; and
the Epidamnians, finding themselves hard
pressed, sent ambassadors to Corcyra beseech-
ing their mother country not to allow them to
perish, but to make up matters between them
and the exiles, and to rid them of the war with
the barbarians. The ambassadors seated them-
selves in the temple of Hera as suppliants, and
made the above requests to the Corcyraeans.
But the Corcyraeans refused to accept their
supplication, and they were dismissed without
having effected anything.

[25] When the Epidamnians found that no
help could be expected from Corcyra, they
were in a strait what to do next. So they sent to
Delphi and inquired of the God whether they
should deliver their city to the Corinthians
and endeavour to obtain some assistance from
their founders. The answer he gave them was
to deliver the city and place themselves under

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

355

Corinthian protection. So the Epidamnians
went to Corinth and delivered over the colony
in obedience to the commands of the oracle.
They showed that their founder came from
Corinth, and revealed the answer of the god;
and they begged them not to allow them to
perish, but to assist them. This the Corinthians
consented to do. Believing the colony to belong
as much to themselves as to the Corcyraeans,
they felt it to be a kind of duty to undertake
their protection. Besides, they hated the Corcy-
raeans for their contempt of the mother coun-
try. Instead of meeting with the usual honours
accorded to the parent city by every other col-
ony at public assemblies, such as precedence at
sacrifices, Corinth found herself treated with
contempt by a power which in point of wealth
could stand comparison with any even of the
richest communities in Hellas, which possessed
great military strength, and which sometimes
could not repress a pride in the high naval po-
sition of an island whose nautical renown
dated from the days of its old inhabitants,
the Phacacians. This was one reason of the
care that they lavished on their fleet, which
became very efficient; indeed they began the
war with a force of a hundred and twenty gal-
leys.

/26j All these grievances made Corinth
eager to send the promised aid to Epidamnus.
Advertisement was made for volunteer settlers,
and a force of Ambraciots, Leucadians, and
Corinthians was dispatched. They marched by
land to Apolloma, a Corinthian colony, the
route by sea being avoided from fear of Corcy-
raean interruption. When the Corcyraeans
heard of the arrival of the settlers and troops in
Epidamnus, and the surrender of the colony to
Corinth, they took fire. Instantly putting to sea
with five-and-twenty ships, which were quickly
followed by others, they insolently commanded
the Epidamnians to receive back the banished
nobles — (it must be premised that the Epidam-
nian exiles had come to Corcyra and, pointing
to the sepulchres of their ancestors, had ap-
pealed to their kindred to restore them) — and
to dismiss the Corinthian garrison and settlers.
But to all this the Epidamnians turned a deaf
ear. Upon this the Corcyraeans commenced op-
erations against them with a fleet of forty sail.
They took with them the exiles, with a view to
their restoration, and also secured the services
of the Illyrians. Sitting down before the city,
they issued a proclamation to the effect that
any of the natives that chose, and the foreign-
ers, might depart unharmed, with the aJtcrna-

356

THUCYDIDES

[ BOOK

tive of being treated as enemies. On their re-
fusal the Corcyraeans proceeded to besiege the
city, which stands on an isthmus; ^277 and the
Corinthians, receiving intelligence of the in-
vestment of Epidamnus, got together an arma-
ment and proclaimed a colony to Epidamnus,
perfect political equality being guaranteed to
all who chose to go. Any who were not pre-
pared to sail at once might, by paying down
the sum of fifty Corinthian drachmae, have a
share in the colony without leaving Corinth.
Great numbers took advantage of this procla-
mation, some being ready to start directly,
others paying the requisite forfeit. In case of
their passage being disputed by the Corcyrae-
ans, several cities were asked to lend them a
convoy. Megara prepared to accompany them
with eight ships, Pale in Cephalloma with
four; Epidaurus furnished five, Hermione one,
Troezcn two, Leucas ten, and Ambracia eight.
The Thebans and Phliasians were asked for
money, the Elcans for hulls as well; while Cor-
inth herself furnished thirty ships and three
thousand heavy infantry.

[28] When the Corcyraeans heard of their
preparations they came to Corinth with envoys
from Lacedaemon and Sicyon, whom they per-
suaded to accompany them, and bade her re-
call the garrison and settlers, as she had noth-
ing to do with Epidamnus. If, however, she
had any claims to make, they were willing to
submit the matter to the arbitration of such of
the cities in Peloponnese as should be chosen
by mutual agreement, and that the colony
should remain with the city to whom the arbi-
trators might assign it. They were also willing
to refer the matter to the oracle at Delphi. If, in
defiance of their protestations, war was ap-
pealed to, they should be themselves compelled
by this violence to seek friends in quarters
where they had no desire to seek them, and to
make even old ties give way to the necessity of
assistance. The answer they got from Corinth
was that, if they would withdraw their fleet
and the barbarians from Epidamnus, negotia-
tion might be possible; but, while the town
was still being besieged, going before arbitra-
tors was out of the question. The Corcyraeans
retorted that if Corinth would withdraw her
troops from Epidamnus they would withdraw
theirs, or they were ready to let both parties re-
main in statu quo, an armistice being con-
cluded till judgment could be given.

[29] Turning a deaf ear to all these pro-
posals, when their ships were manned and
their allies had come in, the Corinthians sent a

herald before them to declare war and, getting
under way with seventy-five ships and two
thousand heavy infantry, sailed for Epidamnus
to give battle to the Corcyraeans. The fleet was
under the command of Aristeus, son of Pel-
hchas, Calibrates, son of Calhas, and Tima-
nor, son of Timanthes; the troops under that of
Archetimus, son of Eurytimus, and Isarchidas,
son of Isarchus. When they had reached Ac-
tium in the territory of Anactorium, at the
mouth of the Gulf of Ambracia, where the
temple of Apollo stands, the Corcyraeans sent
on a herald in a light boat to warn them not to
sail against them. Meanwhile they proceeded
to man their ships, all of which had been
equipped for action, the old vessels being un-
dergirded to make them seaworthy. On the re-
turn of the herald without any peaceful answer
from the Corinthians, their ships being now
manned, they put out to sea to meet the enemy
with a fleet of eighty sail (forty were engaged
in the siege of Epidamnus), formed line, and
went into action, and gained a decisive victory,
and destroyed fifteen of the Corinthian vessels.
The same day had seen Epidamnus compelled
by its besiegers to capitulate; the conditions be-
ing that the foreigners should be sold, and the
Corinthians kept as prisoners of war, till their
fate should be otherwise decided.

[jo] After the engagement the Corcyraeans
set up a trophy on Leukimme, a headland of
Corcyra, and slew all their captives except the
Corinthians, whom they kept as prisoners of
war. Defeated at sea, the Corinthians and their
allies repaired home, and left the Corcyraeans
masters of all the sea about those parts. Sailing
to Leucas, a Corinthian colony, they ravaged
their territory, and burnt Cyllene, the harbour
of the Eleans, because they had furnished ships
and money to Corinth. For almost the whole
of the period that followed the battle they re-
mained masters of the sea, and the allies of
Corinth were harassed by Corcyraean cruisers.
At last Corinth, roused by the sufferings of her
allies, sent out ships and troops in the fall of
the summer, who formed an encampment at
Actium and about Chimenum, in Thesprotis,
for the protection of Leucas and the rest of the
friendly cities. The Corcyraeans on their part
formed a similar station on Leukimme. Nei-
ther party made any movement, but they re-
mained confronting each other till the end of
the summer, and winter was at hand before
either of them returned home.

[31] Corinth, exasperated by the war with
the Corcyraeans, spent the whole of the year

27-33 ]

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

357

after the engagement and that succeeding it in
building ships, and in straining every nerve to
form an efficient fleet; rowers being drawn
from Peloponnese and the rest of Hellas by the
inducement of large bounties. The Corcyrae-
ans, alarmed at the news of their preparations,
being without a single ally in Hellas (for they
had not enrolled themselves either in the Athe-
nian or in the Lacedaemonian confederacy),
decided to repair to Athens in order to enter
into alliance and to endeavour to procure sup-
port from her. Corinth also, hearing of their
intentions, sent an embassy to Athens to pre-
vent the Corcyraean navy being joined by the
Athenian, and her prospect of ordering the
war according to her wishes being thus imped-
ed. An assembly was convoked, and the rival
advocates appeared: the Corey raeans spoke as
follows :

[32] "Athenians! when a people that have
not rendered any important service or support
to their neighbours in times past, for which
they might claim to be repaid, appear before
them as we now appear before you to solicit
their assistance, they may fairly be required to
satisfy certain preliminary conditions. They
should show, first, that it is expedient or at least
safe to grant their request; next, that they will
retain a lasting sense of the kindness. But if
they cannot clearly establish any of these
points, they must not be annoyed if they meet
with a rebuff. Now the Corcyraeans believe
that with their petition for assistance they can
also give you a satisfactory answer on these
points, and they have therefore dispatched us
hither. It has so happened that our policy as
regards you with respect to this request, turns
out to be inconsistent, and as regards our in-
terests, to be at the present crisis inexpedient.
We say inconsistent, because a power which
has never in the whole of her past history been
willing to ally herself with any of her neigh-
bours, is now found asking them to ally them-
selves with her. And we say inexpedient, be-
cause in our present war with Corinth it has
left us in a position of entire isolation, and
what once seemed the wise precaution of re-
fusing to involve ourselves in alliances with
other powers, lest we should also involve our-
selves in risks of their choosing, has now
proved to be folly and weakness. It is true that
in the late naval engagement we drove back
the Corinthians from our shores single-handed.
But they have now got together a still larger
armament from Peloponnese and the rest of
Hellas; and we, seeing our utter inability to

cope with them without foreign aid, and the
magnitude of the danger which subjection to
them implies, find it necessary to ask help from
you and from every other power. And we hope
to be excused if we forswear our old principle
of complete political isolation, a principle
which was not adopted with any sinister inten-
tion, but was rather the consequence of an er-
ror in judgment.

[33] "Now there are many reasons why in
the event of your compliance you will con-
gratulate yourselves on this request having
been made to you. First, because your assist-
ance will be rendered to a power which, her-
self inoffensive, is a victim to the injustice of
others. Secondly, because all that we most
value is at stake in the present contest, and
your welcome of us under these circumstances
will be a proof of goodwill which will ever
keep alive the gratitude you will lay up in our
hearts. Thirdly, yourselves excepted, we are
the greatest naval power in Hellas. Moreover,
can you conceive a stroke of good fortune more
rare in itself, or more disheartening to your
enemies, than that the power whose adhesion
you would have valued above much material
and moral strength should present herself self-
invited, should deliver herself into your hands
without danger and without expense, and
should lastly put you in the way of gaining a
high character in the eyes of the world, the
gratitude of those whom you shall assist, and a
great accession of strength for yourselves? You
may search all history without finding many
instances of a people gaining all these advan-
tages at once, or many instances of a power
that comes in quest of assistance being in a
position to give to the people whose alliance
she solicits as much safety and honour as she
will receive. But it will be urged that it is only
in the case of a war that we shall be found use-
ful. To this we answer that if any of you
imagine that that war is far off, he is grievously
mistaken, and is blind to the fact that Lace-
daemon regards you with jealousy and desires
war, and that Corinth is powerful there — the
same, remember, that is your enemy, and is
even now trying to subdue us as a preliminary
to attacking you. And this she does to prevent
our becoming united by a common enmity,
and her having us both on her hands, and also
to ensure getting the start of you in one of two
ways, either by crippling our power or by mak-
ing its strength her own. Now it is our policy
to be beforehand with her — that is, for Corcyra
to make an offer of alliance and for you to ac-

358

THUCYDIDES

[ BOOK i

cept it; in fact, we ought to form plans against
her instead of waiting to defeat the plans she
forms against us.

[34] "If she asserts that for you to receive a
colony of hers into alliance is not right, let her
know that every colony that is well treated
honours its parent state, but becomes estranged
from it by injustice. For colonists are not sent
forth on the understanding that they are to be
the slaves of those that remain behind, but that
they are to be their equals. And that Corinth
was injuring us is clear. Invited to refer the dis-
pute about Epidamnus to arbitration, they
chose to prosecute their complaints by war
rather than by a fair trial. And let their con-
duct towards us who are their kindred be a
warning to you not to be misled by their deceit,
nor to yield to their direct requests; conces-
sions to adversaries only end in self-reproach,
and the more strictly they are avoided the
greater will be the chance of security.

[35] "If it be urged that your reception of us
will be a breach of the treaty existing between
you and Laccdacmon, the answer is that we are
a neutral state, and that one of the express pro-
visions of that treaty is that it shall be compe-
tent lor any Hellenic state that is neutral to join
whichever side it pleases. And it is intolerable
for Corinth to be allowed to obtain men for her
navy not only Irom her allies, but also from the
rest of Hellas, no small number being fur-
nished by your own subjects; while we are to
be excluded both from the alliance left open to
us by treaty, and from any assistance that we
might get from other quarters, and you are to
be accused ol political immorality if you com-
ply with our request. On the other hand, we
shall have much greater cause to complain of
you, if you do not comply with it; if we, who
are in peril and are no enemies of yours, meet
with a repulse at your hands, while Corinth,
who is the aggressor and your enemy, not only
meets with no hindrance from you, but is even
allowed to draw material tor war from your
dependencies. This ought not to be, but you
should either forbid her enlisting men in your
dominions, or you should lend us too what
help you may think advisable.

/ 36] "But your real policy is to afford us
avowed countenance and support. The advan-
tages of this course, as we premised in the be-
ginning of our speech, are many. We mention
one that is perhaps the chief. Could there be a
clearer guarantee of our good faith than is of-
fered by the fact that the power which is at en-
mity with you is also at enmity with us, and

that that power is fully able to punish defec-
tion? And there is a wide difference between
declining the alliance of an inland and of a
maritime power. For your first endeavour
should be to prevent, if possible, the existence
of any naval power except your own; failing
this, to secure the friendship of the strongest
that does exist. And if any of you believe that
what we urge is expedient, but tear to act upon
this belief, lest it should lead to a breach of the
treaty, you must remember that on the one
hand, whatever your fears, your strength will
be formidable to your antagonists; on the other,
whatever the confidence you derive from refus-
ing to receive us, your weakness will have no
terrors tor a strong enemy. You must also re-
member that your decision is for Athens no less
than Corcyra, and that you are not making the
best provision for her interests, if at a time
when you arc anxiously scanning the horizon
that you may be in readiness for the breaking
out of the war which is all but upon you, you
hesitate to attach to your side a place whose ad-
hesion or estrangement is alike pregnant with
the most vital consequences. For it lies conven-
iently tor the coast-navigation in the direction
of Italy and Sicily, being able to bar the passage
of naval reinforcements from thence to Pelo-
ponnese, and from Peloponnese thither; and
it is in other respects a most desirable station.
To sum up as shortly as possible, embracing
both general and particular considerations, let
this show you the folly of sacrificing us. Re-
member that there are but three considerable
naval powers in Hellas — Athens, Corcyra, and
Corinth — and that it you allow two of these
three to become one, and Corinth to secure us
for herself, you will have to hold the sea
against the united fleets of Corcyra and Pelo-
ponnese. But if you receive us, you will have
our ships to reinforce you in the struggle."

Such were the words of the Corcyraeans.
After they had finished, the Corinthians spoke
as follows:

[37] "These Corcyraeans in the speech we
have just heard do not confine themselves to
the question of their reception into your alli-
ance. They also talk of our being guilty of m»
justice, and their being the victims of an un-
justifiable war. It becomes necessary for us to
touch upon both these points before we pro-
ceed to the rest of what we have to say, that
you may have a more correct idea of the
grounds of our claim, and have good cause to
reject their petition. According to them, their
old policy of refusing all offers of alliance was

34-4° ]

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

35(>

a policy of moderation. It was in fact adopted
for bad ends, not for good; indeed their con-
duct is such as to make them by no means de-
sirous of having allies present to witness it, or
of having the shame of asking their concur-
rence. Besides, their geographical situation
makes them independent ot others, and conse-
quently the decision in cases where they injure
any lies not with judges appointed by mutual
agreement, but with themselves, because, while
they seldom make voyages to their neighbours,
they are constantly being visited by foreign
vessels which are compelled to put in to Cor-
cyra. In short, the object that they propose to
themselves, in their specious policy of complete
isolation, is not to avoid sharing in the crimes
of others, but to secure monopoly of crime to
themselves — the licence of outrage wherever
they can compel, of fraud wherever they can
elude, and the enjoyment of their gams with-
out shame. And yet if they were the honest
men they pretend to be, the less hold that
others had upon them, the stronger would be
the light in which they might have put their
honesty by giving and taking what was just.

[38] "But such has not been their conduct
either towards others or towards us. The atti-
tude of our colony towards us has always been
one of estrangement and is now one of hos-
tility; for, say they: 'We were not sent out to
be ill-treated/ We rejoin that we did not found
the colony to be insulted by them, but to be
their head and to be regarded with a proper
respect. At any rate our other colonies honour
us, and we are much beloved by our colonists;
and clearly, if the majority are satisfied with
us, these can have no good reason for a dissatis-
faction in which they stand alone, and we are
not acting improperly in making war against
them, nor are we making war against them
without having received signal provocation.
Besides, if we were in the wrong, it would be
honourable in them to give way to our wishes,
and disgraceful for us to trample on their mod-
eration; but in the pride and licence of wealth
they have sinned again and again against us,
and never more deeply than when Epidamnus,
our dependency, which they took no steps to
claim in its distress upon our coming to relieve
it, was by them seized, and is now held by force
of arms.

[39] "As to their allegation that they wished
the question to be first submitted to arbitra-
tion, it is obvious that a challenge coming from
the party who is safe in a commanding posi-
tion cannot gain the credit due only to him

who, before appealing to arms, in deeds as well
as words, places himself on a level with his ad-
versary. In their case, it was not before they laid
siege to the place, but after they at length
understood that we should not tamely suffer it,
that they thought of the specious word arbitra-
tion. And not satisfied with their own miscon-
duct there, they appear here now requiring
you to join with them not in alliance but in
crime, and to receive them in spite of their be-
ing at enmity with us. But it was when they
stood firmest that they should have made over-
tures* to you, and not at a time when we have
been wronged and they are in peril; nor yet at
a time when you will be admitting to a share
in your protection those who never admitted
you to a share in their power, and will be in-
curring an equal amount of blame from us
with those in whose offences you had no hand.
No, they should have shared their power with
you before they asked you to share your for-
tunes with them.

[40] "So then the reality of the grievances
we come to complain of, and the violence and
rapacity of our opponents, have both been
proved. But that you cannot equitably receive
them, this you have still to learn. It may be
true that one of the provisions of the treaty is
that it shall be competent for any state, whose
name was not down on the list, to join which-
ever side it pleases. But this agreement is not
meant for those whose object m joining is the
injury of other powers, but for those whose
need of support does not arise from the fact of
defection, and whose adhesion will not bring
to the power that is mad enough to receive
them war instead of peace; which will be the
case with you, if you refuse to listen to us. For
you cannot become their auxiliary and remain
our friend; if you join in their attack, you must
share the punishment which the defenders in-
flict on them. And yet you have the best possi-
ble right to be neutral, or, failing this, you
should on the contrary join us against them.
Corinth is at least in treaty with you; with Cor-
cyra you were never even in truce. But do not
lay down the principle that defection is to be
patronized. Did we on the defection of the
Samians record our vote against you, when the
rest of the Peloponnesian powers were equally
divided on the question whether they should
assist them ? No, we told them to their face that
every power has a right to punish its own
allies. Why, if you make it your policy to re-
ceive and assist all offenders, you will find that
just as many of your dependencies will come

360

THUCYDIDES

over to us, and the principle that you establish
will press less heavily on us than on yourselves.

[41] "This then is what Hellenic law en-
titles us to demand as a right. But we have also
advice to offer and claims on your gratitude,
which, since there is no danger of our injuring
you, as we are not enemies, and since our
friendship does not amount to very frequent
intercourse, we say ought to be liquidated at
the present juncture. When you were in want
of ships of war for the war against the Aegine-
tans, before the Persian invasion, Corinth sup-
plied you with twenty vessels. That good turn,
and the line we took on the Samian question,
when we were the cause of the Peloponnesians
refusing to assist them, enabled you to conquer
Aegina and to punish Samos. And we acted
thus at crises when, if ever, men are wont in
their efforts against their enemies to forget
everything for the sake of victory, regarding
him who assists them then as a friend, even if
thus far he has been a foe, and him who op-
poses them then as a foe, even if he has thus
far been a friend; indeed they allow their real
interests to suffer from their absorbing preoc-
cupation in the struggle.

[42] "Weigh well these considerations, and
let your youth learn what they are from their
elders, and let them determine to do unto us
as we have done unto you. And let them not
acknowledge the justice of what we say, but
dispute its wisdom in the contingency of war.
Not only is the straightest path generally speak-
ing the wisest; but the coming of the war,
which the Corcyraeans have used as a bugbear
to persuade you to do wrong, is still uncertain,
and it is not worth while to be carried away by
it into gaining the instant and declared enmity
of Corinth. It were, rather, wise to try and
counteract the unfavourable impression which
your conduct to Megara has created. For kind-
ness opportunely shown has a greater power of
removing old grievances than the facts of the
case may warrant. And do not be seduced by
the prospect of a great naval alliance. Absti-
nence from all injustice to other first-rate pow-
ers is a greater tower of strength than anything
that can be gained by the sacrifice of perma-
nent tranquillity for an apparent temporary ad-
vantage. [43] It is now our turn to benefit by
the principle that we laid down at Lacedae-
mon, that every power has a right to punish
her own allies. We now claim to receive the
same from you, and protest against your re-
warding us for benefiting you by our vote by
injuring us by yours. On the contrary, return

[ BOOK i

us like for like, remembering that this is that
very crisis in which he who lends aid is most a
friend, and he who opposes is most a foe. And
for these Corcyraeans — neither receive them
into alliance in our despite, nor be their abet-
tors in crime. So do, and you will act as we
have a right to expect of you, and at the same
time best consult your own interests."

[44] Such were the words of the Corinthi-
ans.

When the Athenians had heard both out,
two assemblies were held. In the first there was
a manifest disposition to listen to the represen-
tations of Corinth; in the second, public feeling
had changed and an alliance with Corcyra was
decided on, with certain reservations. It was to
be a defensive, not an offensive alliance. It did
not involve a breach of the treaty with Pelo-
ponnese: Athens could not be required to join
Corcyra in any attack upon Corinth. But each
of the contracting parties had a right to the
other's assistance against invasion, whether of
his own territory or that of an ally. For it be-
gan now to be felt that the coming of the Pelo-
ponnesian war was only a question of time,
and no one was willing to see a naval power of
such magnitude as Corcyra sacrificed to
Corinth; though if they could let them weaken
each other by mutual conflict, it would be no
bad preparation for the struggle which Athens
might one day have to wage with Corinth and
the other naval powers. At the same time the
island seemed to lie conveniently on the coast-
ing passage to Italy and Sicily. 1 45] With these
views, Athens received Corcyra into alliance
and, on the departure of the Corinthians not
long afterwards, sent ten ships to their assist-
ance. They were commanded by Lacedaemo-
nius, the son of Cimon, Diotimus, the son of
Strombichus, and Proteas, the son of Epicles.
Their instructions were to avoid collision with
the Corinthian fleet except under certain cir-
cumstances. If it sailed to Corcyra and threat-
ened a landing on her coast, or in any of her
possessions, they were to do their utmost to
prevent it. These instructions were prompted
by an anxiety to avoid a breach of the treaty.

[46] Meanwhile the Corinthians completed
their preparations, and sailed for Corcyra with
a hundred and fifty ships. Of these Elis fur-
nished ten, Megara twelve, Leucas ten, Am-
bracia twenty-seven, Anactorium one, and
Corinth herself ninety. Each of these contin-
gents had its own admiral, the Corinthian be-
ing under the command of Xenoclides, son of
Euthycles, with four colleagues. Sailing from

41-50

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

361

Leucas, they made land at the part of the con-
tinent opposite Corcyra. They anchored in the
harbour of Chimenum, in the territory of
Thesprotis, above which, at some distance from
the sea, lies the city of Ephyre, in the Elean
district. By this city the Achcrusian lake pours
its waters into the sea. It gets its name from the
river Acheron, which flows through Thespro-
tis and falls into the lake. There also the river
Thyamis flows, forming the boundary between
Thesprotis and Kestrme; and between these
rivers rises the point of Chimerium. In this
part of the continent the Corinthians now
came to anchor, and formed an encampment.
[47] When the Corcyraeans saw them coming,
they manned a hundred and ten ships, com-
manded 6y Meikiades, Aisimides, and Euryba-
tus, and stationed themselves at one of the Sy-
bota isles; the ten Athenian ships being pres-
ent. On Point Leukimme they posted their
land forces, and a thousand heavy infantry who
had come from Zacynthus to their assistance.
Nor were the Corinthians on the mainland
without their allies. The barbarians flocked in
large numbers to their assistance, the inhabi-
tants of this part of the continent being old
allies of theirs.

[48] When the Corinthian preparations
were completed, they took three days' provi-
sions and put out from Chimenum by night,
ready for action. Sailing with the dawn, they
sighted the Corcyraean fleet out at sea and
coming towards them. When they perceived
each other, both sides formed in order of bat-
tle. On the Corcyraean right wing lay the
Athenian ships, the rest of the line being occu-
pied by their own vessels formed MI three
squadrons, each of which was commanded by
one of the three admirals. Such was the Corcy-
raean formation. The Corinthian was as fol-
lows: on the right wing lay the Megarian and
Ambraciot ships, in the centre the rest of the
allies in order. But the left was composed of
the best sailers in the Corinthian navy, to en-
counter the Athenians and the right wing of
the Corcyraeans. [49] As soon as the signals
were raised on cither side, they joined battle.
Both sides had a large number of heavy infan-
try on their decks, and a large number of arch-
ers and darters, the old imperfect armament
still prevailing. The sea-fight was an obstinate
one, though not remarkable for its science; in-
deed it was more like a battle by land. When-
ever they charged each other, the multitude
and crush of the vessels made it by no means
easy to get loose; besides, their hopes of victory

lay principally in the Tieavy infantry on the
decks, who stood and fought in order, the ships
remaining stationary. The manoeuvre of
breaking the line was not tried; in short,
strength and pluck had more share in the fight
than science. Everywhere tumult reigned, the
battle being one scene of confusion; mean-
while the Athenian ships, by coining up to the
Corcyraeans whenever they were pressed,
served to alarm the enemy, though their com-
manders could not join in the battle from fear
of their instructions. The right wing of the
Corinthians suffered most. The Corcyraeans
routed it, and chased them in disorder to the
continent with twenty ships, sailed up to their
camp, and burnt the tents which they found
empty, and plundered the stutf. So in this
quarter the Corinthians and their allies were
defeated, and the Corcyraeans were victorious.
But where the Corinthians themselves were,
on the left, they gained a decided success; the
scanty forces of the Corcyraeans being fur-
ther weakened by the want of the twenty
ships absent on the pursuit. Seeing the Corcy-
raeans hard pressed, the Athenians began at
length to assist them more unequivocally. At
first, it is true, they refrained from charging
any ships; but when the rout was becoming
patent, and the Corinthians were pressing on,
the time at last came when every one set to, and
all distinction was laid aside, and it came to
this point, that the Corinthians and Athenians
raised their hands against each other.

[50] After the rout, the Corinthians, in-
stead of employing themselves in lashing fast
and hauling after them the hulls of the vessels
which they had disabled, turned their attention
to the men, whom they butchered as they sailed
through, not caring so much to make prisoners.
Some even of their own friends were slain by
them, by mistake, in their ignorance of the de-
feat of the right wing For the number of the
ships on both sides, and the distance to which
they covered the sea, made it difficult, after
they had once joined, to distinguish between
the conquering and the conquered; this battle
proving far greater than any before it, any at
least between Hellenes, for the number of ves-
sels engaged. After the Corinthians had chased
the Corcyraeans to the land, they turned to the
wrecks and their dead, most of whom they suc-
ceeded in getting hold of and conveying to Sy-
bota, the rendezvous of the land forces fur-
nished by their barbarian allies. Sybota, it must
be known, is a desert harbour of Thesprotis.
This task over, they mustered anew, and sailed

362

THUCYDIDES

[ BOOK i

against the Corcyracans, who on their part ad-
vanced to meet them with all their ships that
were fit for service and remaining to them, ac-
companied by the Athenian vessels, fearing
that they might attempt a landing in their ter-
ritory. It was by this time getting late, and the
paean had been sung for the attack, when the
Corinthians suddenly began to back water.
They had observed twenty Athenian ships sail-
ing up, which had been sent out afterwards to
reinforce the ten vessels by the Athenians, who
feared, as it turned out justly, the defeat of the
Corcyraeans and the inability of their handful
of ships to protect them. [51] These ships were
thus seen by the Corinthians first. They sus-
pected that they were from Athens, and that
those which they saw were not all, but that
there were more behind; they accordingly began
to retire. The Corcyraeans meanwhile had not
sighted them, as they were advancing from a
point which they could not so well see, and
were wondering why the Corinthians were
backing water, when some caught sight of
them, and cried out that there were ships in
sight ahead. Upon this they also retired; for it
was now getting dark, and the retreat of the
Corinthians had suspended hostilities. Thus
they parted from each other, and the battle
ceased with night. The Corcyraeans were in
their carnp at Leukimme, when these twenty
ships from Athens, under the command of
Glaucon, the son ot Leagrus, and Andocides,
son of Leogoras, bore on through the corpses
and the wrecks, and sailed up to the camp, not
long after they were sighted. It was now night,
and the Corcyraeans feared that they might be
hostile vessels; but they soon knew them, and
the ships came to anchor.

[52] The next day the thirty Athenian ves-
sels put out to sea, accompanied by all the Cor-
cyraean ships that were seaworthy, and sailed
to the harbour at Sybota, where the Corinthi-
ans lay, to see if they would engage. The Corin-
thians put out from the land and formed a line
in the open sea, but beyond this made no
further movement, having no intention of as-
suming the offensive. For they saw reinforce-
ments arrived tresh from Athens, and them-
selves confronted by numerous difficulties, such
as the necessity of guarding the prisoners
whom they had on board anil the want of all
means of refitting their ships in a desert place.
What they were thinking more about was how
their voyage home was to be effected; they
feared that the Athenians might consider that
the treaty was dissolved by the collision which

had occurred, and forbid their departure.
[53] Accordingly they resolved to put some
men on board a boat, and send them without a
herald's wand to the Athenians, as an experi-
ment. Having done so, they spoke as follows:
"You do wrong, Athenians, to begin war and
break the treaty. Engaged in chastising our en-
emies, we find you placing yourselves in our
path in arms against us. Now if your inten-
tions are to prevent us sailing to Corcyra, or
anywhere else that we may wish, and if you
are for breaking the treaty, first take us that
are here and treat us as enemies." Such was
what they said, and all the Corcyraean arma-
ment that were within hearing immediately
called out to take them and kill them. But the
Athenians answered as follows: "Neither are
we beginning war, Peloponnesians, nor are we
breaking the treaty; but these Corcyraeans are
our allies, and we are come to help them. So if
you want to sail anywhere else, we place no
obstacle in your way; but if you are going to
sail against Corcyra, or any of her possessions,
we shall do our best to stop you."

[54] Receiving this answer from the Atheni-
ans, the Corinthians commenced preparations
for their voyage home, and set up a trophy in
Sybota, on the continent; while the Corcyrae-
ans took up the wrecks and dead that had been
carried out to them by the current, and by a
wind which rose in the night and scattered
them in all directions, and set up their trophy
in Sybota, on the island, as victors. The reasons
each side had for claiming the victory were
these. The Corinthians had been victorious in
the sea-fight until night; and having thus been
enabled to carry off most wrecks and dead, they
were in possession of no fewer than a thousand
prisoners of war, and had sunk close upon
seventy vessels. The Corcyraeans had destroyed
about thirty ships, and after the arrival of the
Athenians had taken up the wrecks and dead
on their side; they had besides seen the Corin-
thians retire before them, backing water on
sight of the Athenian vessels, and upon the
arrival of the Athenians refuse to sail out
against them from Sybota. Thus both sides
claimed the victory.

^557 The Corinthians on the voyage home
took Anactorium, which stands at the mouth
of the Ambracian gulf. The place was taken by
treachery, being common ground to the Corcy-
raeans and Corinthians. After establishing
Corinthian settlers there, they retired home.
Eight hundred of the Corcyraeans were slaves;
these they sold; two hundred and fifty they re-

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

363

tained in captivity, and treated with great at-
tention, in the hope that they might bring over
their country to Corinth on their return; most
of them being, as it happened, men of very
high position in Corcyra. In this way Corcyra
maintained her political existence in the war
with Corinth, and the Athenian vessels left the
island. This was the first cause of the war that
Corinth had against the Athenians, viz., that
they had fought against them with the Corey-
raeans in time of treaty.

^567 Almost immediately after this, fresh
differences arose between the Athenians and
Peloponnesians, and contributed their share to
the war. Corinth was forming schemes for re-
taliation, and Athens suspected her hostility.
The Potidaeans, who inhabit the isthmus of
Pallene, being a Corinthian colony, but tribu-
tary allies of Athens, were ordered to raze the
wall looking towards Pallene, to give hostages,
to dismiss the Corinthian magistrates, and in
future not to receive the persons sent from
Corinth annually to succeed them. It was
feared that they might be persuaded by Per-
diccas and the Corinthians to revolt, and might
draw the rest of the allies in the direction of
Thrace to revolt with them. [57] These precau-
tions against the Potidaeans were taken by the
Athenians immediately after the battle at Cor-
cyra. Not only was Corinth at length openly
hostile, but Perdiccas, son of Alexander, king
of the Macedonians, had from an old friend
and ally been made an enemy. He had been
made an enemy by the Athenians entering into
alliance with his brother Philip and Derdas,
who were in league against him. In his alarm
he had sent to Lacedaemon to try and involve
the Athenians in a war with the Peloponnesi-
ans, and was endeavouring to win over Cor-
inth in order to bring about the revolt of Poti-
daea. He also made overtures to the Chalcidi-
ans in the direction of Thrace, and to the Bot-
tiaeans, to persuade them to join in the revolt;
for he thought that if these places on the border
could be made his allies, it would be easier to
carry on the war with their co-operation. Alive
to all this, and wishing to anticipate the revolt
of the cities, the Athenians acted as follows.
They were just then sending off thirty ships
and a thousand heavy infantry for his country
under the command of Archestratus, son of Ly-
comedes, with four colleagues. They instructed
the captains to take hostages of the Potidaeans,
to raze the wall, and to be on their guard
against the revolt of the neighbouring cities.

[58] Meanwhile the Potidaeans sent en-

voys to Athens on the chance of persuading
them to take no new steps in their matters;
they also went to Lacedaemon with the Corin-
thians to secure support in case of need. Failing
after prolonged negotiation to obtain anything
satisfactory from the Athenians; being unable,
for all they could say, to prevent the vessels
that were destined for Macedonia from also
sailing against them; and receiving from the
Lacedaemonian government a promise to in-
vade Attica, if the Athenians should attack
Potidaca, the Potidaeans, thus favoured by the
moment, at last entered into league with the
Chalcidians and Bottiaeans, and revolted. And
Perdiccas induced the Chalcidians to abandon
and demolish their towns on the seaboard and,
settling inland at Olynthus, to make that one
city a strong place: meanwhile to those who
followed his advice he gave a part of his terri-
tory in Mygdonia round Lake Bolbe as a place
of abode while the war against the Athenians
should last. They accordingly demolished their
towns, removed inland, and prepared for war.

/597 The thirty ships of the Athenians, ar-
riving before the Thracian places, found Poti-
daea and the rest in revolt. Their commanders,
considering it to be quite impossible with their
present force to carry on war with Perdiccas
and with the confederate towns as well, turned
to Macedonia, their original destination, and,
having established themselves there, carried
on war in co-operation with Philip, and the
brothers of Derdas, who had invaded the coun-
try from the interior.

[60] Meanwhile the Corinthians, with Poti-
daea in revolt and the Athenian ships on the
coast of Macedonia, alarmed for the safety of
the place and thinking its danger theirs, sent
volunteers from Corinth, and mercenaries from
the rest of Peloponnese, to the number of six-
teen hundred heavy infantry in all, and four
hundred light troops. Aristeus, son of Adiman-
tus, who was always a steady friend to the Poti-
daeans, took command oi the expedition, and
it was principally for love of him that most of
the men from Corinth volunteered. They ar-
rived in Thrace forty days after the revolt of
Potidaea.

[61] The Athenians also immediately re-
ceived the news of the revolt of the cities. On
being informed that Aristeus and his reinforce-
ments were on their way, they sent two thou-
sand heavy infantry of their own citizens and
forty ships against the places in revolt, under
the command of Callias, son of Cal Hades, and
four colleagues. They arrived in Macedonia

364

THUCYDIDES

first, and found the force of a thousand men
that had been first sent out, just become mas-
ters of Thcrme and besieging Pydna. Accord-
ingly they also joined in the investment, and
besieged Pydna for a while. Subsequently they
came to terms and concluded a forced alliance
with Pcrdiccas, hastened by the calls of Poti-
daca and by the arrival of Ansteus at that
place. They withdrew from Macedonia, going
to Beroea and thence to Strepsa, and, after a
futile attempt on the latter place, they pursued
by land their march to Potidaea with three
thousand heavy infantry of their own citizens,
besides a number of their allies, and six hun-
dred Macedonian horsemen, the followers of
Philip and Pausamas. With these sailed seven-
ty ships along the coast. Advancing by short
marches, on the third day they arrived at
Gigonus, where they encamped.

^627 Meanwhile the Potidaeans and the
Peloponnesians with Ansteus were encamped
on the side looking towards Olynthus on the
isthmus, in expectation of the Athenians, and
had established their market outside the city.
The allies had chosen Ansteus general of all
the infantry; while the command of the caval-
ry was given to Pcrdiccas, who had at once left
the alliance of the Athenians and gone back to
that of the Potidaeans, having deputed lolaus
as his general. The plan of Ansteus was to
keep his own force on the isthmus, and await
the attack oi the Athenians; leaving the Chal-
cidians and the allies outside the isthmus, and
the two hundred cavalry from Perdiccas in
Olynthus to act upon the Athenian rear, on the
occasion of their advancing against him; and
thus to place the enemy between two fires.
While Calhas the Athenian general and his
colleagues dispatched the Macedonian horse
and a lew of the allies to Olynthus, to prevent
any movement being made from that quarter,
the Athenians themselves broke up their camp
and marched against Potidaea. After they had
arrived at the isthmus, and saw the enemy pre-
paring for battle, they formed against him,
and soon afterwards engaged. The wing of
Aristeus, with the Corinthians and other
picked troops round him, routed the wing op-
posed to it, and followed for a considerable dis-
tance in pursuit. But the rest of the army of
the Potidaeans and of the Peloponnesians was
defeated by the Athenians, and took refuge
within the fortifications. [63] Returning from
the pursuit, Aristeus perceived the defeat of the
rest of the army. Being at a loss which of the
two risks to choose, whether to go to Olynthus

[ BOOK I

or to Potidaea, he at last determined to draw
his men into as small a space as possible, and
force his way with a run into Potidaea. Not
without difficulty, through a storm of missiles,
he passed along by the breakwater through the
sea, and brought off most of his men safe,
though a few were lost. Meanwhile the auxili-
aries of the Potidaeans from Olynthus, which
is about seven miles off and in sight of Poti-
daea, when the battle began and the signals
were raised, advanced a little way to render as-
sistance; and the Macedonian horse formed
against them to prevent it. But on victory
speedily declaring for the Athenians and the
signals being taken down, they retired back
within the wall; and the Macedonians returned
to the Athenians. Thus there were no cavalry
present on either side. After the battle the
Athenians set up a trophy, and gave back their
dead to the Potidaeans under truce. The Poti-
daeans and their allies had close upon three
hundred killed; the Athenians a hundred and
fifty of their own citizens, and Calhas their
general.

[64] The wall on the side of the isthmus had
now works at once laised against it, and
manned by the Athenians. That on the side of
Pallene had no works raised against it. They
did not think themselves strong enough at
once to keep a garrison in the isthmus and to
cross over to Pallene and raise works there;
they were afraid that the Potidaeans and their
allies might take advantage of their division to
attack them. Meanwhile the Athenians at home
learning that there were no works at Pallene,
some time afterwards sent off sixteen hundred
heavy infantry of their own citizens under the
command of Phormio, son of Asopius. Arrived
at Pallene, he fixed his headquarters at Aphy-
tis, and led his army against Potidaea by short
marches, ravaging the country as he advanced.
No one venturing to meet him in the field, he
raised works against the wall on the side of
Pallene. So at length Potidaea was strongly in-
vested on either side, and from the sea by the
ships co-operating in the blockade. [65] Aris-
teus, seeing its investment complete, and hav-
ing no hope of its salvation, except in the event
of some movement from the Peloponnese, or
of some other improbable contingency, advised
all except five hundred to watch for a wind
and sail out of the place, in order that their
provisions might last the longer. He was will-
ing to be himself one of those who remained.
Unable to persuade them, and desirous of act-
ing on the next alternative, and of having

62-69]

things outside in the best posture possible, he
eluded the guardships of the Athenians and
sailed out. Remaining among the Chalcidians,
he continued to carry on the war; in particular
he laid an ambuscade near the city of the Ser-
mylians, and cut off many of them; he also
communicated with Peloponnese, and tried to
contrive some method by which help might be
brought. Meanwhile, after the completion of
the investment of Potidaea, Phormio next em-
ployed his sixteen hundred men in ravaging
Chalcidice and Bottica: some of the towns also
were taken by him.

CHAPTER III

Congress of the Pcloponnesian Confederacy at
Lacedaemon

[66] THE Athenians and Peloponnesians had
these antecedent grounds of complaint against
each other: the complaint of Corinth was that
her colony of Potidaea, and Corinthian and
Peloponnesian citizens within it, were being
besieged; that of Athens against the Pelopon-
nesians that they had incited a town of hers, a
member of her alliance and a contributor to
her revenue, to revolt, and had come and were
openly fighting against her on the side of the
Potidaeans. For all this, war had not yet brok-
en out: there was still truce for a while; for
this was a private enterprise on the part of Cor-
inth.

[6j] But the siege of Potidaea put an end to
her inaction; she had men inside it: besides,
she feared for the place. Immediately sum-
moning the allies to Lacedaemon, she came
and loudly accused Athens of breach of the
treaty and aggression on the rights of Pelopon-
nese. With her, the Aeginetans, formally un-
represented from fear of Athens, in secret
proved not the least urgent of the advocates
for war, asserting that they had not the in-
dependence guaranteed to them by the treaty.
After extending the summons to any of their
allies and others who might have complaints
to make of Athenian aggression, the Lacedae-
monians held their ordinary assembly, and in-
vited them to speak. There were many who
came forward and made their several accusa-
tions; among them the Megarians, in a long
list of grievances, called special attention to the
fact of their exclusion from the ports of the
Athenian empire and the market of Athens, in
defiance of the treaty. Last of all the Corinthi-
ans came forward, and having let those who
preceded them inflame the Lacedaemonians,

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR 365

now followed with a speech to this effect:

[68] "Lacedaemonians! the confidence
which you feel in your constitution and social
order, inclines you to receive any reflections of
ours on other powers with a certain scepticism.
Hence springs your moderation, but hence also
the rather limited knowledge which you betray
in dealing with foreign politics. Time after
time was our voice raised to warn you of the
blows about to be dealt us by Athens, and time
after time, instead of taking the trouble to
ascertain the worth of our communications,
you contented yourselves with suspecting the
speakers of being inspired by private interest.
And so, instead of calling these allies together
before the blow fell, you have delayed to do so
till we are smarting under it; allies among
whom we have not the worst title to speak, as
having the greatest complaints to make, com-
plaints of Athenian outrage and Lacedaemo-
nian neglect. Now if these assaults on the
rights of Hellas had been made in the dark,
you might be unacquainted with the facts, and
it would be our duty to enlighten you. As it is,
long speeches are not needed where you see
servitude accomplished for some of us, medi-
tated for others — in particular for our allies —
and prolonged preparations in the aggressor
against the hour of war. Or what, pray, is the
meaning of their reception of Corcyra by
fraud, and their holding it against us by force?
what of the siege of Potidaea? — places one of
which lies most conveniently for any action
against the Thracian towns; while the other
would have contributed a very large navy to
the Peloponnesians?

^697 "For all this you are responsible. You
it was who first allowed them to fortify their
city after the Median war, and afterwards to
erect the long walls — you who, then and now,
are always depriving of freedom not only those
whom they have enslaved, but also those who
have as yet been your allies. For the true
author of the subjugation of a people is not
so much the immediate agent, as the power
which permits it having the means to prevent
it; particularly if that power aspires to the
glory of being the liberator of Hellas. We are
at last assembled. It has not been easy to as-
semble, nor even now are our objects defined.
We ought not to be still inquiring into the fact
of our wrongs, but into the means of our de-
fence. For the aggressors with matured plans
to oppose to our indecision have cast threats
aside and betaken themselves to action. And
we know what are the paths by which Atheni-

366

THUCYDIDES

| BOOK i

ian aggression travels, and how insidious is its
progress. A degree of confidence she may feel
from the idea that your bluntncss of percep-
tion prevents your noticing her; but it is noth-
ing to the impulse which her advance will re-
ceive from the knowledge that you see, but do
not care to interfere. You, Lacedaemonians, of
all the Hellenes are alone inactive, and defend
yourselves not by doing anything but by look-
ing as if you would do something; you alone
wait till the power of an enemy is becoming
twice its original size, instead of crushing it in
its infancy. And yet the world used to say that
you were to be depended upon; but in your
case, we fear, it said more than the truth. The
Mede, we ourselves know, had time to come
from the ends of the earth to Pcloponncse,
without any force of yours worthy of the name
advancing to meet him. But this was a distant
enemy. Well, Athens at all events is a near
neighbour, and yet Athens you utterly dis-
regard; against Athens you prefer to act on the
defensive instead of on the offensive, and to
make it an affair of chances by deferring the
struggle till she has grown far stronger than at
first. And yet you know that on the whole the
rock on which the barbarian was wrecked was
himself, and that if our present enemy Athens
has not again and again annihilated us, we owe
it more to her blunders than to your protec-
tion. Indeed, expectations from you have be-
fore now been the rum of some, whose faith in-
duced them to omit preparation.

[jo] "We hope that none of you will con-
sider these words of remonstrance to be rather
words of hostility; men remonstrate with
friends who are in error, accusations they re-
serve for enemies who have wronged them.
Besides, we consider that we have as good a
right as any one to point out a neighbour's
faults, particularly when we contemplate the
great contrast between the two national char-
acters; a contrast of which, as far as we can
see, you have little perception, having never
yet considered what sort of antagonists you
will encounter in the Athenians, how widely,
how absolutely different from yourselves. The
Athenians are addicted to innovation, and
their designs are characterized by swiftness
alike in conception and execution; you have a
genius for keeping what you have got, ac-
companied by a total want of invention, and
when forced to act you never go far enough.
Again, they are adventurous beyond their
power, and daring beyond their judgment,
and in danger they are sanguine; your wont is

to attempt less than is justified by your power,
to mistrust even what is sanctioned by your
judgment, and to fancy that from danger there
is no release. Further, there is promptitude on
their side against procrastination on yours;
they are never at home, you are never from it:
for they hope by their absence to extend their
acquisitions, you fear by your advance to en-
danger what you have left behind. They are
swift to follow up a success, and slow to recoil
from a reverse. Their bodies they spend un-
grudgingly in their country's cause; their intel-
lect they jealously husband to be employed in
her service. A scheme unexecuted is with them
a positive loss, a successful enterprise a com-
parative failure. The deficiency created by the
miscarriage of an undertaking is soon filled up
by fresh hopes; for they alone arc enabled to
call a thing hoped for a thing got, by the speed
with which they act upon their resolutions.
Thus they toil on in trouble and danger all the
days of their life, with little opportunity for
enjoying, being ever engaged in getting: their
only idea of a holiday is to do what the occasion
demands, and to them laborious occupation is
less of a misfortune than the peace of a quiet
life. To describe their character in a word, one
might truly say that they were born into the
world to take no rest themselves and to give
none to others.

[ji] "Such is Athens, your antagonist. And
yet, Lacedaemonians, you still delay, and fail
to see that peace stays longest with those, who
are not more careful to use their power justly
than to show their determination not to sub-
mit to injustice. On the contrary, your ideal of
fair dealing is based on the principle that, it
you do not injure others, you need not risk
your own fortunes in preventing others from
injuring you. Now you could scarcely have
succeeded m such a policy even with a neigh-
bour like yourselves; but in the present in-
stance, as we have just shown, your habits are
old-fashioned as compared with theirs. It is
the law as in art, so in politics, that improve-
ments ever prevail; and though fixed usages
may be best for undisturbed communities,
constant necessities of action must be accom-
panied by the constant improvement of meth-
ods. Thus it happens that the vast experience
of Athens has carried her further than you on
the path of innovation.

"Here, at least, let your procrastination end.
For the present, assist your allies and Potidaea
in particular, as you promised, by a speedy in-
vasion of Attica, and do not sacrifice friends

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

367

and kindred to their bitterest enemies, and
drive the rest of us in despair to some other
alliance. Such a step would not be condemned
either by the Gods who received our oaths, or
by the men who witnessed them. The breach
of a treaty cannot be laid to the people whom
desertion compels to seek new relations, but
to the power that fails to assist its confederate.
But if you will only act, we will stand by you;
it would be unnatural for us to change, and
never should we meet with such a congenial
ally. For these reasons choose the right course,
and endeavour not to let Peloponnese under
your supremacy degenerate from the prestige
that it enjoyed under that of your ancestors."

^727 Such were the words of the Corinthi-
ans. There happened to be Athenian envoys
present at Lacedaemon on other business. On
hearing the speeches they thought themselves
called upon to come before the Lacedaemoni-
ans. Their intention was not to ofTer a defence
on any of the charges which the cities brought
against them, but to show on a comprehensive
view that it was not a matter to be hastily de-
cided on, but one that demanded further con-
sideration. There was also a wish to call atten-
tion to the great power of Athens, and to re-
fresh the memory of the old and enlighten the
ignorance of the young, from a notion that
their words might have the effect of inducing
them co prefer tranquillity to war. So they
came to the Lacedaemonians and said that they
too, if there was no objection, wished to speak
to their assembly. They replied by inviting
them to come forward. The Athenians ad-
vanced, and spoke as follows:

[73] "The object of our mission here was
not to argue with your allies, but to attend to
the matters on which our state dispatched us.
However, the vehemence of the outcry that we
hear against us has prevailed on us to come
forward. It is not to combat the accusations of
the cities (indeed you are not the judges before
whom either we or they can plead), but to pre-
vent your taking the wrong course on matters
of great importance by yielding too readily to
the persuasions of your allies. We also wish to
show on a review of the whole indictment that
we have a fair title to our possessions, and
that our country has claims to consideration.
We need not refer to remote antiquity: there
we could appeal to the voice of tradition, but
not to the experience of our audience. But to
the Median War and contemporary history we
must refer, although we arc rather tired of
continually bringing this subject forward. In

our action during that war we ran great risk
to obtain certain advantages: you had your
share in the solid results, do not try to rob us
of all share in the good that the glory may do
us. However, the story shall be told not so
much to deprecate hostility as to testify against
it, and to show, if you are so ill advised as to
enter into a struggle with Athens, what sort of
an antagonist she is likely to prove. We assert
that at Marathon we were at the front, and
faced the barbarian single-handed. That when
he came the second time, unable to cope with
him by land we went on board our ships with
all our people, and joined in the action at Sala-
mis. This prevented his taking the Pelopon-
ncsian states in detail, and ravaging them with
his fleet; when the multitude of his vessels
would have made any combination for self-de-
fence impossible. The best proof of this was
furnished by the invader himself. Defeated at
sea, he considered his power to be no longer
what it had been, and retired as speedily as pos-
sible with the greater part of his army.

[74] "Such, then, was the result of the mat-
ter, and it was clearly proved that it was on the
fleet of Hellas that her cause depended. Well,
to this result we contributed three very useful
elements, viz., the largest number of ships, the
ablest commander, and the most unhesitating

! patriotism. Our contingent of ships was little
ess than two-thirds of the whole four hun-
dred; the commander was Themistocles,
through whom chiefly it was that the battle
took place .in the straits, the acknowledged
salvation of our cause. Indeed, this was the rea-
son of your receiving him with honours such
as had never been accorded to any foreign visi-
tor. While for daring patriotism we had no
competitors. Receiving no reinforcements
from behind, seeing everything in front of us
already subjugated, we had the spirit, after
abandoning our city, after sacrificing our prop-
erty (instead of deserting the remainder of the
league or depriving them of our services by
dispersing), to throw ourselves into our ships
and meet the danger, without a thought of re-
senting your neglect to assist us. We assert,
therefore, that we conferred on you quite as
much as we received. For you had a stake to
fight for; the cities which you had left were
still filled with your homes, and you had the
prospect of enjoying them again; and your
coming was prompted quite as much by fear
for yourselves as for us; at all events, you nev-
er appeared till we had nothing left to lose.
But we left behind us a city that was a city no

368

THUCYDIDES

[BOOK

longer, and staked our lives for a city that had
an existence only in desperate hope, and so
bore our full share in your deliverance and in
ours. But if we had copied others, and allowed
fears for our territory to make us give in our
adhesion to the Mede before you came, or if
we had suffered our ruin to break our spirit
and prevent us embarking in our ships, your
naval inferiority would have made a sea-fight
unnecessary, and his objects would have been
peaceably attained.

/757 "Surely, Lacedaemonians, neither by
the patriotism that we displayed at that crisis,
nor by the wisdom of our counsels, do we mer-
it our extreme unpopularity with the Hellenes,
not at least unpopularity for our empire. That
empire we acquired by no violent means, but
because you were unwilling to prosecute to its
conclusion the war against the barbarian, and
because the allies attached themselves to us
and spontaneously asked us to assume the
command. And the nature of the case first
compelled us to advance our empire to its pres-
ent height; fear being our principal motive,
though honour and interest afterwards came
in. And at last, when almost all hated us, when
some had already revolted and had been sub-
dued, when you had ceased to be the friends
that you once were, and had become objects of
suspicion and dislike, it appeared no longer
safe to give up our empire; especially as all who
left us would fall to you. And no one can quar-
rel with a people for making, in matters of tre-
mendous risk, the best provision that it can for
its interest.

[j6] "You, at all events, Lacedaemonians,
have used your supremacy to settle the states
in Peloponnese as is agreeable to you. And if
at the period of which we were speaking you
had persevered to the end of the matter, and
had incurred hatred in your command, we are
sure that you would have made yourselves just
as galling to the allies, and would have been
forced to choose between a strong government
and danger to yourselves. It follows that it was
not a very wonderful action, or contrary to the
common practice of mankind, if we did accept
an empire that was offered to us, and refused
to give it up under the pressure of three of the
strongest motives, fear, honour, and interest.
And it was not we who set the example, for it
has always been the law that the weaker
should be subject to the stronger. Besides, we
believed ourselves to be worthy of our position,
and so you thought us till now, when calcula-
tions of interest have made you take up the

cry of justice — a consideration which no one
ever yet brought forward to hinder his ambi-
tion when he had a chance of gaining anything
by might. And praise is due to all who, if not
so superior to human nature as to refuse do-
minion, yet respect justice more than their po-
sition compels them to do.

[??] "We imagine that our moderation
would be best demonstrated by the conduct of
others who should be placed in our position;
but even our equity has very unreasonably sub-
jected us to condemnation instead of approval.
Our abatement of our rights in the contract
trials with our allies, and our causing them to
be decided by impartial laws at Athens, have
gained us the character of being litigious. And
none care to inquire why this reproach is not
brought against other imperial powers, who
treat their subjects with less moderation than
we do; the secret being that where force can be
used, law is not needed. But our subjects are
so habituated to associate with us as equals
that any defeat whatever that clashes with
their notions of justice, whether it proceeds
from a legal judgment or from the power
which our empire gives us, makes them forget
to be grateful for being allowed to retain most
of their possessions, and more vexed at a part
being taken, than if we had from the first cast
law aside and openly gratified our covetous-
ness. If we had done so, not even would they
have disputed that the weaker must give way
to the stronger. Men's indignation, it seems,
is more excited by legal wrong than by violent
wrong; the first looks like being cheated by
an equal, the second like being compelled by
a superior. At all events they contrived to put
up with much worse treatment than this from
the Mede, yet they think our rule severe, and
this is to be expected, for the present always
weighs heavy on the conquered. This at least
is certain. If you were to succeed in overthrow-
ing us and in taking our place, you would
speedily lose the popularity with which fear of
us has invested you, if your policy of to-day is
at all to tally with the sample that you gave
of it during the brief period of your command
against the Mede. Not only is your life at home
regulated by rules and institutions incompat-
ible with those of others, but your citizens
abroad act neither on these rules nor on those
which are recognized by the rest of Hellas.

[j8] "Take time then in forming your reso-
lution, as the matter is of great importance;
and do not be persuaded by the opinions and
complaints of others to bring trouble on your-

75-82]

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

369

selves, but consider the vast influence of acci-
dent in war, before you are engaged in it. As
it continues, it generally becomes an affair of
chances, chances from which neither of us is
exempt, and whose event we must risk in the
dark. It is a common mistake in going to war
to begin at the wrong end, to act first, and wait
for disaster to discuss the matter. But we are
not yet by any means so misguided, nor, so far
as we can see, are you; accordingly, while it is
still open to us both to choose aright, we bid
you not to dissolve the treaty, or to break your
oaths, but to have our differences settled by
arbitration according to our agreement. Or
else we take the gods who heard the oaths to
witness, and if you begin hostilities, whatever
line of action you choose, we will try not to be
behindhand in repelling you."

[79] Such were the words of the Athenians.
After the Lacedaemonians had heard the com-
plaints of the allies against the Athenians, and
the observations of the latter, they made all
withdraw, and consulted by themselves on the
question before them. The opinions of the ma-
jority all led to the same conclusion; the Athe-
nians were open aggressors, and war must be
declared at once. But Archtdamus, the Lace-
daemonian king, came forward, who had the
reputation of being at once a wise and a mod-
erate man, and made the following speech:

[80] "I have not lived so long, Lacedaemo-
nians, without having had the experience of
many wars, and I see those among you of the
same age as myself, who will not fall into the
common misfortune of longing for war from
inexperience or from a behei: in its advantage
and its safety. This, the war on which you are
now debating, would be one of the greatest
magnitude, on a sober consideration of the
matter. In a struggle with Peloponnesians and
neighbours our strength is of the same charac-
ter, and it is possible to move swiftly on the
different points. But a struggle with a people
who live in a distant land, who have also an
extraordinary familiarity with the sea, and
who are in the highest state of preparation in
every other department; with wealth private
and public, with ships, and horses, and heavy
infantry, and a population such as no one oth-
er Hellenic place can equal, and lastly a num-
ber of tributary allies — what can justify us in
rashly beginning such a struggle? wherein is
our trust that we should rush on it unpre-
pared? Is it in our ships? There we are inferi-
or; while if we are to practise and become a
match for them, time must intervene. Is it in

our money? There we have a far greater de-
ficiency. We neither have it in our treasury, nor
are we ready to contribute it from our private
funds. [81] Confidence might possibly be felt
in our superiority in heavy infantry and popu-
lation, which will enable us to invade and dev-
astate their lands. But the Athenians have
plenty of other land in their empire, and can
import what they want by sea. Again, if we
are to attempt an insurrection of their allies,
these will have to be supported with a fleet,
most of them being islanders. What then is to
be our war? For unless we can either beat them
at sea, or deprive them of the revenues which
feed their navy, we shall meet with little but
disaster. Meanwhile our honour will be
pledged to keeping on, particularly if it be the
opinion that we began the quarrel. For let us
never be elated by the fatal hope of the war
being quickly ended by the devastation of their
lands. I fear rather that we may leave it as a
legacy to our children; so improbable is it that
the Athenian spirit will be the slave of their
land, or Athenian experience be cowed by war.
[82] "Not that I would bid you be so unfeel-
ing as to suffer them to injure your allies, and
to refrain from unmasking their intrigues; but
I do bid you not to take up arms at once, but
to send and remonstrate with them in a tone
not too suggestive ot war, nor again too sug-
gestive of submission, and to employ the in-
terval in perfecting our own preparations. The
means will be, first, the acquisition of allies,
Hellenic or barbarian it matters not, so long as
they are an accession to our strength naval or
pecuniary — I say Hellenic or barbarian, be-
cause the odium of such an accession to all who
like us are the objects of the designs of the
Athenians is taken away by the law of self-
preservation — and secondly the development
of our home resources. If they listen to our em-
bassy, so much the better; hut if not, after the
lapse of two or three years our position will
have become materially strengthened, and we
can then attack them if we think proper. Per-
haps by that time the sight of our preparations,
backed by language equally significant, will
have disposed them to submission, while their
land is still untouched, and while their coun-
sels may be directed to the retention of advan-
tages as yet undestroyed. For the only light in
which you can view their land is that of a
hostage in your hands, a hostage the more val-
uable the better it is cultivated. This you
ought to spare as long as possible, and not
make them desperate, and so increase the diffi-

370

THUCYDIDES

[BOOK i

culty of dealing with them. For if while still
unprepared, hurried away by the complaints
of our allies, we are induced to lay it waste,
have a care that we do not bring deep disgrace
and deep perplexity upon Peloponnese. Com-
plaints, whether of communities or individu-
als, it is possible to adjust; but war undertaken
by a coalition for sectional interests, whose
progress there is no means of foreseeing, does
not easily admit of creditable settlement.

[83] "And none need think it cowardice for
a number of confederates to pause before they
attack a single city. The Athenians have allies
as numerous as our own, and allies that pay
tribute, and war is a matter not so much of
arms as of money, which makes arms of use.
And this is more than ever true in a struggle
between a continental and a maritime power.
First, then, let us provide money, and not al-
low ourselves to be carried away by the talk of
our allies before we have done so: as we shall
have the largest share of responsibility for the
consequences be they good or bad, we have
also a right to a tranquil inquiry respecting
them.

[84] "And the slowness and procrastination,
the parts of our character that are most assailed
by their criticism, need not make you blush.
If we undertake the war without preparation,
we should by hastening its commencement
only delay its conclusion: further, a free and a
famous city has through all time been ours.
The quality which they condemn is really
nothing but a wise moderation; thanks to its
possession, we alone do not become insolent in
success and give way less than others in mis-
fortune; we are not carried away by the pleas-
ure ot hearing ourselves cheered on to risks
which our judgment condemns; nor, if an-
noyed, arc we any the more convinced by at-
tempts to exasperate us by accusation. We are
both warlike and wise, and it is our sense of
order that makes us so. We are warlike, be-
cause self-control contains honour as a chief
constituent, and honour bravery. And we are
wise, because we are educated with too little
learning to despise the laws, and with too se-
vere a self-control to disobey them, and are
brought up not to be too knowing in useless
matters — such as the knowledge which can
give a specious criticism of an enemy's plans
in theory, but fails to assail them with equal
success in practice — but are taught to consider
that the schemes of our enemies are not dissim-
ilar to our own, and that the freaks of chance
are not determinable by calculation. In prac-

tice we always base our preparations against
an enemy on the assumption that his plans are
good; indeed, it is right to rest our hopes not
on a belief in his blunders, but on the sound-
ness of our provisions. Nor ought we to believe
that there is much difference between man and

an, but to think that the superiority lies with
who is reared in the severest school.
[85] These practices, then, which our ances-
tors have delivered to us, and by whose mainte-
nance we have always profited, must not be
given up. And we must not be hurried into
deciding in a day's brief space a question
which concerns many lives and fortunes and
many cities, and in which honour is deeply in-
volved— but we must decide calmly. This our
strength peculiarly enables us to do. As for the
Athenians, send to them on the matter of Po-
tidaea, send on the matter of the alleged
wrongs of the allies, particularly as they are
prepared with legal satisfaction; and to pro-
ceed against one who offers arbitration as
against a wrongdoer, law forbids. Meanwhile
do not omit preparation for war. This decision
will be the best for yourselves, the most ter-
rible to your opponents."

Such were the words of Archidamus. Last
came forward Sthenelaidas, one of the ephors
for that year, and spoke to the Lacedaemoni-
ans as follows:

[86] "The long speech of the Athenians I do
not pretend to understand. They said a good
deal in praise of themselves, but nowhere de-
nied that they are injuring our allies and Pelo-
ponnese. And yet if they behaved well against
the Mede then, but ill towards us now, they de-
serve double punishment for having ceased to
be good and for having become bad. We
meanwhile are the same then and now, and
shall not, if we are wise, disregard the wrongs
of our allies, or put off till to-morrow the duty
of assisting those who must suffer today. Others
have much money and ships and horses,
but we have good allies whom we must
not give up to the Athenians, nor by lawsuits
and words decide the matter, as it is anything
but in word that we are harmed, but render
instant and powerful help. And let us not be
told that it is fitting for us to deliberate under
injustice; long deliberation is rather fitting for
those who have injustice in contemplation.
Vote therefore, Lacedaemonians, for war, as
the honour of Sparta demands, and neither al-
low the further aggrandizement of Athens,
nor betray our allies to ruin, but with the gods
let us advance against the aggressors."

83-90]

[8?] With these words he, as ephor, himself
put the question to the assembly of the Lace-
daemonians. He said that he could not deter-
mine which was the loudest acclamation (their
mode of decision is by acclamation not by vot-
ing); the fact being that he wished to make
them declare their opinion openly and thus to
increase their ardour for war. Accordingly he
said: "All Lacedaemonians who are of opinion
that the treaty has been broken, and that Ath-
ens is guilty, leave your seats and go there,"
pointing out a certain place; "all who are of the
opposite opinion, there." They accordingly
stood up and divided; and those who held that
the treaty had been broken were in a decided
majority. Summoning the allies, they told them
that their opinion was that Athens had been
guilty of injustice, but that they wished to con-
voke all the allies and put it to the vote; in or-
der that they might make war, if they decided
to do so, on a common resolution. Having
thus gained their point, the delegates returned
home at once; the Athenian envoys a little
later, when they had dispatched the objects of
their mission. This decision of the assembly,
judging that the treaty had been broken, was
made in the fourteenth year of the thirty years1
truce, which was entered into after the affair of
Euboea.

[88] The Lacedaemonians voted that the
treaty had been broken, and that the war must
be declared, not so much because they were
persuaded by the arguments of the allies, as
because they feared the growth of the power
of the Athenians, seeing most of Hellas already
subject to them.

CHAPTER IV

From the end of the Persian to the beginning of
the Peloponnesian War — The Progress from Su-
premacy to Empire

[89] THE way in which Athens came to be
placed in the circumstances under which her
power grew was this. After the Medes had re-
turned from Europe, defeated by sea and land
by the Hellenes, and after those of them who
had fled with their ships to Mycale had been
destroyed, Leotychides, king of the Lacedae-
monians, the commander of the Hellenes at
Mycale, departed home with the allies from
Peloponnese. But the Athenians and the allies
from Ionia and Hellespont, who had now re-
volted from the King, remained and laid siege
to Sestos, which was still held by the Medes.
After wintering before it, they became masters

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

371

of the place on its evacuation by the barbari-
ans; and after this they sailed away from Hel-
lespont to their respective cities. Meanwhile
the Athenian people, after the departure of the
barbarian from their country, at once proceed-
ed to carry over their children and wives, and
such property as they had left, from the places
where they had deposited them, and prepared
to rebuild their city and their walls. For only
isolated portions of the circumference had
been left standing, and most of the houses
were in ruins; though a few remained, in
which the Persian grandees had taken up their
quarters.

[go] Perceiving what they were going to do,
the Lacedaemonians sent an embassy to Ath-
ens. They would have themselves preferred to
see neither her nor any other city in possession
of a wall; though here they acted principally
at the instigation of their allies, who were
alarmed at the strength of her newly acquired
navy and the valour which she had displayed
in the war with the Medes. They begged her
not only to abstain from building walls for her-
selt, but also to join them in throwing down
the walls that still held together of the ultra-
Peloponnesian cities. The real meaning of their
advice, the suspicion that it contained against
the Athenians, was not proclaimed; it was
urged that so the barbarian, in the event of a
third invasion, would not have any strong
place, such as he now had in Thebes, for his
base of operations; and that Peloponnese
would suffice for all as a base both for retreat
and offence. After the Lacedaemonians had
thus spoken, they were, on the advice of The-
mistocles, immediately dismissed by the Athe-
nians, with the answer that ambassadors
should be sent to Sparta to discuss the ques-
tion. Themistocles told the Athenians to send
him off with all speed to Lacedacmon, but not
to dispatch his colleagues as soon as they had
selected them, but to wait until they had raised
their wall to the height from which defence
was possible. Meanwhile the whole population
in the city was to labour at the wall, the Athe-
nians, their wives, and their children, sparing
no edifice, private or public, which might be
of any use to the work, but throwing all down.
After giving these instructions, and adding
that he would be responsible for all other mat-
ters there, he departed. Arrived at Lacedae-
mon he did not seek an audience with the au-
thorities, but tried to gain time and made ex-
cuses. When any of the government asked him
why he did not appear in the assembly, he

372

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would say that he was waiting for his col-
leagues, who had been detained in Athens by
some engagement; however, that he expected
their speedy arrival, and wondered that they
were not yet there. [91] At first the Lacedae-
monians trusted the words of Themistocles,
through their friendship for him; but when
others arrived, all distinctly declaring that the
work was going on and already attaining some
elevation, they did not know how to disbelieve
it. Aware of this, he told them that rumours
are deceptive, and should not be trusted; they
should send some reputable persons from
Sparta to inspect, whose report might be trust-
ed. They dispatched them accordingly. Con-
cerning these Themistocles secretly sent word
to the Athenians to detain them as far as pos-
sible without putting them under open con-
straint, and not to let them go until they had
themselves returned. For his colleagues had
now joined him, Abromchus, son of Lysicles,
and Anstitlcs, son of Lysimachus, with the
news that the wall was sufficiently advanced;
and he feared that when the Lacedaemonians
heard the facts, they might refuse to let them
go. So the Athenians detained the envoys ac-
cording to his message, and Themistocles had
an audience with the Lacedaemonians, and at
last openly told them that Athens was now
fortified sufficiently to protect its inhabitants;
that any embassy which the Lacedaemonians
or their allies might wish to send to them
should in future proceed on the assumption
that the people to whom they were going was
able to distinguish both its own and the gen-
eral interests. That when the Athenians
thought fit to abandon their city and to embark
in their ships, they ventured on that perilous
step without consulting them; and that on the
other hand, wherever they had deliberated
with the Lacedaemonians, they had proved
themselves to be in judgment second to none.
That they now thought it fit that their city
should have a wall, and that this would be
more for the advantage of both the citizens of
Athens and the Hellenic confederacy; for with-
out equal military strength it was impossible
to contribute equal or fair counsel to the com-
mon interest. It followed, he observed, either
that all the members of the confederacy should
be without walls, or that the present step
should be considered a right one.

^927 The Lacedaemonians did not betray
any open signs of anger against the Athenians
at what they heard. The embassy, it seems, was
prompted not by a desire to obstruct, but to

guide the counsels of their government: be-
sides, Spartan feeling was at that time very
friendly towards Athens on account of the pa-
triotism which she had displayed in the strug-
gle with the Mede. Still the defeat of their
wishes could not but cause them secret annoy-
ance. The envoys of each state departed home
without complaint.

[93] In this way the Athenians walled their
city in a little while. To this day the building
shows signs of the haste of its execution; the
foundations are laid of stones of all kinds, and
in some places not wrought or fitted, but
placed just in the order in which they were
brought by the different hands; and many col-
umns, too, from tombs, and sculptured stones
were put in with the rest. For the bounds of
the city were extended at every point of the
circumference; and so they laid hands on ev-
erything without exception in their haste. The-
mistocles also persuaded them to finish the
walls of Piraeus, which had been begun before,
in his year of office as archon; being influenced
alike by the fineness of a locality that has three
natural harbours, and by the great start which
the Athenians would gain in the acquisition of
power by becoming a naval people. For he first
ventured to tell them to stick to the sea and
forthwith began to lay the foundations of the
empire. It was by his advice, too, that they
built the walls of that thickness which can still
be discerned round Piraeus, the stones being
brought up by two wagons meeting each
other. Between the walls thus formed there
was neither rubble nor mortar, but great stones
hewn square and fitted together, cramped to
each other on the outside with iron and lead.
About half the height that he intended was
finished. His idea was by their size and thick-
ness to keep off the attacks of an enemy; he
thought that they might be adequately defend-
ed by a small garrison of invalids, and the rest
be freed for service in the fleet. For the fleet
claimed most of his attention. He saw, as I
think, that the approach by sea was easier for
the king's army than that by land: he also
thought Piraeus more valuable than the upper
city; indeed, he was always advising the Athe-
nians, if a day should come when they were
hard pressed by land, to go down into Piraeus,
and defy the world with their fleet. Thus,
therefore, the Athenians completed their wall,
and commenced their other buildings immedi-
ately after the retreat of the Mede.

[94] Meanwhile Pausanias, son of Cleom-
brotus, was sent out from Lacedacmon as

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

373

commander-in-chief of the Hellenes, with
twenty ships from Peloponnese. With him
sailed the Athenians with thirty ships, and a
number of the other allies. They made an ex-
pedition against Cyprus and subdued most of
the island, and afterwards against Byzantium,
which was in the hands of the Medes, and
compelled it to surrender. This event took

?lace while the Spartans were still supreme.
957 But the violence of Pausanias had al-
ready begun to be disagreeable to the Hellenes,
particularly to the Tomans and the newly lib-
erated populations. These resorted to the Athe-
nians and requested them as their kinsmen to
become their leaders, and to stop any attempt
at violence on the part of Pausanias. The Athe-
nians accepted their overtures, and determined
to put down any attempt of the kind and to
settle everything else as their interests might
seem to demand. In the meantime the Lace-
daemonians recalled Pausanias for an investi-
gation of the reports which had reached them.
Manifold and grave accusations had been
brought against him by Hellenes arriving in
Sparta; and, to all appearance, there had been
in him more of the mimicry of a despot than
of the attitude of a general. As it happened, his
recall came just at the time when the hatred
which he had inspired had induced the allies
to desert him, the soldiers from Peloponnese
excepted, and to range themselves by the side
of the Athenians. On his arrival at Lacedae-
mon, he was censured for his private acts of
oppression, but was acquitted on the heaviest
counts and pronounced not guilty; it must be
known that the charge of Mcdism formed one
of the principal, and to all appearance one of
the best founded, articles against him. The
Lacedaemonians did not, however, restore him
to his command, but sent out Dorkis and cer-
tain others with a small force; who found the
allies no longer inclined to concede to them the
supremacy. Perceiving this they departed, and
the Lacedaemonians did not send out any to
succeed them. They feared for those who went
out a deterioration similar to that observable
in Pausanias; besides, they desired to be rid of
the Median War, and were satisfied of the
competency of the Athenians for the position,
and of their friendship at the time towards
themselves.

/^67 The Athenians, having thus succeeded
to the supremacy by the voluntary act of the
allies through their hatred of Pausanias, fixed
which cities were to contribute money against
the barbarian, which ships; their professed ob-

ject being to retaliate for their sufferings by
ravaging the King's country. Now was the
time that the office of "Treasurers for Hellas"
was first instituted by the Athenians. These of-
ficers received the tribute, as the money con-
tributed was called. The tribute was first fixed
at four hundred and sixty talents. The common
treasury was at Delos, and the congresses were
held in the temple. ^977 Their supremacy
commenced with independent allies who acted
on the resolutions of a common congress. It
was marked by the following undertakings in
war and in administration during the interval
between the Median and the present war,
against the barbarian, against their own rebel
allies, and against the Peloponnesian powers
which would come in contact with them on
various occasions. My excuse for relating these
events, and for venturing on this digression, is
that this passage of history has been omitted
by all my predecessors, who have confined
themselves either to Hellenic history before the
Median War, or the Median War itself. Hel-
lamcus, it is true, did touch on these events in
his Athenian history; but he is somewhat con-
cise and not accurate in his dates. Besides, the
history of these events contains an explanation
of the growth of the Athenian empire.

[98] First the Athenians besieged and cap-
tured Eion on the Strymon from the Medes,
and made slaves of the inhabitants, being un-
der the command of Cimon, son of Miltiades.
Next they enslaved Scyros, the island in the
Aegean, containing a Dolopian population,
and colonized it themselves. This was followed
by a war against Carystus, in which the rest of
Euboea remained neutral, and which was end-
ed by surrender on conditions. After this
Naxos left the confederacy, and a war ensued,
and she had to return after a siege; this was
the first instance of the engagement being
broken by the subjugation of an allied city, a
precedent which was followed by that of the
rest in the order which circumstances pre-
scribed. ^997 Of all the causes of defection,
that connected with arrears of tribute and ves-
sels, and with failure of service, was the chief;
for the Athenians were very severe and exact-
ing, and made themselves offensive by apply-
ing the screw of necessity to men who were
not used to and in fact not disposed for any
continuous labour. In some other respects the
Athenians were not the old popular rulers they
had been at first; and if they had more than
their fair share of service, it was corresponding-
ly easy for them to reduce any that tried to leave

374

THUCYDIDES

[BOOK i

the confederacy. For this the allies had them-
selves to blame; the wish to get off service
making most of them arrange to pay their
share of the expense in money instead of in
ships, and so to avoid having to leave their
homes. Thus while Athens was increasing her
navy with the funds which they contributed,
a revolt always found them without resources
or experience for war.

[wo] Next we come to the actions by land
and by sea at the river Eurymedon, between
the Athenians with their allies, and the Medes,
when the Athenians won both battles on the
same day under the conduct of Cimon, son of
Miltiades, and captured and destroyed the
whole Phoenician fleet, consisting of two hun-
dred vessels. Some time afterwards occurred
the defection of the Thasians, caused by dis-
agreements about the marts on the opposite
coast of Thrace, and about the mine in their
possession. Sailing with a fleet to Thasos, the
Athenians defeated them at sea and eflected a
landing on the island. About the same time
they sent ten thousand settlers of their own
citizens and the allies to settle the place then
called Ennea Hodoi or Nine Ways, now Am-
phipolis. They succeeded in gaining possession
of Ennca Hodoi from the Edomans, but on
advancing into the interior of Thrace were cut
off in Drabescus, a town of the Edonians, by
the assembled Thracians, who regarded the
settlement of the place Ennea Hodoi as an act
of hostility. [101] Meanwhile the Thasians
being defeated in the field and suffering siege,
appealed to Lacedaemon, and desired her to
assist them by an invasion of Attica. Without
informing Athens, she promised and intended
to do so, but was prevented by the occurrence
of the earthquake, accompanied by the seces-
sion of the Helots and the Thuriats and Aeth-
acans of the Penoeci to Ithome. Most of the
Helots were the descendants of the old Mes-
scnians that were enslaved in the famous war;
and so all of them came to be called Messeni-
ans. So the Lacedaemonians being engaged in
a war with the rebels in Ithome, the Thasians
in the third year of the siege obtained terms
from the Athenians by razing their walls, de-
livering up their ships, and arranging to pay
the moneys demanded at once, and tribute in
future; giving up their possessions on the con-
tinent together with the mine.

[102] The Lacedaemonians, meanwhile,
finding the war against the rebels in Ithorne
likely to last, invoked the aid of their allies,
and especially of the Athenians, who came in

some force under the command of Cimon. The
reason for this pressing summons lay in their
reputed skill in siege operations; a long siege
had taught the Lacedaemonians their own de-
ficiency in this art, else they would have taken
the place by assault. The first open quarrel be-
tween the Lacedaemonians and Athenians
arose out of this expedition. The Lacedaemo-
nians, when assault failed to take the place, ap-
prehensive of the enterprising and revolution-
ary character of the Athenians, and further
looking upon them as of alien extraction, be-
gan to fear that, if they remained, they might
be tempted by the besieged in Ithome to at-
tempt some political changes. They according-
ly dismissed them alone of the allies, without
declaring their suspicions, but merely saying
that they had now no need of them. But the
Athenians, aware that their dismissal did not
proceed from the more honourable reason of
the two, but from suspicions which had been
conceived, went away deeply offended, and
conscious of having clone nothing to merit such
treatment from the Lacedaemonians; and the
instant that they returned home they broke off
the alliance which had been made against the
Mede, and allied themselves with Sparta's en-
emy Argos; each of the contracting parties tak-
ing the same oaths and making the same alli-
ance with the Thessalians.

[roj] Meanwhile the rebels in Ithome, un-
able to prolong further a ten years' resistance,
surrendered to Lacedaemon; the conditions
being that they should depart from Pelopon-
nese under safe conduct, and should never set
foot in it again: any one who might hereafter
be found there was to be the slave of his captor.
It must be known that the Lacedaemonians
had an old oracle from Delphi, to the effect that
they should let go the suppliant of Zeus at
Ithome. So they went forth with their children
and their wives, and being received by Athens
from the hatred that she now felt for the Lace-
daemonians, were located at Naupactus, which
she had lately taken from the Ozolian Locri-
ans. The Athenians received another addition
to their confederacy in the Megarians; who
left the Lacedaemonian alliance, annoyed by
a war about boundaries forced on them by
Corinth. The Athenians occupied Megara and
Pegae, and built the Megarians their long walls
from the city to Nisaea, in which they placed
an Athenian garrison. This was the principal
cause of the Corinthians conceiving such a
deadly hatred against Athens.

[104] Meanwhile Inaros, son of Psammcti-

ioo-io8]

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

375

chus, a Libyan king of the Libyans on the
Egyptian border, having his headquarters at
Marea, the town above Pharos, caused a revolt
of almost the whole of Egypt from King Ar-
taxerxcs and, placing himself at its head, in-
vited the Athenians to his assistance. Abandon-
ing a Cyprian expedition upon which they
happened to be engaged with two hundred
ships of their own and their allies, they arrived
in Egypt and sailed from the sea into the Nile,
and making themselves masters of the river
and two-thirds of Memphis, addressed them-
selves to the attack of the remaining third,
which is called White Castle. Within it were
Persians and Medes who had taken refuge
there, and Egyptians who had not joined the
rebellion.

[105] Meanwhile the Athenians, making a
descent from their fleet upon Haliae, were en-
gaged by a force of Corinthians and Epidauri-
ans; and the Corinthians were victorious. Af-
terwards the Athenians engaged the Pelopon-
nesian fleet off Cecruphalia; and the Atheni-
ans were victorious. Subsequently war broke
out between Aegina and Athens, and there was
a great battle at sea off Aegina between the
Athenians and Aeginetans, each being aided
by their allies; in which victory remained with
the Athenians, who took seventy of the enemy's
ships, and landed in the country and com-
menced a siege under the command of Leo-
crates, son of Stroebus. Upon this the Pelopon-
nesians, desirous of aiding the Aeginetans,
threw into Aegina a force of three hundred
heavy infantry, who had before been serving
with the Corinthians and Epidaurians. Mean-
while the Corinthians and their allies occupied
the heights of Geraneia, and marched down
into the Megarid, in the belief that, with a
large force absent in Aegina and Egypt, Ath-
ens would be unable to help the Megarians
without raising the siege of Aegina. But the
Athenians, instead of moving the army of
Aegina, raised a force of the old and young
men that had been left in the city, and marched
into the Megarid under the command of My-
ronides. After a drawn battle with the Corin-
thians, the rival hosts parted, each with the im-
pression that they had gained the victory. The
Athenians, however, if anything, had rather
the advantage, and on the departure of the
Corinthians set up a trophy. Urged by the
taunts of the elders in their city, the Corinthi-
ans made their preparations, and about twelve
days afterwards came and set up their trophy
as victors. Sallying out from Megara, the Athe-

nians cut off the party that was employed in
erecting the trophy, and engaged and defeated
the rest. [106] In the retreat of the vanquished
army, a considerable division, pressed by the
pursuers and mistaking the road, dashed into
a field on some private property, with a deep
trench all round it, and no way out. Being
acquainted with the place, the Athenians
hemmed their front with heavy infantry and,
placing the light troops round in a circle,
stoned all who had gone in. Corinth here suf-
fered a severe blow. The bulk of her army con-
tinued its retreat home.

[IQJ] About this time the Athenians be-
gan to build the long walls to the sea, that
towards Phalerum and that towards Piraeus.
Meanwhile the Phocians made an expedition
against Doris, the old home of the Lacedae-
monians, containing the towns of Boetim,
Kitinium, and Erineum. They had taken one
of these towns, when the Lacedaemonians
under Nicomedes, son of Cleombrotus, com-
manding for King Pleistoanax, son of Pau-
sanias, who was still a minor, came to the
aid of the Dorians with fifteen hundred heavy
infantry of their own, and ten thousand of
their allies. After compelling the Phocians to
restore the town on conditions, they began
their retreat. The route by sea, across the Cris-
saean Gulf, exposed them to the risk of being
stopped by the Athenian fleet; that across
Geraneia seemed scarcely safe, the Athenians
holding Megara and Pegae. For the pass was
a difficult one, and was always guarded by the
Athenians; and, in the present instance, the
Lacedaemonians had information that they
meant to dispute their passage. So they re-
solved to remain in Boeotia, and to consider
which would be the safest line of march. They
had also another reason for this resolve. Secret
encouragement had been given them by a
party in Athens, who hoped to put an end to
the reign of democracy and the building of
the Long Walls. Meanwhile the Athenians
marched against them with their whole levy
and a thousand Argives and the respective con-
tingents of the rest of their allies. Altogether
they were fourteen thousand strong. The
march was prompted by the notion that the
Lacedaemonians Were at a loss how to effect
their passage, and also by suspicions of an at-
tempt to overthrow the democracy. Some cav-
alry also joined the Athenians from their Thes-
salian allies; but these went over to the Lace-
daemonians during the battle.

[108] Tlie battle was fought at Tanagra in

376

THUCYDIDES

Bocotia. After heavy loss on both sides, victory
declared for the Lacedaemonians and their al-
lies. After entering the Megarid and cutting
down the fruit trees, the Lacedaemonians re-
turned home across Geraneia and the isthmus.
Sixty-two days after the battle the Athenians
marched into Boeotia under the command of
Myronides, defeated the Boeotians in battle at
Oenophyta, and became masters of Boeotia
and Phocis. They dismantled the walls of the
Tanagraeans, took a hundred of the richest
men of the Opuntian Locrians as hostages, and
finished their own long walls. This was fol-
lowed by the surrender of the Aeginetans to
Athens on conditions; they pulled down their
walls, gave up their ships, and agreed to pay
tribute in future. The Athenians sailed round
Peioponnese under Tolmides, son of Tolmae-
us, burnt the arsenal of Lacedaemon, took
Chalcis, a town of the Corinthians, and in a
descent upon Sicyon defeated the Sicyonians
in battle.

[log] Meanwhile the Athenians in Egypt
and their allies were still there, and encoun-
tered all the vicissitudes of war. First the Athe-
nians were masters of Egypt, and the King
sent Megabazus a Persian to Lacedaemon with
money to bribe the Peloponnesians to invade
Attica and so draw off the Athenians from
Egypt. Finding that the matter made no prog-
ress, and that the money was only being wast-
ed, he recalled Megabazus with the remainder
of the money, and sent Megabuzus, son of
Zopyrus, a Persian, with a large army to Egypt.
Arriving by land he defeated the Egyptians
and their allies in a battle, and drove the Hel-
lenes out of Memphis, and at length shut them
up in the island of Prosopitis, where he be-
sieged them for a year and six months. At last,
draining the canal of its waters, which he di-
verted into another channel, he left their ships
high and dry and joined most of the island to
the mainland, and then marched over on foot
and captured it. [no] Thus the enterprise of
the Hellenes came to ruin after six years of
war. Of all that large host a few travelling
through Libya reached Gyrene in safety, but
most of them perished. And thus Egypt re-
turned to its subjection to the King, except
Amyrtaeus, the king in the marshes, whom
they were unable to capture from the extent of
the marsh; the marshmen being also the most
warlike of the Egyptians. Inaros, the Libyan
king, the sole author of the Egyptian revolt,
was betrayed, taken, and crucified. Meanwhile
a relieving squadron of fifty vessels had sailed

[BooK i

from Athens and the rest of the confederacy
for Egypt. They put in to shore at the Men-
desian mouth of the Nile, in total ignorance of
what had occurred. Attacked on the land side
by the troops, and from the sea by the Phoeni-
cian navy, most of the ships were destroyed;
the few remaining being saved by retreat.
Such was the end of the great expedition of
the Athenians and their allies to Egypt.

[in] Meanwhile Orestes, son of Echecrati-
das, the Thessalian king, being an exile from
Thessaly, persuaded the Athenians to restore
him. Taking with them the Boeotians and
Phocians their allies, the Athenians marched
to Pharsalus in Thessaly. They became masters
of the country, though only in the immediate
vicinity of the camp; beyond which they could
not go for fear of the Thessalian cavalry. But
they failed to take the city or to attain any of
the other objects of their expedition, and re-
turned home with Orestes without having
effected anything. Not long after this a thou-
sand of the Athenians embarked in the vessels
that were at Pegae (Pegae, it must be remem-
bered, was now theirs), and sailed along the
coast to Sicyon under the command of Pericles,
son of Xanthippus. Landing in Sicyon and de-
feating the Sicyonians who engaged them,
they immediately took with them the Achae-
ans and, sailing across, marched against and
laid siege to Oeniadae in Acarnania. Failing
however to take it, they returned home.

[112] Three years afterwards a truce was
made between the Peloponnesians and Atheni-
ans for five years. Released from Hellenic war,
the Athenians made an expedition to Cyprus
with two hundred vessels of their own and
their allies, under the command of Cimon.
Sixty of these were detached to Egypt at the
instance of Amyrtaeus, the king in the marsh-
es; the rest laid siege to Kitium, from which,
however, they were compelled to retire by the
death of Cimon and by scarcity of provisions.
Sailing off Salamis in Cyprus, they fought
with the Phoenicians, Cyprians, and Cilicians
by land and sea, and, being victorious on both
elements departed home, and with them the
returned squadron from Egypt. After this the
Lacedaemonians marched out on a sacred war,
and, becoming masters of the temple at Delphi,
placed it in the hands of the Delphians. Im-
mediately after their retreat, the Athenians
marched out, became masters of the temple,
and placed it in the hands of the Phocians.

[113] Some time after this, Orchomenus,
Chaeronca, and some other places in Boeotia

109-117]

being in the hands of the Boeotian exiles, the
Athenians marched against the above-men-
tioned hostile places with a thousand Athenian
heavy infantry and the allied contingents, un-
der the command of Tolmides, son of Tolmae-
us. They took Chaeronea, and made slaves of
the inhabitants, and, leaving a garrison, com-
menced their return. On their road they were
attacked at Coronea by the Boeotian exiles
from Orchomenus, with some Locrians and
Euboean exiles, and others who were of the
same way of thinking, were defeated in battle,
and some killed, others taken captive. The
Athenians evacuated all Boeotia by a treaty
providing for the recovery of the men; and the
exiled Boeotians returned, and with all the rest
regained their independence.

[114] This was soon afterwards followed by
the revolt of Euboea from Athens. Pericles had
already crossed over with an army of Athenians
to the island, when news was brought to him
that Megara had revolted, that the Pelopon-
nesians were on the point of invading Attica,
and that the Athenian garrison had been cut
off by the Megarians, with the exception of a
few who had taken refuge in Nisaca. The Meg-
arians had introduced the Corinthians, Sicy-
onians, and Epidaurians into the town before
they revolted. Meanwhile Pericles brought his
army back in all haste from Euboea. After this
the Pcloponnesians marched into Attica as far
as Eleusis and Thnus, ravaging the country
under the conduct of King Pleistoanax, the son
of Pausanias, and without advancing further
returned home. The Athenians then crossed
over again to Euboea under the command of
Pericles, and subdued the whole of the island:
all but Histiaca was settled by convention; the
Histiaeans they expelled from their homes,
and occupied their territory themselves.

[115] Not long after their return from Eu-
boea, they made a truce with the Lacedaemo-
nians and their allies for thirty years, giving
up the posts which they occupied in Pelopon-
nese — Nisaea, Pegae, Troezen, and Achaia. In
the sixth year of the truce, war broke out be-
tween the Samians and Milesians about Pri-
ene. Worsted in the war, the Milesians came
to Athens with loud complaints against the
Samians. In this they were joined by certain
private persons from Samos itself, who wished
to revolutionize the government. Accordingly
the Athenians sailed to Samos with forty ships
and set up a democracy; took hostages from
the Samians, fifty boys and as many men,
lodged them in Lemnos, and after leaving a

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

377

garrison in the island returned home. But some
of the Samians had not remained in the island,
but had fled to the continent. Making an agree-
ment with the most powerful of those in the
city, and an alliance with Pissuthnes, son of
Hystaspes, the then satrap of Sardis, they got
together a force of seven hundred mercenaries,
and under cover of night crossed over to Samos.
Their first step was to rise on the commons,
most of whom they secured; their next to steal
their hostages from Lemnos; after which they
revolted, gave up the Athenian garrison left
with them and its commanders to Pissuthnes,
and instantly prepared for an expedition
against Miletus. The Byzantines also revolted
with them.

[116] As soon as the Athenians heard the
news, they sailed with sixty ships against Sa-
mos. Sixteen of these went to Caria to look out
for the Phoenician fleet, and to Chios and Les-
bos carrying round orders for reinforcements,
and so never engaged; but forty-four ships un-
der the command of Pericles with nine col-
leagues gave battle, off the island of Tragia, to
seventy Samian vessels, of which twenty were
transports, as they were sailing from Miletus.
Victory remained with the Athenians. Rein-
forced afterwards by forty ships from Athens,
and twenty-five Chian and Lesbian vessels, the
Athenians landed, and having the superiority
by land invested the city with three walls; it
was also invested from the sea. Meanwhile
Pericles took sixty ships from the blockading
squadron, and departed in haste for Caunus
and Caria, intelligence having been brought
in of the approach of the Phoenician fleet to
the aid of the Samians; indeed Stesagoras and
others had left the island with five ships to
bring them. [117] But in the meantime the
Samians made a sudden sally, and fell on the
camp, which they found unfortified. Destroy-
ing the look-out vessels, and engaging and de-
feating such as were being launched to meet
them, they remained masters of their own seas
for fourteen days, and carried in and carried
out what they pleased. But on the arrival of
Pericles, they were once more shut up. Fresh
reinforcements afterwards arrived — forty ships
from Athens with Thucydides, Hagnon, and
Phormio; twenty with Tlepolemus and Anti-
cles, and thirty vessels from Chios and Lesbos.
After a brief attempt at fighting, the Samians,
unable to hold out, were reduced after a nine
months' siege and surrendered on conditions;
they razed their walls, gave hostages, delivered
up their ships, and arranged to pay the ex-

378

THUCYDIDES

[Boon

pcnscs of the war by instalments. The Byzan-
tines also agreed to be subject as before.

CHAPTER V

Second Congress at Laccdaemon — Preparations

for War and Diplomatic Skirmishes — Cylon —

Pausantas — Themistocles

[118] AFTER this, though not many years later,
we at length come to what has been already re-
lated, the affairs of Corcyra and Potidaea, and
the events that served as a pretext for the pres-
ent war. All these actions of the Hellenes
against each other and the barbarian occurred
in the fifty years' interval between the retreat
of Xerxes and the beginning of the present
war. During this interval the Athenians suc-
ceeded in placing their empire on a firmer
basis, and advanced their own home power to
a very great height. The Lacedaemonians,
though fully aware of it, opposed it only for a
little while, but remained inactive during most
of the period, being of old slow to go to war
except under the pressure of necessity, and in
the present instance being hampered by wars
at home; until the growth of the Athenian
power could be no longer ignored, ,md their
own confederacy became the object of its en-
croachments. They then felt that they could
endure it no longer, but that the time had
come for them to throw themselves heart and
soul upon the hostile power, and break it, if
they could, by commencing the present war.
And though the Lacedaemonians had made up
their own minds on the fact of the breach of
the treaty and the guilt of the Athenians, yet
they sent to Delphi and inquired of the God
whether it would be well with them if they
went to war; and, as it is reported, received
from him the answer that if they put their
whole strength into the war, victory would be
theirs, and the promise that he himself would
be with them, whether invoked or uninvoked.
///p7 Still they wished to summon their allies
again, and to take their vote on the propriety
of making war. After the ambassadors from
the confederates had arrived and a congress
had been convened, they all spoke their minds,
most of them denouncing the Athenians and
demanding that the war should begin. In par-
ticular the Corinthians. They had before on
their own account canvassed the cities in de-
tail to induce them to vote for the war, in
the fear that it might come too late to save
Potidaea; they were present also on this
occasion, and came forward the last, and

made the following speech:

[120] "Fellow allies, we can no longer ac-
cuse the Lacedaemonians of having failed in
their duty: they have not only voted for war
themselves, but have assembled us here for
that purpose. We say their duty, for supremacy
has its duties. Besides equitably administering
private interests, leaders are required to show a
special care for the common welfare in return
for the special honours accorded to them by all
in other ways. For ourselves, all who have al-
ready had dealings with the Athenians require
no warning to be on their guard against them.
The states more inland and out of the highway
of communication should understand that, if
they omit to support the coast powers, the re-
sult will be to injure the transit of their pro-
duce for exportation and the reception in ex-
change of their imports from the sea; and they
must not be careless judges of what is now
said, as if it had nothing to do with them, but
must expect that the sacrifice of the powers on
the coast will one day be followed by the ex-
tension of the danger to the interior, and must
recognize that their own interests are deeply
involved in this discussion. For these reasons
they should not hesitate to exchange peace for
war. If wise men remain quiet, while they are
not injured, brave men abandon peace for war
when they are injured, returning to an under-
standing on a favourable opportunity: in fact,
they are neither intoxicated by their success in
war, nor disposed to take an injury for the
sake of the delightful tranquillity of peace. In-
deed, to falter for the sake of such delights is,
if you remain inactive, the quickest way of
losing the sweets of repose to which you cling;
while to conceive extravagant pretensions from
success in war is to forget how hollow is the
confidence by which you are elated. For if
many ill-conceived plans have succeeded
through the still greater fatuity of an oppo-
nent, many more, apparently well laid, have
on the contrary ended in disgrace. The confi-
dence with which we form our schemes is nev-
er completely justified in their execution; spec-
ulation is carried on in safety, but, when it
comes to action, fear causes failure.

[121] "To apply these rules to ourselves, if
we are now kindling war it is under the pres-
sure of injury, and with adequate grounds of
complaint; and after we have chastised the
Athenians we will in season desist. We have
many reasons to expect success— first, superi-
ority in numbers and in military experience,
and secondly our general and unvarying obedi-

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

379

cncc in the execution of orders. The naval
strength which they possess shall be raised by
us from our respective antecedent resources,
and from the moneys at Olympia and Delphi.
A loan from these enables us to seduce their
foreign sailors by the offer of higher pay. For
the power of Athens is more mercenary than
national; while ours will not be exposed to the
same risk, as its strength lies more in men than
in money. A single defeat at sea is in all like-
lihood their ruin: should they hold out, in that
case there will be the more time for us to ex-
ercise ourselves in naval matters; and as soon
as we have arrived at an equality in science, we
need scarcely ask whether we shall be their
superiors in courage. For the advantages that
we have by nature they cannot acquire by edu-
cation; while their superiority in science must
be removed by our practice. The money re-
quired for these objects shall be provided by
our contributions: nothing indeed could be
more monstrous than the suggestion that,
while their allies never tire of contributing for
their own servitude, we should refuse to spend
for vengeance and self-preservation the treas-
ure which by such refusal we shall forfeit to
Athenian rapacity and see employed for our
own ruin.

[122] "We have also other ways of carrying
on the war, such as revolt of their allies, the
surest method of depriving them of their rev-
enues, which are the source of their strength,
and establishment of fortified positions in their
country, and various operations which cannot
be foreseen at present. For war of all things
proceeds least upon definite rules, but draws
principally upon itself for contrivances to meet
an emergency; and in such cases the party who
faces the struggle and keeps his temper best
meets with most security, and he who loses his
temper about it with correspondent disaster.
Let us also reflect that if it was merely a num-
ber of disputes of territory between rival neigh-
bours, it might be borne; but here we have an
enemy in Athens that is a match for our whole
coalition, and more than a match for any of its
members; so that unless as a body and as in-
dividual nationalities and individual cities we
make an unanimous stand against her, she will
easily conquer us divided and in detail. That
conquest, terrible as it may sound, would, it
must be known, have no other end than slav-
ery pure and simple; a word which Pclopon-
nese cannot even hear whispered without dis-
grace, or without disgrace see so many states
abused by one. Meanwhile the opinion would

be either that we were justly so used, or that
we put up with it from cowardice, and were
proving degenerate sons in not even securing
for ourselves the freedom which our fathers
gave to Hellas; and in allowing the establish-
ment in Hellas of a tyrant state, though in in-
dividual states we think it our duty to put
do\vn sole rulers. And we do not know how
this conduct can be held free from three of the
gravest failings, want of sense, of courage, or
of vigilance. For we do not suppose that you
have taken refuge in that contempt of an en-
emy which has proved so fatal in so many in-
stances— a feeling which from the numbers
that it has ruined has come to be called not
contemptuous but contemptible.

[123] "There is, however, no advantage in
reflections on the past further than may be of
service to the present. For the future we must
provide by maintaining what the present gives
us and redoubling our efforts; it is hereditary
to us to win virtue as the fruit of labour, and
you must not change the habit, even though
you should have a slight advantage in wealth
and resources; for it is not right that what was
won in want should be lost in plenty; no, we
must boldly advance to the war for many rea-
sons; the god has commanded it and promised
to be with us, and the rest of Hellas will all join
in the struggle, part from fear, part from in-
terest. You will be the first to break a treaty
which the god, in advising us to go to war,
judges to be violated already, but rather to sup-
port a treaty that has been outraged: indeed,
treaties are broken not by resistance but by ag-
gression.

[ 124] "Your position, therefore, from what-
ever quarter you may view it, will amply jus-
tify you in going to war; and this step we rec-
ommend in the interests of all, bearing in mind
that identity of interest is the surest of bonds,
whether between states or individuals. Delay
not, therefore, to assist Potidaea, a Dorian city
besieged by lonians, which is quite a reversal of
the order of things; nor to assert the freedom
of the rest. It is impossible for us to wait any
longer when waiting can only mean immedi-
ate disaster for some of us, and, if it comes to
be known that we have conferred but do not
venture to protect ourselves, like disaster in the
near future for the rest. Delay not, fellow al-
lies, but, convinced of the necessity of the crisis
and the wisdom of this counsel, vote for the
war, undeterred by its immediate terrors, but
looking beyond to the lasting peace by which
it will be succeeded. Out of war peace gains

380

THUCYDIDES

[BOOK i

fresh stability, but to refuse to abandon repose
for war is not so sure a method of avoiding
danger. We must believe that the tyrant city
that has been established in Hellas has been es-
tablished against all alike, with a programme
of universal empire, part fulfilled, part in con-
templation; let us then attack and reduce it,
and win future security for ourselves and free-
dom for the Hellenes who are now enslaved."

[125] Such were the words of the Corinthi-
ans. The Lacedaemonians, having now heard
all, give their opinion, took the vote of all the
allied states present in order, great and small
alike; and the majority voted for war. This de-
cided, it was still impossible for them to com-
mence at once, from their want of preparation;
but it was resolved that the means requisite
were to be procured by the different states, and
that there was to be no delay. And indeed, in
spite of the time occupied with the necessary
arrangements, less than a year elapsed before
Attica was invaded, and the war openly begun.

[126] This interval was spent in sending
embassies to Athens charged with complaints,
in order to obtain a> good a pretext for war as
possible, in the event of her paying no atten-
tion to them. The first Lacedaemonian em-
bassy was to order the Athenians to drive out
the curse of the goddess; the history of which
is as follows. In former generations there was
an Athenian of the name of Cylon, a victor at
the Olympic games, of good birth and power-
ful position, who had married a daughter of
Thcagenes, a Megarian, at that time tyrant of
Megara. Now this Cylon was inquiring at
Delphi; when he was told by the god to seize
the Acropolis of Athens on the grand festival
of Zeus. Accordingly, procuring a force from
Thcagenes and persuading his friends to join
him, when the Olympic festival in Pelopon-
ncse came, he seized the Acropolis, with the
intention of making himself tyrant, thinking
that this was the grand festival of Zeus, and
also an occasion appropriate for a victor at the
Olympic games. Whether the grand festival
that was meant was in Attica or elsewhere was
a question which he never thought of, and
which the oracle did not otTer to solve. For the
Athenians also have a festival which is called
the grand festival of Zeus Meilichios or Gra-
cious, viz., the Diasia. Tt is celebrated outside
the city, and the whole people sacrifice not real
victims but a number of bloodless offerings pe-
culiar to the country. However, fancying he
had chosen the right time, he made the at-
tempt. As soon as the Athenians perceived it,

they flocked in, one and all, from the country,
and sat down, and laid siege to the citadel. But
as time went on, weary of the labour of block-
ade, most of them departed; the responsibility
of keeping guard being left to the nine ar-
chons, with plenary powers to arrange every-
thing according to their good judgment. It
must be known that at that time most political
functions were discharged by the nine archons.
Meanwhile Cylon and his besieged compan-
ions were distressed for want of food and wa-
ter. Accordingly Cylon and his brother made
their escape; but the rest being hard pressed,
and some even dying of famine, seated them-
selves as suppliants at the altar in the Acropo-
lis. The Athenians who were charged with the
duty of keeping guard, when they saw them
at the point of death in the temple, raised them
up on the understanding that no harm should
be done to them, led them out, and slew them.
Some who as they passed by took refuge at the
altars of the awful goddesses were dispatched
on the spot. From this deed the men who
killed them were called accursed and guilty
against the goddess, they and their descen-
dants. Accordingly these cursed ones were
driven out by the Athenians, driven out again
by Clcomenes of Laccdaemon and an Atheni-
an iaction; the living were driven out, and the
bones of the dead were taken up; thus they
were cast out. For all that, they came back af-
terwards, and their descendants are still in the
city.

[i2j] This, then was the curse that the
Lacedaemonians ordered them to drhe out.
They were actuated primarily, as they pre-
tended, by a care for the honour of the gods;
but they also know that Pericles, son of Xan-
thippus, was connected with the curse on his
mother's side, and they thought that his ban-
ishment would materially advance their de-
signs on Athens. Not that they really hoped to
succeed in procuring this; they rather thought
to create a prejudice against him in the eyes of
his countrymen from the feeling that the war
would be partly caused by his misfortune. For
being the most powerful man of his time, and
the leading Athenian statesman, he opposed
the Lacedaemonians in everything, and would
have no concessions, but ever urged the Athe-
nians on to war.

[128] The Athenians retorted by ordering
the Lacedaemonians to drive out the curse of
Taenarus. The Lacedaemonians had once
raised up some Helot suppliants from the tem-
ple of Poseidon at Taenarus, led them away

125-132]

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

381

and slain them; for which they believe the
great earthquake at Sparta to have been a ret-
ribution. The Athenians also ordered them to
drive out the curse of the goddess of the Brazen
House; the history of which is as follows.
After Pausanias the Lacedaemonian had been
recalled by the Spartans from his command in
the Hellespont (this is his first recall), and had
been tried by them and acquitted, not being
again sent out in a public capacity, he took a
galley of Hermione on his own responsibility,
without the authority of the Lacedaemonians,
and arrived as a private person in the Helles-
pont. He came ostensibly for the Hellenic war,
really to carry on his intrigues with the King,
which he had begun before his recall, being
ambitious of reigning over Hellas. The cir-
cumstance which first enabled him to lay the
King under an obligation, and to make a be-
ginning of the whole design, was this. Some
connections and kinsmen of the King had been
taken in Byzantium, on its capture from the
Mcdes, when he was first there, after the re-
turn from Cyprus. These captives he sent off
to the King without the knowledge of the rest
of the allies, the account Ixring that they had
escaped from him. He managed this with the
help of Gongylus, an Erctrian, whom he had
placed in charge of By/antium and the prison-
ers. He also gave Gongylus a letter for the
King, the contents of which were as follows,
as was afterwards discovered: "Pausanias, the
general of Sparta, anxious to do you a favour,
sends you these his prisoneis of war. I pro-
pose also, with your approval, to marry your
daughter, and to make Sparta and the rest of
Hellas subject to you. I may say that I think
I am able to do this, with your co-operation.
Accordingly if any of this please you, send a
safe man to the sea through whom we may in
future conduct our correspondence."

[129] This was all that was revealed in the
writing, and Xerxes was pleased with the let-
ter. He sent off Artabazus, son of Pharnaces,
to the sea with orders to supersede Megabates,
the previous governor in the satrapy of Dasky-
lion, and to send over as quickly as possible to
Pausanias at Byzantium a letter which he en-
trusted to him; to show him the royal signet,
and to execute any commission which he might
receive from Pausanias on the King's matters
with all care and fidelity. Artabazus on his
arrival carried the King's orders into effect,
and sent over the letter, which contained the
following answer: "Thus saith King Xerxes to
Pausanias. For the men whom you have saved

for me across sea from Byzantium, an obliga-
tion is laid up for you in our house, recorded
for ever; and with your proposals I am well
pleased. Let neither night nor day stop you
from diligently performing any of your prom-
ises to me; neither for cost of gold nor of silver
let them be hindered, nor yet for number of
troops, wherever it may be that their presence
is needed; but with Artabazus, an honourable
man whom I send you, boldly advance my ob-
jects and yours, as may be most for the hon-
our and interest of us both."

[130] Before held in high honour by the
Hellenes as the hero of Plataea, Pausanias, af-
ter the receipt of this letter, became prouder
than ever, and could no longer live in the usual
style, but went out of Byzantium in a Median
dress, was attended on his march through
Thrace by a bodyguard of Mecles and Egyp-
tians, kept a Persian table, and was quite un-
able to contain his intentions, but betrayed by
his conduct in trifles what his ambition looked
one day to enact on a grander scale. He also
made himself difficult of access, and displayed
so violent a temper to every one without excep-
tion that no one could come near him. Indeed,
this was the principal reason why the con-
federacy went over to the Athenians.

[tji] The above-mentioned conduct, com-
ing to the ears of the Lacedaemonians, occa-
sioned his first recall. And after his second voy-
age out in the ship of Hermione, without their
orders, he gave proofs of similar behaviour.
Besieged and expelled from Byzantium by the
Athenians, he did not return to Sparta; but
news came that he had settled at Colonac in
the Troad, and was intriguing with the bar-
barians, and that his stay there was for no good
purpose; and the ephors, now no longer hesi-
tating, sent him a herald and a scytale with
orders to accompany the herald or be declared
a public enemy. Anxious above everything to
avoid suspicion, and confident that he could
quash the charge by means of money, he re-
turned a second time to Sparta. At first thrown
into prison by the ephors (whose powers en-
able them to do this to the King), he soon com-
promised the matter and came out again, and
offered himself for trial to any who wished to
institute an inquiry concerning him.

/ 1 $2] Now the Spartans had no tangible
proof against him — neither his enemies nor
the nation — of that indubitable kind required
for the punishment of a member of the royal
family, and at that moment in high office; he
being regent for his first cousin King Pleistar-

382

THUCYDIDES

chus, Leonidas's son, who was still a minor.
But by his contempt of the laws and imitation
of the barbarians, he gave grounds for much
suspicion of his being discontented with things
established; all the occasions on which he had
in any way departed from the regular customs
were passed in review, and it was remembered
that he had taken upon himself to have in-
scribed on the tripod at Delphi, which was
dedicated by the Hellenes as the first-fruits of
the spoil of the Medes, the following couplet:

The Mede defeated, great Pausanias raised
This monument, that Phoebus might be praised.

At the time the Lacedaemonians had at once
erased the couplet, and inscribed the names of
the cities that had aided in the overthrow of
the barbarian and dedicated the offering. Yet
it was considered that Pausanias had here been
guilty of a grave offence, which, interpreted
by the light of the attitude which he had since
assumed, gained a new significance, and
seemed to be quite in keeping with his present
schemes. Besides, they were informed that he
was even intriguing with the Helots; and such
indeed was the lact, for he promised them free-
dom and citr/enship if they would join him in
insurrection and would help him to carry out
his plans to the end. Even now, mistrusting the
evidence even of the Helots themselves, the
ephors would not consent to take any decided
step against him; in accordance with their reg-
ular custom towards themselves, namely, to be
slow in taking any irrevocable resolve in the
matter o\ a Spartan citizen without indisput-
able proof. At last, it is said, the person who
was going to carry to Artabazus the last letter
for the King, a man of Argilus, once the fav-
ourite and most trusty servant of Pausanias,
turned informer. Alarmed by the reflection
that none of the previous messengers had ever
returned, having counterfeited the seal, in or-
der that, if he found himself mistaken in his
surmises, or if Pausanias should ask to make
some correction, he might not be discovered,
he undid the letter, and found the postscript
that he had suspected, viz., an order to put him
to death.

[ijj] On being shown the letter, the ephors
now felt more certain. Still, they wished to
hear Pausanias commit himself with their own
ears. Accordingly the man went by appoint-
ment to Taenarus as a suppliant, and there
built himself a hut divided into two by a par-
tition; within which he concealed some of the
ephors and let them hear the whole matter

| BOOK I

plainly. For Pausanias came to him and asked
him the reason of his suppliant position; and
the man reproached him with the order that
he had written concerning him, and one by
one declared all the rest of the circumstances,
how he who had never yet brought him into
any danger, while employed as agent between
him and the King, was yet just like the mass of
his servants to be rewarded with death. Ad-
mitting all this, and telling him not to be angry
about the matter, Pausanias gave him the
pledge of raising him up from the temple, and
begged him to set off as quickly as possible,
and not to hinder the business in hand.

[134] The ephors listened carefully, and
then departed, taking no action for the mo-
ment, but, having at last attained to certainty,
were preparing to arrest him in the city. It is
reported that, as he was about to be arrested in
the street, he saw from the face of one of the
ephors what he was coming for; another, too,
made him a secret signal, and betrayed it to
him from kindness. Setting off with a run for
the temple of the goddess of the Brazen House,
the enclosure of which was near at hand, he
succeeded in taking sanctuary before they took
him, and entering into a small chamber, which
formed part of the temple, to avoid being ex-
posed to the weather, lay still there. The eph-
ors, for the moment distanced in the pursuit,
afterwards took oil the roof of the chamber,
and having made sure that he was inside, shut
him in, barricaded the doors, and staying be-
fore the place, reduced him by starvation.
When they found that he was on the point of
expiring, just as he was, in the chamber, they
brought him out of the temple, while the
breath was still in him, and as soon as he was
brought out he died. They were going to throw
him into the Kaiadas, where they cast crim-
inals, but finally decided to inter him some-
where near. But the god at Delphi afterwards
ordered the Lacedaemonians to remove the
tomb to the place of his death — where he now
lies in the consecrated ground, as an inscrip-
tion on a monument declares — and, as what
had been done was a curse to them, to give
back two bodies instead of one to the goddess
of the Brazen House. So they had two brazen
statues made, and dedicated them as a substi-
tute for Pausanias. Accordingly the Athenians
retorted by telling the Lacedaemonians to drive
out what the god himself had pronounced to
be a curse.

[135] To return to the Medism of Pausani-
as. Matter was found in the course of the in-

133-138]

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

383

quiry to implicate Themistocles; and the Lace-
daemonians accordingly sent envoys to the
Athenians, and required them to punish him as
they had punished Pausanias. The Athenians
consented to do so. But he had, as it happened,
been ostracized, and, with a residence at Argos,
was in the habit of visiting other parts of Pel-
oponncse. So they sent with the Lacedaemo-
nians, who were ready to join in the pursuit,
persons with instructions to take him wherever
they found him. [136] But Themistocles got
scent of their intentions, and fled from Pelo-
ponnese to Corcyra, which was under obliga-
tions towards him. But the Corcyraeans al-
leged that they could not venture to shelter
him at the cost of offending Athens and Lace-
daemon, and they conveyed him over to the
continent opposite. Pursued by the officers who
hung on the report of his movements, at a loss
where to turn, he was compelled to stop at the
house of Admetus, the Molossian king, though
they were not on friendly terms. Admetus hap-
pened not to be indoors, but his wife, to whom
he made himself a suppliant, instructed him
to take their child in his arms and sit down by
the hearth. Soon afterwards Admetus came in,
and Themistocles told him who he was, and
begged him not to revenge on Themistocles in
exile any opposition which his requests might
have experienced from Themistocles at Ath-
ens. Indeed, he was now far too low for his
revenge; retaliation was only honourable be-
tween equals. Besides, his opposition to the
king had only affected the success of a request,
not the safety of his person; if the king were
to give him up to the pursuers that he men-
tioned, and the fate which they intended for
him, he would just be consigning him to cer-
tain death.

I1 S?] The King listened to him and raised
him up with his son, as he was sitting with
him in his arms after the most effectual method
of supplication, and on the arrival of the Lace-
daemonians not long afterwards, refused to
give him up for anything they could say, but
sent him off by land to the other sea to Pydna
in Alexander's dominions, as he wished to go
to the Persian king. There he met with a mer-
chantman on the point of starting for Ionia.
Going on board, he was carried by a storm to
the Athenian squadron which was blockading
Naxos. In his alarm — he was luckily unknown
to the people in the vessel — he told the master
who he was and what he was flying for, and
said that, if he refused to save him, he would
declare that he was taking him for a bribe.

Meanwhile their safety consisted in letting no
one leave the ship until a favourable time for
sailing should arise. If he complied with his
wishes, he promised him a proper recompense.
The master acted as he desired, and, after lying
to for a day and a night out of reach of the
squadron, at length arrived at Ephesus.

After having rewarded him with a present
of money, as soon as he received some from his
friends at Athens and from his secret hoards at
Argos, Themistocles started inland with one
of the coast Persians, and sent a letter to King
Artaxerxes, Xerxes's son, who had just come
to the throne. Its contents were as follows: "I,
Themistocles, am come to you, who did your
house more harm than any of the Hellenes,
when I was compelled to defend myself against
your father's invasion — harm, however, far
surpassed by the good that I did him during
his retreat, which brought no danger for me
but much for him. For the past, you are a good
turn in my debt" — here he mentioned the
warning sent to Xerxes from Salamis to re-
treat, as well as his finding the bridges unbrok-
en, which, as he falsely pretended, was due to
him — "for the present, able to do you great
service, I am here, pursued by the Hellenes for
my friendship for you. However, I desire a
year's grace, when I shall be able to declare in
person the objects of my coming."

[138] It is said that the King approved his
intention, and told him to do as he said. He
employed the interval in making what prog-
ress he could in the study of the Persian
tongue, and of the customs of the country. Ar-
rived at court at the end of the year, he at-
tained to very high consideration there, such as
no Hellene has ever possessed before or since;
partly from his splendid antecedents, partly
from the hopes which he held out of effecting
for him the subjugation of Hellas, but prin-
cipally by the proof which experience daily
gave of his capacity. For Themistocles was a
man who exhibited the most indubitable signs
of genius; indeed, in this particular he has a
claim on our admiration quite extraordinary
and unparalleled. By his own native capacity,
alike unformed and unsupplemented by study,
he was at once the best judge in those sudden
crises which admit of little or of no delibera-
tion, and the best prophet of the future, even
to its most distant possibilities. An able theo-
retical expositor of all that came within the
sphere of his practice, he was not without the
power of passing an adequate judgment in
matters in which he had no experience. He

384

THUCYDIDES

[BOOK i

could also excellently divine the good and evil
which lay hid in the unseen future. In fine,
whether we consider the extent of his natural
powers, or the slightness of his application, this
extraordinary man must be allowed to have
surpassed all others in the faculty of intuitively
meeting an emergency. Disease was the real
cause of his death; though there is a story of his
having ended his life by poison, on rinding
himself unable to fulfil his promises to the
king. However this may be, there is a monu-
ment to him in the marketplace of Asiatic
Magnesia. He was governor of the district, the
King having given him Magnesia, which
brought in fifty talents a year, for bread, Lamp-
sacus, which was considered to be the richest
wine country, for wine, and Myos for other
provisions. His bones, it is said, were conveyed
home by his relatives in accordance with his
wishes, and interred in Attic ground. This
was done without the knowledge of the Athe-
nians; as it is against the law to bury in Attica
an outlaw for treason. So ends the history of
Pausanias and Themistocles, the Lacedaemo-
nian and the Athenian, the most famous men
of their time in Hellas.

1*39] To return to the Lacedaemonians.
The history of their first embassy, the injunc-
tions which it conveyed, and the rejoinder
which it provoked, concerning the expulsion
of the accursed persons, have been related al-
ready. It was followed by a second, which or-
dered Athens to raise the siege of Potidaea, and
to respect the independence of Aegina. Above
all, it gave her most distinctly to understand
that war might be prevented by the revocation
of the Megara decree, excluding the Megarians
from the use of Athenian harbours and of the
market of Athens. But Athens was not in-
clined either to revoke the decree, or to enter-
tain their other proposals; she accused the Me-
garians of pushing their cultivation into the
consecrated ground and the unenclosed land
on the border, and of harbouring her runaway
slaves. At last an embassy arrived with the
Lacedaemonian ultimatum. The ambassadors
were Ramphias, Melesippus, and Agesander.
Not a word was said on any of the old sub-
jects; there was simply this: "Lacedaemon
v/ishes the peace to continue, and there is no
reason why it should not, if you would leave
the Hellenes independent." Upon this the
Athenians held an assembly, and laid the mat-
ter before their consideration. It was resolved
to deliberate once for all on all their demands,
and to give them an answer. There were many

speakers who came forward and gave their
support to one side or the other, urging the
necessity of war, or the revocation of the de-
cree and the folly of allowing it to stand in the
way of peace. Among them came forward Per-
icles, son of Xanthippus, the first man of his
time at Athens, ablest alike in counsel and in
action, and gave the following advice:

[140] "There is one principle, Athenians,
which I hold to through everything, and that
is the principle of no concession to the Pelopon-
nesians. I know that the spirit which inspires
men while they are being persuaded to make
war is not always retained in action; that as
circumstances change, resolutions change. Yet
I see that now as before the same, almost liter-
ally the same, counsel is demanded of me; and
I put it to those of you who are allowing your-
selves to be persuaded, to support the national
resolves even in the case of reverses, or to for-
feit all credit for their wisdom in the event of
success. For sometimes the course of things is
as arbitrary as the plans of man; indeed this is
why we usually blame chance for whatever
does not happen as we expected. Now it was
clear before that Lacedaemon entertained de-
signs against us; it is still more clear now. The
treaty provides that we shall mutually submit
our differences to legal settlement, and that we
shall meanwhile each keep what we have. Yet
the Lacedaemonians never yet made us any
such offer, never yet would accept from us any
such offer; on the contrary, they wish com-
plaints to be settled by war instead of by nego-
tiation; and in the end we find them here drop-
ping the tone of expostulation and adopting
that of command. They order us to raise the
siege of Potidaea, to let Aegina be independent,
to revoke the Megara decree; and they con-
clude with an ultimatum warning us to leave
the Hellenes independent. I hope that you will
none of you think that we shall be going to
war for a trifle if we refuse to revoke the Me-
gara decree, which appears in front of their
complaints, and the revocation of which is to
save us from war, or let any feeling of self-re-
proach linger in your minds, as if you went to
war for slight cause. Why, this trifle contains
the whole seal and trial of your resolution. If
you give way, you will instantly have to meet
some greater demand, as having been fright-
ened into obedience in the first instance; while
a firm refusal will make them clearly under-
stand that they must treat you more as equals.
[141] Make your decision therefore at once,
either to submit before you are harmed, or if

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

385

we are to go to war, as I for one think we
ought, to do so without caring whether the
ostensible cause be great or small, resolved
against making concessions or consenting to a
precarious tenure of our possessions. For all
claims from an equal, urged upon a neighbour
as commands before any attempt at legal set-
tlement, be they great or be they small, have
only one meaning, and that is slavery.

"As to the war and the resources of either
party, a detailed comparison will not show
you the inferiority of Athens. Personally en-
gaged in the cultivation of their land, without
funds either private or public, the Pelopon-
nesians are also without experience in long
wars across sea, from the strict limit which
poverty imposes on their attacks upon each
other. Powers of this description are quite in-
capable of often manning a fleet or often send-
ing out an army: they cannot afford the ab-
sence from their homes, the expenditure from
their own funds; and besides, they have not
command of the sea. Capital, it must be re-
membered, maintains a war more than forced
contributions. Farmers are a class of men that
are always more ready to serve in person than
in purse. Confident that the former will sur-
vive the dangers, they are by no means so sure
that the latter will not be prematurely exhaust-
ed, especially if the war last longer than they
expect, which it very likely will. In a single
battle the Peloponnesians and their allies may
be able to defy all Hellas, but they are inca-
pacitated from carrying on a war against a
power different in character from their own,
by the want of the single council-chamber req-
uisite to prompt and vigorous action, and the
substitution of a diet composed of various
races, in which every state possesses an equal
vote, and each presses its own ends, a condi-
tion of things which generally results in no ac-
tion at all. The great wish of some is to avenge
themselves on some particular enemy, the great
wish of others to save their own pocket. Slow
in assembling, they devote a very small frac-
tion of the time to the consideration of any
public object, most of it to the prosecution of
their own objects. Meanwhile each fancies that
no harm will come of his neglect, that it is the
business of somebody else to look after this or
that for him; and so, by the same notion being
entertained by all separately, the common
cause imperceptibly decays.

[142] "But the principal point is the hin-
drance that they will experience from want of
money. The slowness with which it comes in

will cause delay; but the opportunities of war
wait for no man. Again, we need not be
alarmed either at the possibility of their rais-
ing fortifications in Attica, or at their navy. It
would be difficult for any system of fortifica-
tions to establish a rival city, even in time of
peace, much more, surely, in an enemy's coun-
try, with Athens just as much fortified against
it as it against Athens; while a mere post
might be able to do some harm to the country
by incursions and by the facilities which it
would afford for desertion, but can never pre-
vent our sailing into their country and raising
fortifications there, and making reprisals with
our powerful fleet. For our naval skill is of
more use to us for service on land, than their
military skill for service at sea. Familiarity
with the sea they will not find an easy acquisi-
tion. If you who have been practising at it ever
since the Median invasion have not yet brought
it to perfection, is there any chance of anything
considerable being effected by an agricultural,
unseafaring population, who will besides be
prevented from practising by the constant pres-
ence of strong squadrons of observation from
Athens? With a small squadron they might
hazard an engagement, encouraging their
ignorance by numbers; but the restraint of a
strong force will prevent their moving, and
through want of practice they will grow more
clumsy, and consequently more timid. It must
be kept in mind that seamanship, just like any-
thing else, is a matter of art, and will not ad-
mit of being taken up occasionally as an occu-
pation for times of leisure; on the contrary, it
is so exacting as to leave leisure for nothing
else.

[143] "Even if they were to touch the mon-
eys at Olympia or Delphi, and try to seduce
our foreign sailors by the temptation of higher
pay, that would only be a serious danger if we
could not still be a match for them by embark-
ing our own citizens and the aliens resident
among us. But in fact by this means we are
always a match for them; and, best of all, we
have a larger and higher class of native cox-
swains and sailors among our own citizens
than all the rest of Hellas. And to say nothing
of the danger of such a step, none of our for-
eign sailors would consent to become an out-
law from his country, and to take service with
them and their hopes, for the sake of a few
days' high pay.

"This, I think, is a tolerably fair account of
the position of the Peloponnesians; that of
Athens is free from the defects that I have

386

THUCYDIDES

criticized in them, and has other advantages
of its own, which they can show nothing to
equal. If they march against our country we
will sail against theirs, and it will then be
found that the desolation of the whole of At-
tica is not the same as that of even a fraction
of Peloponnese; for they will not be able to
supply the deficiency except by a battle, while
we have plenty of land both on the islands and
the continent. The rule of the sea is indeed a
great matter. Consider for a moment. Suppose
that we were islanders; can you conceive a
more impregnable position? Well, this in fu-
ture should, as far as possible, be our concep-
tion of our position. Dismissing all thought of
our land and houses, we must vigilantly guard
the sea and the city. No irritation that we may
feel for the former must provoke us to a battle
with the numerical superiority of the Pelopon-
nesians. A victory would only be succeeded by
another battle against the same superiority: a
reverse involves the loss of our allies, the source
of our strength, who will not remain quiet a
day after we become unable to march against
them. We must cry not over the loss of houses
and land but of men's lives; since houses and
land do not gain men, but men them. And if
I had thought that I could persuade you, I
would have bid you go out and lay them waste
with your own hands, and show the Pclopon-
ncsians that this at any rate will not make you
submit.

[144] "I have many other reasons to hope for
a favourable issue, if you can consent not to
combine schemes of fresh conquest with the
conduct of the war, and will abstain from wil-
fully involving yourselves in other dangers;
indeed, I am more afraid of our own blunders
than of the enemy's devices. But these matters
shall be explained in another speech, as events
require; for the present dismiss these men
with the answer that we will allow Megara the
use of our market and harbours, when the
Lacedaemonians suspend their alien acts in
favour of us and our allies, there being nothing
in the treaty to prevent either one or the other:

that we will leave the cities independent, if in-
dependent we found them when we made the
treaty, and when the Lacedaemonians grant
to their cities an independence not involving
subservience to Lacedaemonian interests, but
such as each severally may desire: that we are
willing to give the legal satisfaction which our
agreements specify, and that we shall not com-
mence hostilities, but shall resist those who do
commence them. This is an answer agreeable
at once to the rights and the dignity of Athens.
It must be thoroughly understood that war is
a necessity; but that the more readily we accept
it, the less will be the ardour of our opponents,
and that out of the greatest dangers communi-
ties and individuals acquire the greatest glory.
Did not our fathers resist the Medes not only
with resources far different from ours, but even
when those resources had been abandoned;
and more by wisdom than by fortune, more by
daring than by strength, did not they beat off
the barbarian and advance their affairs to their
present height ? We must not fall behind them,
but must resist our enemies in any way and in
every way, and attempt to hand down our
power to our posterity unimpaired."

[145] Such were the words of Pericles. The
Athenians, persuaded of the wisdom of his
advice, voted as he desired, and answered the
Lacedaemonians as he recommended, both on
the separate points and in the general; they
would do nothing on dictation, but were
ready to have the complaints settled in a fair
and impartial manner by the legal method,
which the terms of the truce prescribed. So
the envoys departed home and did not return
again.

[146] These were the charges and differ-
ences existing between the rival powers before
the war, arising immediately from the affair at
Epidamnus and Corcyra. Still intercourse con-
tinued in spite of them, and mutual com-
munication. It was carried on without heralds,
but not without suspicion, as events were oc-
curring which were equivalent to a breach of
the treaty and matter for war.

The Second Book

CHAPTER VI

Beginning of the Peloponnestan War — First In-
vaston of Attica — Funeral Oration of Pertcles

[i] THE war between the Athenians and Pe-
loponnesians and the allies on either side now
really begins. For now all intercourse except
through the medium of heralds ceased, and
hostilities were commenced and prosecuted
without intermission. The history follows the
chronological order of events by summers and
winters.

[2] The thirty years' truce which was en-
tered into after the conquest of Euboea lasted
fourteen years. In the fifteenth, in the forty-
eighth year of the priestess-ship of Chrysis at
Argos, in the ephorate of Aenesias at Sparta,
in the last month but two of the archonship of
Pythodorus at Athens, and six months after
the battle of Potidaea, just at the beginning of
spring, a Theban force a little over three hun-
dred strong, under the command of their
Boeotarchs, Pythangelus, son of Phyleides, and
Diemporus, son of Onctoridcs, about the first
watch of the night, made an armed entry into
Plataea, a town of Boeotia in alliance with
Athens. The gates were opened to them by a
Plataean called Naucleides, who, with his
party, had invited them in, meaning to put to
death the citizens of the opposite party, bring
over the city to Thebes, and thus obtain power
for themselves. This was arranged through
Eurymachus, son of Leontiades, a person of
great influence at Thebes. For Plataea had al-
ways been at variance with Thebes; and the
latter, foreseeing that war was at hand, wished
to surprise her old enemy in time of peace, be-
fore hostilities had actually broken out. Indeed
this was how they got in so easily without
being observed, as no guard had been posted.
After the soldiers had grounded arms in the
market-place, those who had invited them in

387

wished them to set to work at once and go to
their enemies' houses. This, however, the
Thebans refused to do, but determined to
make a conciliatory proclamation, and if pos-
sible to come to a friendly understanding with
the citizens. Their herald accordingly invited
any who wished to resume their old place in
the confederacy of their countrymen to ground
arms with them, for they thought that in this
way the city would readily join them.

[3] On becoming aware of the presence of
the Thebans within their gates, and of the
sudden occupation of the town, the Plataeans
concluded in their alarm that more had entered
than was really the case, the night preventing
their seeing them. They accordingly came to
terms and, accepting the proposal, made no
movement; especially as the Thebans offered
none of them any violence. But somehow or
other, during the negotiations, they discovered
the scanty numbers of the Thebans, and de-
cided that they could easily attack and over-
power them; the mass of the Plataeans being
averse to revolting from Athens. At all events
they resolved to attempt it. Digging through
the party walls of the houses, they thus man-
aged to join each other without being seen
going through the streets, in which they placed
wagons without the beasts in them, to serve as
a barricade, and arranged everything else as
seemed convenient for the occasion. When
everything had been done that circumstances
permitted, they watched their opportunity and
went out of their houses against the enemy. It
was still night, though daybreak was at hand:
in daylight it was thought that their attack
would be met by men full of courage and on
equal terms with their assailants, while in
darkness it would fall upon panic-stricken
troops, who would also be at a disadvantage
from their enemy's knowledge of the locality.
So they made their assault at once, and came to

388

THUCYDIDES

[BOOK ii

close quarters as quickly as they could.

[4] The Thebans, finding themselves out-
witted, immediately closed up to repel all
attacks made upon them. Twice or thrice they
beat back their assailants. But the men shouted
and charged them, the women and slaves
screamed and yelled from the houses and pelt-
ed them with stones and tiles; besides, it had
been raining hard all night; and so at last their
courage gave way, and they turned and fled
through the town. Most of the fugitives were
quite ignorant of the right ways out, and this,
with the mud, and the darkness caused by the
moon being in her last quarter, and the fact
that their pursuers knew their way about and
could easily stop their escape, proved fatal to
many. The only gate open was the one by
which they had entered, and this was shut by
one of the Platacans driving the spike of a
javelin into the bar instead ot the bolt; so that
even here there was no longer any means of
exit. They were now chased all over the town.
Some got on the wall and threw themselves
over, in most cases with a fatal result. One
party managed to find a deserted gate, and ob-
taining an axe from a woman, cut through
the bar; but as they were soon observed only a
few succeeded in getting out. Others were cut
oil in detail in different parts of the city. The
most numerous and compact body rushed into
a large building next to the city wall: the doors
on the side ol the street happened to be open,
and the Thebans fancied that they were the
gates of the town, and that there was a pass-
age right through to the outside. The Pla-
taeans, seeing their enemies in a trap, now con-
sulted whether they should set fire to the build-
ing and burn them just as they were, or
whether there was anything else that they
could do with them; until at length these and
the rest of the Theban survivors found wander-
ing about the town agreed to an uncondi-
tional surrender of themselves and their arms
to the Plataeahs.

[5] While such was the fate of the party in
Plataea, the rest of the Thebans who were to
have joined them with all their forces before
daybreak, in case of anything miscarrying with
the body that had entered, received the news
of the affair on the road, and pressed forward
to their succour. Now Plataea is nearly eight
miles from Thebes, and their march was de-
layed by the rain that had fallen in the night,
for the river Asopus had risen and was not
easy of passage; and so, having to march in the
rain, and being hindered in crossing the river,

they arrived too late, and found the whole
party either slain or captive. When they
learned what had happened, they at once
formed a design against the Plataeans outside
the city. As the attack had been made in time
of peace, and was perfectly unexpected, there
were of course men and stock in the fields; and
the Thebans wished if possible to have some
prisoners to exchange against their country-
men in the town, should any chance to have
been taken alive. Such was their plan. But the
Plataeans suspected their intention almost be-
fore it was formed, and becoming alarmed for
their fellow citizens outside the town, sent a
herald to the Thebans, reproaching them for
their unscrupulous attempt to seize their city
in time of peace, and warning them against
any outrage on those outside. Should the
warning be disregarded, they threatened to
put to death the men they had in their hands,
but added that, on the Thebans retiring from
their territory, they would surrender the pris-
oners to their friends. This is the Theban ac-
count of the matter, and they say that they had
an oath given them. The Plataeans, on the
other hand, do not admit any promise of an
immediate surrender, but make it contingent
upon subsequent negotiation: the oath they
deny altogether. Be this as it may, upon the
Thebans retiring from their territory without
committing any injury, the Plataeans hastily
got in whatever they had in the country and
immediately put the men to death. The pris-
oners were a hundred and eighty in number;
Eurymachus, the person with whom the trai-
tors had negotiated, being one.

[6] This done, the Plataeans sent a mes-
senger to Athens, gave back the dead to the
Thebans under a truce, and arranged things in
the city as seemed best to meet the present
emergency. The Athenians meanwhile, hav-
ing had word of the affair sent them im-
mediately after its occurrence, had instantly
seized all the Boeotians in Attica, and sent a
herald to the Plataeans to forbid their pro-
ceeding to extremities with their Theban pris-
oners without instructions from Athens. The
news of the men's death had of course not
arrived; the first messenger having left Plataea
just when the Thebans entered it, the second
just after their defeat and capture; so there was
no later news. Thus the Athenians sent their
orders in ignorance of the facts; and the herald
on his arrival found the men slain. After this
the Athenians marched to Plataea and brought
in provisions, and left a garrison in the place,

4-n]

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

389

also taking away the women and children and
such of the men as were least efficient.

[7] After the affair at Plataea, the treaty had
been broken by an overt act, and Athens at
once prepared for war, as did also Lacedaemon
and her allies. They resolved to send embas-
sies to the King and to such other of the bar-
barian powers as either party could look to for
assistance, and tried to ally themselves with the
independent states at home. Lacedaemon, in
addition to the existing marine, gave orders to
the states that had declared for her in Italy and
Sicily to build vessels up to a grand total of
five hundred, the quota of each city being de-
termined by its size, and also to provide a
specified sum of money. Till these were ready
they were to remain neutral and to admit single
Athenian ships into their harbours. Athens on
her part reviewed her existing confederacy,
and sent embassies to the places more im-
mediately round Peloponnese — Corcyra, Ce-
phallenia, Acarnania, and Zacynthus — perceiv-
ing that if these could be relied on she could
carry the war all round Peloponnese.

[8] And if both sides nourished the boldest
hopes and put forth their utmost strength for
the war, this was only natural. Zeal is always
at its height at the commencement of an un-
dertaking; and on this particular occasion
Peloponnese and Athens were both full of
young men whose inexperience made them
eager to take up arms, while the rest of Hellas
stood straining with excitement at the conflict
of its leading cities. Everywhere predictions
were being recited and oracles being chanted
by such persons as collect them, and this not
only in the contending cities. Further, some
while before this, there was an earthquake at
Delos, for the first time in the memory of the
Hellenes. This was said and thought to be
ominous of the events impending; indeed,
nothing of the kind that happened was allowed
to pass without remark. The good wishes of
men made greatly for the Lacedaemonians,
especially as they proclaimed themselves the
liberators of Hellas. No private or public effort
that could help them in speech or action was
omitted; each thinking that the cause suffered
wherever he could not himself see to it. So
general was the indignation felt against Ath-
ens, whether by those who wished to escape
from her empire, or were apprehensive of
being absorbed by it. [g] Such were the prep-
arations and such the feelings with which the
contest opened.

The allies of the two belligerents were the

following. These were the allies of Lacedae-
mon: all the Peloponnesians within the Isth-
mus except the Argives and Achaeans, who
were neutral; Pellene being the only Achaean
city that first joined in the war, though her
example was afterwards followed by the rest.
Outside Peloponnese the Megarians, Locrians,
Boeotians, Phocians, Ambraciots, Leucadians,
and Anactorians. Of these, ships were fur-
nished by the Corinthians, Megarians, Sicyo-
nians, Pellenians, Eleans, Ambraciots, and
Leucadians; and cavalry by the Boeotians,
Phocians, and Locrians. The other states sent
infantry. This was the Lacedaemonian con-
federacy. That of Athens comprised the
Chians, Lesbians, Plataeans, the Messenians
in Naupactus, most of the Acarnanians, the
Corcyraeans, Zacynthians, and some tributary
cities in the following countries, viz., Caria
upon the sea with her Dorian neighbours,
Ionia, the Hellespont, the Thracian towns, the
islands lying between Peloponnese and Crete
towards the east, and all the Cyclades except
Melos and Thera. Of these, ships were fur-
nished by Chios, Lesbos, and Corcyra, infantry
and money by the rest. Such were the allies of
either party and their resources for the war.

[10] Immediately after the affair at Plataea,
Lacedaemon sent round orders to the cities in
Peloponnese and the rest of her confederacy to
prepare troops and the provisions requisite for
a foreign campaign, in order to invade Attica.
The several states were ready at the time ap-
pointed and assembled at the Isthmus: the
contingent of each city being two-thirds of its
whole force. After the whole army had mus-
tered, the Lacedaemonian king, Archidamus,
the leader of the expedition, called together the
generals of all the states and the principal
persons and officers, and exhorted them as
follows:

[n] "Peloponnesians and allies, our fathers
made many campaigns both within and with-
out Peloponnese, and the elder men among us
here are not without experience in war. Yet
we have never set out with a larger force than
the present; and if our numbers and efficiency
are remarkable, so also is the power of the
state against which we march. We ought not
then to show ourselves inferior to our ancestors,
or unequal to our own reputation. For the
hopes and attention of all Hellas are bent upon
the present effort, and its sympathy is with the
enemy of the hated Athens. Therefore, num-
erous as the invading army may appear to be,
and certain as some may think it that our ad-

390

THLJCYDIDES

versary will not meet us in the field, this is no
sort of justification for the least negligence
upon the march; but the officers and men of
each particular city should always IK prepared
for the advent of danger in their own quarters.
The course of war cannot he foreseen, and its
attacks are generally dictated by the impulse
of the moment; and where overweening self-
confidence has despised preparation, a wise
apprehension has often been able to make head
against superior numbers. Not that confidence
is out of place in an army of invasion, but in
an enemy's country it should also be accom-
panied by the precautions of apprehension:
troops will by this combination be best in-
spired for dealing a blow, and best secured
against receiving one. In the present instance,
the city against which we arc going, far from
being so impotent for defence, is on the con-
trary most excellently equipped at all points;
so that we have every reason to expect that they
will take the field against us, and that if they
have not set out already before we arc there,
they will certainly do so wlu-n they see us in
their territory wasting and destroying their
property. For men arc always exasperated at
suffering injuries to which they are not ac-
customed, and on seeing them inflicted before
their very eyes; and where least inclined for
reflection, rush with the greatest heat to action.
The Athenians arc the very people ol all others
to do this, as they aspire to rule the rest of the
world, and arc more in the habit oi invading
and ravaging their neighbours* territory, than
of seeing their own treated in the like fashion.
Considering, therefore, the power of the state
against which we are marching, ami the great-
ness of the reputation which, according to the
event, we shall win or lose tor our ancestors
and ourselves, remember as you follow where
you may be led to regard discipline and vigi-
lance as ot the first importance, and to obey
with alacrity the orders transmitted to you; as
nothing contributes ,so much to the credit and
safety of an army as the union of large bodies
by a single discipline."

[12] With this briet speech dismissing the
assembly, Archidamus first sent off Melesip-
pus, son of Diacntus, a Spartan, to Athens, in
case she should be more inclined to submit on
seeing the Peloponnesians actually on the
march. But the Athenians did not admit him
into the city or to their assembly, Pericles hav-
ing already carried a motion against admit-
ting cither herald or embassy from the Lace-
daemonians after they had once marched out.

[BooK II

The herald was accordingly sent away without
an audience, and ordered to be beyond the
frontier that same day; in future, if those who
sent him had a proposition to make, they must
retire to their own territory before they dis-
patched embassies to Athens. An escort was
sent with Melesippus to prevent his holding
communication with any one. When he
reached the frontier and was just going to be
dismissed, he departed with these words: "This
day will be the beginning of great misfortunes
to the Hellenes." As soon as he arrived at the
camp, and Archidamus learnt that the Athe-
nians had still no thoughts of submitting, he
at length began his march, and advanced with
his army into their territory. Meanwhile the
Boeotians, sending their contingent and cavalry
to join the Peloponnesian expedition, went to
Plataca with the remainder and laid waste the
country.

[ijj While the Peloponnesians were still
mustering at the Isthmus, or on the march be-
fore they invaded Attica, Pericles, son of
Xanthippus, one of the ten generals of the
Athenians, finding that the invasion was to
take place, conceived the idea that Archi-
damus, who happened to be his friend, might
possibly pass by his estate without ravaging it.
This he might do, either from a personal wish
to oblige him, or acting under instructions
from Lacedaemon for the purpose of creating
a prejudice against him, as had been before
attempted in the demand for the expulsion
of the accursed family. He accordingly took
the precaution of announcing to the Athe-
nians in the assembly that, although Archi-
damus was his friend, yet this friendship should
not extend to the detriment of the state, and
that in case the enemy should make his houses
and lands an exception to the rest and not
pillage them, he at once gave them up to be
public property, so that they should not bring
him into suspicion. He also gave the citizens
some advice on their present affairs in the
same strain as before. They were to prepare
for the war, and to carry in their property from
the country. They were not to go out to battle,
but to come into the city and guard it, and get
ready their fleet, in which their real strength
lay. They were also to keep a tight rein on their
allies — the strength of Athens being derived
from the money brought in by their payments,
and success in war depending principally upon
conduct and capital. Here they had no reason
to despond. Apart from other sources of in-
come, an average revenue of six hundred tal-

I2-I6]

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

391

ents of silver was drawn from the tribute of the
allies; and there were still six thousand talents
of coined silver in the Acropolis, out of nine
thousand seven hundred that had once been
there, from which the money had been taken
for the porch of the Acropolist the other pub-
lic buildings, and for Potidaea. This did not
include the uncoined gold and silver in pub-
lic and private offerings, the sacred \essels for
the processions and games, the Median spoils,
and similar resources to the amount of five
hundred talents. To this he added the trea-
sures of the other temples. These were by no
means inconsiderable, and might fairly be
used. Nay, if they were ever absolutely driven
to it, they might take even the gold ornaments
of Athene herself; for the statue contained
forty talents of pure gold and it was all re-
movable. This might be used for self-preserva-
tion, and must every penny of it be restored.
Such was their financial position — surely a
satisfactory one. Then they had an army of
thirteen thousand heavy infantry, besides six-
teen thousand more in the garrisons and on
home duty at Athens. This was at first the
number of men on guard in the e\ent of an
invasion: it was composed ot the oldest and
youngest levies and the resident aliens who
had heavy armour. The Phalenc wall ran for
four miles, before it joined that round the city;
and of this List nearly five had a guard, al-
though part of it was left without one, viz.,
that between the Long Wall and the Phalenc.
Then there were the Long Walls to Piraeus, a
distance of some four miles and a half, the out-
er of which was manned. Lastly, the circum-
ference of Piraeus with Munychia was nearly
seven miles and a half; only half of this, how-
ever, was guarded. Pericles also showed them
that they had twelve hundred horse including
mounted archers, with sixteen hundred arch-
ers unmounted, and three hundred galleys fit
for service. Such were the resources of Athens
in the different departments when the Pc-
loponnesian invasion was impending and hos-
tilities were being commenced. Pericles also
urged his usual arguments for expecting a
favourable issue to the war.

[14] The Athenians listened to his advice,
and began to carry in their wives and children
from the country, and all their household
furniture, even to the woodwork of their
houses which they took down. Their sheep
and cattle they sent over to Euboea and the
adjacent islands. But they found it hard
to move, as most of them had been always

used to live in the country.

[15] From very early times this had been
more the case with the Athenians than with
others. Under Cecrops and the first kings, down
to the reign of Theseus, Attica had always con-
sisted ot a number of independent townships,
each with its own town hall and magistrates.
Except in times of danger the king at Athens
was not consulted; in ordinary seasons they car-
ried on their government and settled their af-
fairs without his interference; sometimes even
they waged war against him, as in the case of
the Elcusinians with Eumolpus against Erech-
thcus. In Theseus, however, they had a king of
equal intelligence and power; and one ot the
chief features in his organization of the coun-
try was to abolish the council-chambers and
magistrates of the petty cities, and to merge
them in the single council -chamber and town
hall of the present capital. Individuals might
still enjoy their private property just as before,
but they were henceforth compelled to have
only one political centre, viz., Athens; which
thus counted ,ill the inhabitants ol Attica
among her cili/ens, so that when Theseus
tlied he left a great state behind him. Indeed,
from him dates the Synoecia, or Feast of
Union; which is paid tor by the state, and
which the Athenians still keep in honour of
the goddess. Before tins the city consisted of
the present citadel and the district beneath it
looking rather towards the south. This is
shown by the tact that the temples of the other
deities, l>esidcs that of Athene, are in the cita-
del; and even those that are outside it are
mostly situated in this quarter of the city, as
that of the Olympian Zeus, ot the Pythian
Apollo, of Karth, and of Dionysus in the
Marshes, the same in whose honour the older
Dionysia are to this day celebrated in the
month of Anthestcrion not only by the Athe-
nians but also by their Ionian descendants.
There are also other ancient temples m this
quarter. The fountain too, which, since the
alteration made by the tyrants, has been called
Enncacrounos, or Nine Pipes, but which,
when the spring was open, went by the name
of Calhrhoe, or Fairwater, was in those days,
from being so near, used for the most impor-
tant offices. Indeed, the old fashion of using
the water before marriage and for other sacred
purposes is still kept up. Again, from their old
residence in that quarter, the citadel is still
known among Athenians as the city.

[16] The Athenians thus long lived scat-
tered over Attica in independent townships.

392

THUCYDIDES

[BOOK n

Even after the centralization of Theseus, old
habit still prevailed; and from the early times
down to the present war most Athenians still
lived in the country with their families and
households, and were consequently not at all
inclined to move now, especially as they had
only just restored their establishments after
the Median invasion. Deep was their trouble
and discontent at abandoning their houses and
the heriditary temples of the ancient constitu-
tion, and at having to change their habits of
life and to bid farewell to what each regarded
as his native city.

[I'j] When they arrived at Athens, though
a few had houses of their own to go to, or
could find an asylum with friends or relatives,
by far the greater number had to take up their
dwelling in the parts of the city that were not
built over and in the temples and chapels of
the heroes, except the Acropolis and the tem-
ple of the Eleusinian Demeter and such other
places as were always kept closed. The occu-
pation of the plot of ground lying below the
citadel called the Pelasgian had been forbidden
by a curse; and there was also an ominous frag-
ment of a Pythian oracle which said:

Leave the Pelasgian pat eel desolate,
Woe worth the day that men inhabit it!

Yet this too was now built over in the necessity
of the moment. And in my opinion, if the ora-
cle proved true, it was in the opposite sense to
what was expected. For the misfortunes of the
state did not arise from the unlawful occupa-
tion, but the necessity of the occupation from
the war; and though the god did not mention
this, he foresaw that it would be an evil day for
Athens in which the plot came to be inhabited.
Many also took up their quarters in the towers
of the walls or wherever else they could. For
when they were all come in, the city proved too
small to hold them; though afterwards they
divided the Long Walls and a great part of
Piraeus into lots and settled there. All this
while great attention was being given to the
war; the allies were being mustered, and an
armament of a hundred ships equipped for
Peloponnese. Such was the state of preparation
at Athens.

[18] Meanwhile the army of the Pelopon-
nesians was advancing. The first town they
came to in Attica was Oenoe, where they were
to enter the country. Sitting down before it,
they prepared to assault the wall with engines
and otherwise. Oenoe, standing upon the Athe-
nian and Boeotian border, was of course a

walled town, and was used as a fortress by the
Athenians in time of war. So the Peloponnesi-
ans prepared for their assault, and wasted
some valuable time before the place. This de-
lay brought the gravest censure upon Archi-
damus. Even during the levying of the war he
had gained credit for weakness and Athenian
sympathies by the half measures he had ad-
vocated; and after the army had assembled he
had further injured himself in public estima-
tion by his loitering at the Isthmus and the
slowness with which the rest of the march had
been conducted. But all this was as nothing to
the delay at Oenoe. During this interval the
Athenians were carrying in their property; and
it was the belief of the Peloponnesians that a
quick advance would have found everything
still out, had it not been for his procrastination.
Such was the feeling of the army towards
Archidamus during the siege. But he, it is said,
expected that the Athenians would shrink
from letting their land be wasted, and would
make their submission while it was still unin-
jured; and this was why he waited.

[ i()] But after he had assaulted Oenoe, and
every possible attempt to take it had failed, as
no herald came from Athens, he at last broke
up his camp and invaded Attica. This was
aoout eighty days after the Thcban attempt
upon Plataea, just in the middle of summer,
when the corn was ripe, and Archidamus, son
of Zeuxis, king of Lacedaemon, was in com-
mand. Encamping in Eleusis and the Thriasi-
an plain, they began their ravages, and putting
to flight some Athenian horse at a place called
Rheiti, or the Brooks, they then advanced,
keeping Mount Aegaleus on their right,
through Cropia, until they reached Acharnae,
the largest of the Athenian demes or town-
ships. Sitting down before it, they formed a
camp there, and continued their ravages for a
long while.

[20] The reason why Archidamus remained
in order of battle at Acharnae during this in-
cursion, instead of descending into the plain,
is said to have been this. He hoped that the
Athenians might possibly be tempted by the
multitude of their youth and the unprece-
dented efficiency of their service to come out to
battle and attempt to stop the devastation of
their lands. Accordingly, as they had not met
him at Eleusis or the Thriasian plain, he tried
if they could be provoked to a sally by the
spectacle of a camp at Acharnae. He thought
the place itself a good position for encamping;
and it seemed likely that such an important

17-24 ]

part of the state as the three thousand heavy
infantry of the Acharnians would refuse to sub-
mit to the ruin of their property, and would
force a battle on the rest of the citizens. On the
other hand, should the Athenians not take the
field during this incursion, he could then fear-
lessly ravage the plain in future invasions, and
extend his advance up to the very walls of
Athens. After the Acharnians had lost their
own property they would be less willing to
risk themselves for that of their neighbours;
and so there would be division in the Athenian
counsels. These were the motives of Archi-
damus for remaining at Acharnae.

[21] In the meanwhile, as long as the army
was at Eleusis and the Thriasian plain, hopes
were still entertained of its not advancing any
nearer. It was remembered that Pleistoanax,
son of Pausanias, king of Lacedaemon, had in-
vaded Attica with a Peloponnesian army four-
teen years before, but had retreated without
advancing farther than Eleusis and Thria,
which indeed proved the cause of his exile
from Sparta, as it was thought he had been
bribed to retreat. But when they saw the army
at Acharnae, barely seven miles from Athens,
they lost all patience. The territory of Athens
was being ravaged before the very eyes of the
Athenians, a sight which the young men had
never seen before and the old only in the Medi-
an wars; and it was naturally thought a griev-
ous insult, and the determination was univer-
sal, especially among the young men, to sally
forth and stop it. Knots were formed in the
streets and engaged in hot discussion; for if
the proposed sally was warmly recommended,
it was also in some cases opposed. Oracles of
the most various import were recited by the
collectors, and found eager listeners in one or
other of the disputants. Foremost in pressing
for the sally were the Acharnians, as constitut-
ing no small part of the army of the state, and
as it was their land that was being ravaged. In
short, the whole city was in a most excited
state; Pericles was the object of general indig-
nation; his previous counsels were totally for-
gotten; he was abused for not leading out the
army which he commanded, and was made re-
sponsible for the whole of the public suffering.

[22] He, meanwhile, seeing anger and in-
fatuation just now in the ascendant, and con-
fident of his wisdom in refusing a sally, would
not call either assembly or meeting of the peo-
ple, fearing the fatal results of a debate inspired
by passion and not by prudence. Accordingly
he addressed himself to the defence of the city,

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

393

and kept it as quiet as possible, though he con-
stantly sent out cavalry to prevent raids on the
lands near the city from flying parties of the
enemy. There was a trifling affair at Phrygia
between a squadron of the Athenian horse
with the Thessalians and the Boeotian cavalry;
in which the former had rather the best of it,
until the heavy infantry advanced to the sup-
port of the Boeotians, when the Thessalians
and Athenians were routed and lost a few men,
whose bodies, however, were recovered the
same day without a truce. The next day the
Peloponnesians set up a trophy. Ancient alli-
ance brought the Thessalians to the aid of Ath-
ens; those who came being the Larisaeans,
Pharsalians, Cranonians, Pyrasians, Gyrtoni-
ans, and Pheraeans. The Larisaean command-
ers were Polymedes and Aristonus, two party
leaders in Larisa; the Pharsalian general was
Menon; each of the other cities had also its
own commander.

[23] In the meantime the Peloponnesians,
as the Athenians did not come out to engage
them, broke up from Acharnae and ravaged
some of the demes between Monut Parnes and
Bnlcssus. While they were in Attica the Athe-
nians sent off the hundred ships which they
had been preparing round Peloponnese, with
a thousand heavy infantry and four hundred
archers on board, under the command of Car-
cinus, son of Xenotimus, Proteas, son of Epi-
cles, and Socrates, son of Antigenes. This arm-
ament weighed anchor and started on its
cruise, and the Peloponnesians, after remain-
ing in Attica as long as their provisions lasted,
retired through Boeotia by a different road to
that by which they had entered. As they passed
Oropus they ravaged the territory of Graea,
which is held by the Oropians from Athens,
and reaching Peloponnese broke up to their
resective cities.

After they had retired the Athenians
set guards by land and sea at the points at
which they intended to have regular stations
during the war. They also resolved to set apart
a special fund of a thousand talents from the
moneys in the Acropolis. This was not to be
spent, but the current expenses of the war were
to be otherwise provided for. If any one should
move or put to the vote a proposition for using
the money for any purpose whatever except
that of defending the city in the event of the
enemy bringing a fleet to make an attack by
sea, it should be a capital offence. With this
sum of money they also set aside a special fleet
of one hundred galleys, the best ships of each

394

THUCYDIDES

year, with their captains. None of these were
to be used except with the money and against
the same peril, should such peril arise.

^257 Meanwhile the Athenians in the hun-
dred ships round Peloponnese, reinforced by a
Corcyraean squadron of fifty vessels and some
others of the allies in those parts, cruised about
the coasts and ravaged the country. Among
other places they landed in Laconia and made
an assault upon Methone; there being no garri-
son in the place, and the wall being weak. But
it so happened that Brasidas, son of Tellis, a
Spartan, was in command of a guard for the
defence of the district. Hearing of the attack,
he hurried with a hundred heavy infantry to
the assistance of the besieged, and dashing
through the army of the Athenians, which was
scattered over the country and had its attention
turned to the wall, threw himself into Meth-
one. He lost a few men in making good his
entrance, but saved the place and won the
thanks of Sparta by his exploit, being thus the
first officer who obtained this notice during the
war. The Athenians at once weighed anchor
and continued their cruise. Touching at Pheia
in Elis, they ravaged the country for two days
and defeated a picked force of three hundred
men that had come from the vale of Elis and
the immediate neighbourhood to the rescue.
But a stiff squall came down upon them, and,
not liking to face it in a place where there was
no harbour, most of them got on board their
ships, and doubling Point Ichthys sailed into
the port of Pheia. In the meantime the Mes-
senians, and some others who could not get on
board, marched over by land and took Pheia.
The fleet afterwards sailed round and picked
them up and then put to sea; Pheia being evac-
uated, as the main army of the Eleans had now
come up. The Athenians continued their
cruise, and ravaged other places on the coast.

[26] About the same time the Athenians
sent thirty ships to cruise round Locris and also
to guard Euboea; Cleopompus, sun of Clinias,
being in command. Making descents from the
fleet he ravaged certain places on the sea-coast,
and captured Thronium and took hostages
from it. He also defeated at Alope the Locri-
ans that had assembled to resist him.

[27] During the summer the Athenians also
expelled the Aeginetans with their wives and
children from Aegina, on the ground of their
having been the chief agents in bringing the
war upon them. Besides, Aegina lies so near
Peloponnese that it seemed safer to send col-
onists of their own to hold it, and shortly after-

[BoOK II

wards the settlers were sent out. The banished
Aeginetans found an asylum in Thyrea, which
was given to them by Lacedaemon, not only
on account of her quarrel with Athens, but
also because the Aeginetans had laid her under
obligations at the time of the earthquake and
the revolt of the Helots. The territory of Thy-
rea is on the frontier of Argolis and Laconia,
reaching down to the sea. Those of the Aegine-
tans who did not settle here were scattered
over the rest of Hellas.

[28] The same summer, at the beginning of
a new lunar month, the only time by the way
at which it appears possible, the sun was
eclipsed after noon. After it had assumed the
form of a crescent and some of the stars had
come out, it returned to its natural shape.

[29] During the same summer Nympho-
dorus, son of Pythes, an Abderite, whose sister
Sitalces had married, was made their proxenus
by the Athenians and sent for to Athens. They
had hitherto considered him their enemy; but
he had great influence with Sitalces, and they
wished this prince to become their ally. Si-
talces was the son of Teres and King of the
Thracians. Teres, the father of Sitalces, was
the first to establish the great kingdom of the
Odrysians on a scale quite unknown to the rest
of Thrace, a large portion of the Thracians
being independent. This Tcres is in no way
related to Tereus who married Pandion's
daughter Procne from Athens; nor indeed did
they belong to the same part of Thrace. Tereus
lived in Daulis, part of what is now called
Phocis, but which at that time was inhabited
by Thracians. It was in this land that the wom-
en perpetrated the outrage upon Itys; and
many of the poets when they mention the
nightingale call it the Daulian bird. Besides,
Pandion in contracting an alliance for his
daughter would consider the advantages of
mutual assistance, and would naturally prefer
a match at the above moderate distance to the
journey of many days which separates Athens
from the Odrysians. Again the names are dif-
ferent; and this Teres was king of the Odrysi-
ans, the first by the way who attained to any
power. Sitalces, his son, was now sought as an
ally by the Athenians, who desired his aid in
the reduction of the Thracian towns and of
Perdiccas. Coming to Athens, Nymphodorus
concluded the alliance with Sitalces and made
his son Sadocus an Athenian citizen, and prom-
ised to finish the war in Thrace by persuading
Sitalces to send the Athenians a force of Thra-
cian horse and targeteers. He also reconciled

25-35]

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAK

395

them with Pcrdiccas, and induced them to re-
store Therme to him; upon which Perdiccas
at once joined the Athenians and Phormio in
an expedition against the Chalcidians. Thus
Sitalces, son of Teres, King of the Thracians,
and Perdiccas, son of Alexander, King of the
Macedonians, became allies of Athens.

[30] Meanwhile the Athenians in the hun-
dred vessels were still cruising round Pelopon-
nese. After taking Sollium, a town belonging
to Corinth, and presenting the city and terri-
tory to the Acarnanians of Palaira, they
stormed Astacus, expelled its tyrant Evarchus,
and gained the place for their confederacy.
Next they sailed to the island of Cephallenia
and brought it over without using force.
Cephallenia lies off Acarnania and Leucas, and
consists of four states, the Paleans, Cranians,
Samaeans, and Pronaeans. Not long after-
wards the fleet returned to Athens. [31] To-
wards the autumn of this year the Athenians
invaded the Megand with their whole levy,
resident aliens included, under the command
of Pericles, son of Xanthippus. The Athenians
in the hundred ships round Peloponnese on
their journey home had just reached Aegina,
and hearing that the citizens at home were in
full force at Megara, now sailed over and
joined them. This was without doubt the larg-
est army of Athenians ever assembled, the state
being still in the flower of her strength and yet
unvisited by the plague. Full ten thousand
heavy infantry were in the field, all Athenian
citizens, besides the three thousand before Po-
tidaea. Then the resident aliens who joined in
the incursion were at least three thousand
strong; besides which there was a multitude of
light troops. They ravaged the greater part of
the territory, and then retired. Other incursions
into the Megarid were afterwards made by the
Athenians annually during the war, sometimes
only with cavalry, sometimes with all their
forces. This went on until the capture of Ni-
saea. [32] Atalanta also, the desert island off
the Opuntian coast, was towards the end of
this summer converted into a fortified post by
the Athenians, in order to prevent privateers
issuing from Opus and the rest of Locris and
plundering Euboea. Such were the events of
this summer after the return of the Pelopon-
nesians from Attica.

[33] In the ensuing winter the Acarnanian
Evarchus, wishing to return to Astacus, per-
suaded the Corinthians to sail over with forty
ships and fifteen hundred heavy infantry and
restore him; himself also hiring some merce-

naries. In command of the force were Eupha-
midas, son of Aristonymus, Timoxenus, son
of Timocrates, and Eumachus, son of Chrysis,
who sailed over and restored him and, after
failing in an attempt on some places on the
Acarnanian coast which they were desirous of
gaining, began their voyage home. Coasting
along shore they touched at Cephallenia and
made a descent on the Cranian territory, and
losing some men by the treachery of the Crani-
ans, who fell suddenly upon them after having
agreed to treat, put to sea somewhat hurriedly
and returned home.

[34] In the same winter the Athenians gave
a funeral at the public cost to those who had first
fallen in this war. It was a custom of their an-
cestors, and the manner of it is as follows.
Three days before the ceremony, the bones of
the dead are laid out in a tent which has been
erected; and their friends bring to their rela-
tives such offerings as they please. In the fu-
neral procession cypress coffins are borne in
cars, one for each tribe; the bones of the de-
ceased being placed in the coffin of their tribe.
Among these is carried one empty bier decked
for the missing, that is, for those whose bodies
could not be recovered. Any citizen or stranger
who pleases, joins in the procession: and the
female relatives are there to wail at the burial.
The dead are laid in the public sepulchre in
the Beautiful suburb of the city, in which
those who fall in war are always buried; with
the exception of those slain at Marathon, who
for their singular and extraordinary valour
were interred on the spot where they fell. Af-
ter the bodies have been laid in the earth, a
man chosen by the state, of approved wisdom
and eminent reputation, pronounces over them
an appropriate panegyric; after which all re-
tire. Such is the manner of the burying; and
throughout the whole of the war, whenever
the occasion arose, the established custom was
observed. Meanwhile these were the first that
had fallen, and Pericles, son of Xanthippus,
was chosen to pronounce their eulogium.
When the proper time arrived, he advanced
from the sepulchre to an elevated platform in
order to be heard by as many of the crowd as
possible, and spoke as follows:

[35] "Most of my predecessors in this place
have commended him who made this speech
part of the law, telling us that it is well that it
should be delivered at the burial of those who
fall in battle. For myself, I should have thought
that the worth which had displayed itself in
deeds would be sufficiently rewarded by hon-

396

THUCYDIDES

[BOOK ii

ours also shown by deeds; such as you now see
in this funeral prepared at the people's cost.
And I could have wished that the reputations
of many brave men were not to be imperilled
in the mouth of a single individual, to stand or
fail according as he spoke well or ill. For
it is hard to speak properly upon a subject
where it is even difficult to convince your hear-
ers that you are speaking the truth. On the one
hand, the friend who is familiar with every
fact of the story may think that some point has
not been set forth with that fullness which he
wishes and knows it to deserve; on the other,
he who is a stranger to the matter may be led
by envy to suspect exaggeration if he hears
anything above his own nature. For men can
endure to hear others praised only so long as
they can severally persuade themselves of their
own ability to equal the actions recounted:
when this point is passed, envy comes in and
with it incredulity. However, since our an-
cestors have stamped this custom with their
approval, it becomes my duty to obey the law
and to try to satisfy your several wishes and
opinions as best I may.

[36] "I shall begin with our ancestors: it is
both just and proper that they should have the
honour of the first mention on an occasion
like the present. They dwelt in the country
without break in the succession from genera-
tion to generation, and handed it down free to
the present time by their valour. And if our
more remote ancestors deserve praise, much
more do our own fathers, who added to their
inheritance the empire which we now possess,
and spared no pains to be able to leave their
acquisitions to us of the present generation.
Lastly, there are few parts of our dominions
that have not been augmented by those of us
here, who are still more or less in the vigour of
life; while the mother country has been fur-
nished by us with everything that can enable
her to depend on her own resources whether
for war or for peace. That part of our history
which tells of the military achievements which
gave us our several possessions, or of the ready
valour with which either we or our fathers
stemmed the tide of Hellenic or foreign ag-
gression, is a theme too familiar to my hearers
for me to dilate on, and I shall therefore pass
it by. But what was the road by which we
reached our position, what the form of govern-
ment under which our greatness grew, what
the national habits out of which it sprang;
these are questions which I may try to solve
before I proceed to my panegyric upon these

men; since I think this to be a subject upon
which on the present occasion a speaker may
properly dwell, and to which the whole as-
semblage, whether citizens or foreigners, may
listen with advantage.

[37] "Our constitution does not copy the
laws of neighbouring states; we are rather a
pattern to others than imitators ourselves. Its
administration favours the many instead of the
few; this is why it is called a democracy. If
we look to the laws, they afford equal justice
to all in their private differences; if no social
standing, advancement in public life falls to
reputation for capacity, class considerations not
being allowed to interfere with merit; nor
again does poverty bar the way, if a man is
able to serve the state, he is not hindered by the
obscurity of his condition. The freedom which
we enjoy in our government extends also to
our ordinary life. There, far from exercising a
jealous surveillance over each other, we do not
feel called upon to be angry with our neigh-
bour for doing what he likes, or even to in-
dulge in those injurious looks which cannot
fail to be offensive, although they inflict no
positive penalty. But all this ease in our private
relations does not make us lawless as citizens.
Against this fear is our chief safeguard, teach-
ing us to obey the magistrates and the laws,
particularly such as regard the protection of
the injured, whether they are actually on the
statute book, or belong to that code which, al-
though unwritten, yet cannot be broken with-
out acknowledged disgrace.

[38] "Further, we provide plenty of means
for the mind to refresh itself from business.
We celebrate games and sacrifices all the year
round, and the elegance of our private estab-
lishments forms a daily source of pleasure and
helps to banish the spleen; while the magni-
tude of our city draws the produce of the
world into our harbour, so that to the Athe-
nian the fruits of other countries are as familiar
a luxury as those of his own.

[39] "If we turn to °ur military policy, there
also we differ from our antagonists. We throw
open our city to the world, and never by alien
acts exclude foreigners from any opportunity
of learning or observing, although the eyes of
an enemy may occasionally profit by our lib-
erality; trusting less in system and policy than
to the native spirit of our citizens; while in
education, where our rivals from their very
cradles by a painful discipline seek after man-
liness, at Athens we live exactly as we please,
and yet are just as ready to encounter every

36-42]

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

397

legitimate danger. In proof of this it may be
noticed that the Lacedaemonians do not in-
vade our country alone, but bring with them
all their confederates; while we Athenians ad-
vance unsupported into the territory of a
neighbour, and fighting upon a foreign soil
usually vanquish with ease men who are de-
fending their homes. Our united force was
never yet encountered by any enemy, because
we have at once to attend to our marine anjl
to dispatch our citizens by land upon a hun-
dred different services; so that, wherever they
engage with some such fraction of our
strength, a success against a detachment is
magnified into a victory over the nation, and
a defeat into a reverse suffered at the hands of
our entire people. And yet if with habits not of
labour but of ease, and courage not of art but
of nature, we are still willing to encounter
danger, we have the double advantage of
escaping the experience of hardships in antici-
pation and of facing them in the hour of need
as fearlessly as those who are never free from
them.

"Nor are these the only points in which our
city is worthy of admiration. [40] We cultivate
refinement without extravagance and knowl-
edge without effeminacy; wealth we employ
more for use than for show, and place the
real disgrace of poverty not in owning to the
fact but in declining the struggle against it.
Our public men have, besides politics, their
private affairs to attend to, and our ordinary
citizens, though occupied with the pursuits
of industry, are still fair judges of public mat-
ters; for, unlike any other nation, regarding
him who takes no part in these duties not as
unambitious but as useless, we Athenians are
able to judge at all events if we cannot origi-
nate, and, instead of looking on discussion as
a stumbling-block in the way of action, we
think it an indispensable preliminary to any
wise action at all. Again, in our enterprises we
present the singular spectacle of daring and
deliberation, each carried to its highest point,
and both united in the same persons; although
usually decision is the fruit of ignorance, hesi-
tation of reflection. But the palm of courage
will surely be adjudged most justly to those,
who best know the difference between hard-
ship and pleasure and yet are never tempted to
shrink from danger. In generosity we are
equally singular, acquiring our friends by con-
ferring, not by receiving, favours. Yet, of
course, the doer of the favour is the firmer
friend of the two, in order by continued kind-

ness to keep the recipient in his debt; while the
debtor feels less keenly from the very con-
sciousness that the return he makes will be a
payment, not a free gift. And it is only the
Athenians, who, fearless of consequences, con-
fer their benefits not from calculations of ex-
pediency, but in the confidence of liberality.

[41] "In short, I say that as a city we are the
school of Hellas; while I doubt if the world
can produce a man who, where he has only
himself to depend upon, is equal to so many
emergencies, and graced by so happy a versa-
tility, as the Athenian. And that this is no mere
boast thrown out for the occasion, but plain
matter of fact, the power of the state acquired
by these habits proves.JFor Athens alone of her
contemporaries is found when tested to be
greater than her reputation, and alone gives
no occasion to her assailants to blush at the
antagonist by whom they have been worsted,
or to her subjects to question her title by merit
to rule. Rather, the admiration of the present
and succeeding ages will be ours, since we have
not left our power without witness, but have
shown it by mighty proofs; and far from need-
ing a Homer for our panegyrist, or other of
his craft whose verses might charm for the
moment only for the impression which they
gave to melt at the touch of fact, we have
forced every sea and land to be the highway of
our daring, and everywhere, whether for evil
or for good, have left imperishable monu-
ments behind us. Such is the Athens for which
these men, in the assertion of their resolve not
to lose her, nobly fought and died; and well
may every one of their survivors be ready to
suffer in her cause.

[42] "Indeed if I have dwelt at some length
upon the character of our country, it has been
to show that our stake in the struggle is not
the same as theirs who have no such blessings
to lose, and also that the panegyric of the men
over whom I am now speaking might be by
definite proofs established. That panegyric is
now in a great measure complete; for the
Athens that I have celebrated is only what the
heroism of these and their like have made her,
men whose fame, unlike that of most Hellenes,
will be found to be only commensurate with
their deserts. And if a test of worth be wanted,
it is to be found in their closing scene, and this
not only in the cases in which it set the final
seal upon their merit, but also in those in which
it gave the first intimation of their having any.
For there is justice in the claim that steadfast-
ness in his country's battles should be as a cloak

398

THUCYDIDES

to cover a man's other imperfections; since the
good action has blotted out the bad, and his
merit as a citizen more than outweighed his
demerits as an individual. But none of these
allowed either wealth with its prospect of
future enjoyment to unnerve his spirit, or
poverty with its hope of a day of freedom and
riches to tempt him to shrink from danger.
No, holding that vengeance upon their ene-
mies was more to be desired than any personal
blessings, and reckoning this to be the most
glorious of hazards, they joyfully determined
to accept the risk, to make sure of their ven-
geance, and to let their wishes wait; and while
committing to hope the uncertainty of final
success, in the business before them they
thought fit to act boldly and trust in them-
selves. Thus choosing to die resisting, rather
than to live submitting, they fled only from
dishonour, but met danger face to face, and
after one brief moment, while at the summit
of their fortune, escaped, not from their fear,
but from their glory.

[43] "So died these men as became Athe-
nians. You, their survivors, must determine to
have as unfaltering a resolution in the field,
though you may pray that it may have a hap-
pier issue. And not contented with ideas de-
rived only from words of the advantages which
are bound up with the defence of your country,
though these would furnish a valuable text to
a speaker even before an audience so alive to
them as the present, you must yourselves real-
ize the power of Athens, and feed your eyes
upon her from clay to day, till love of her fills
your hearts; and then, when all her greatness
shall break upon you, you must reflect that it
was by courage, sense of duty, and a keen feel-
ing of honour in action that men were enabled
to win all this, and that no personal failure in
an enterprise could make them consent to
deprive their country of their valour, but they
laid it at her feet as the most glorious contribu-
tion that they could offer. For this offering of
their lives made in common by them all they
each of them individually received that re-
nown which never grows old, and for a sepul-
chre, not so much that in which their bones
have been deposited, but that noblest of shrines
wherein their glory is laid up to be eternally
remembered upon every occasion on which
deed or story shall call for its commemoration.
For heroes have the whole earth for their
tomb; and in lands far from their own, where
the column with its epitaph declares it, there
is enshrined in every breast a record unwritten

[BooK II

with no tablet to preserve it, except that of the
heart. These take as your model and, judging
happiness to be the fruit of freedom and free-
dom of valour, never decline the dangers of
war. For it is not the miserable that would
most justly be unsparing of their lives; these
have nothing to hope for: it is rather they to
whom continued life may bring reverses as yet
unknown, and to whom a fall, if it came,
would be most tremendous in its consequences.
And surely, to a man of spirit, the degradation
of cowardice must be immeasurably more
grievous than the unfelt death which strikes
him in the midst of his strength and patriot-
ism!

[44] "Comfort, therefore, not condolence,
is what I have to offer to the parents of the
dead who may be here. Numberless are the
chances to which, as they know, the life of
man is subject; but fortunate indeed arc they
who draw for their lot a death so glorious as
that which has caused your mourning, and to
whom life has been so exactly measured as
to terminate in the happiness in which it has
been passed. Still I know that this is a hard
saying, especially when those are in question
of whom you will constantly be reminded by
seeing in the homes of others blessings of which
once you also boasted: for grief is felt not so
much for the want of what we have never
known, as for the loss of that to which we
have been long accustomed. Yet you who are
still of an age to beget children must bear up
in the hope of having others in their stead; not
only will they help you to forget those whom
you have lost, but will be to the state at once a
reinforcement and a security; for never can a
fair or just policy be expected of the citizen
who does not, like his fellows, bring to the
decision the interests and apprehensions of a
father. While those of you who have passed
your prime must congratulate yourselves with
the thought that the best part of your life was
fortunate, and that the brief span that remains
will be cheered by the fame of the departed.
For it is only the love of honour that never
grows old; and honour it is, not gain, as some
would have it, that rejoices the heart of age
and helplessness.

[45] "Turning to the sons or brothers of the
dead, I see an arduous struggle before you.
When a man is gone, all are wont to praise
him, and should your merit be ever so tran-
scendent, you will still find it difficult not
merely to overtake, but even to approach their
renown. The living have envy to contend with,

43-49]

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

399

while those who are no longer in our path are
honoured with a goodwill into which rivalry
does not enter. On the other hand, if I must
say anything on the subject of female excel-
lence to those of you who will now be in
widowhood, it will be all comprised in this
brief exhortation. Great will be your glory in
not falling short of your natural character;
and greatest will be hers who is least talked of
among the men, whether for good or for bad.

[46] "My task is now finished. I have p£r-
formed it to the best of my ability, and in
word, at least, the requirements of the law are
now satisfied. If deeds be in question, those
who are here interred have received part of
their honours already, and for the rest, their
children will be brought up till manhood at
the public expense: the state thus offers a
valuable prize, as the garland of victory in this
race of valour, for the reward both of those
who have fallen and their survivors. Ancj
where the rewards for merit arc greatest, there
aTeTound the best citizens.

"AndliowThat you have brought to a close
your lamentations for your relatives, you may
depart."

CHAPTER VII

Second Year of the War — The Plague of Athens

— Position and Policy of Pericles — Fall

of Potidaea

[47] SUCH was the funeral that took place
during this winter, with which the first year
of the war came to an end. In the first days of
summer the Lacedaemonians and their allies,
with two-thirds of their forces as before, in-
vaded Attica, under the command of Archida-
mus, son of Zeuxidamus, King of Lacedaemon,
and sat down and laid waste the country. Not
many days after their arrival in Attica the
plague first began to show itself among the
Athenians. It was said that it had broken
out in many places previously in the neigh-
bourhood of Lemnos and elsewhere; but a
pestilence of such extent and mortality was no-
where remembered. Neither were the physi-
cians at first of any service, ignorant as they
were of the proper way to treat it, but they
died themselves the most thickly, as they visit-
ed the sick most often; nor did any human art
succeed any better. Supplications in the tem-
ples, divinations, and so forth were found
equally futile, till the overwhelming nature of
the disaster at last put a stop to them alto-
gether.

[48] It first began, it is said, in the parts of
Ethiopia above Egypt, and thence descended
into Egypt and Libya and into most of the
King's country. Suddenly falling upon Athens,
it first attacked the population in Piraeus —
which was the occasion of their saying that the
Peloponnesians had poisoned the reservoirs,
there being as yet no wells there — and after-
wards appeared in the upper city, when the
deaths became much more frequent. All specu-
lation as to its origin and its causes, if causes
can be found adequate to produce so great a
disturbance, I leave to other writers, whether
lay or professional; for myself, I shall simply
set down its nature, and explain the symptoms
by which perhaps it may be recognized by the
student, if it should ever break out again. This
I can the better do, as I had the disease myself,
and watched its operation in the case of others.

[49] That year then is admitted to have been
otherwise unprecedentedly free from sickness;
and such few cases as occurred all determined
in this. As a rule, however, there was no
ostensible cause; but people in good health
were all of a sudden attacked by violent heats
in the head, and redness and inflammation in
the eyes, the inward parts, such as the throat
or tongue, becoming bloody and emitting an
unnatural and fetid breath. These symptoms
were followed by sneezing and hoarseness, after
which the pain soon reached the chest, and pro-
duced a hard cough. When it fixed in the stom-
ach, it upset it; and discharges of bile of every
kind named by physicians ensued, accompa-
nied by very great distress. In most cases also
an ineffectual retching followed, producing
violent spasms, which in some cases ceased
soon after, in others much later. Externally the
body was not very hot to the touch, nor pale in
its appearance, but reddish, livid, and breaking
out into small pustules and ulcers. But in-
ternally it burned so that the patient could not
bear to have on him clothing or linen even of
the very lightest description; or indeed to be
otherwise than stark naked. What they would
have liked best would have been to throw
themselves into cold water; as indeed was done
by some of the neglected sick, who plunged
into the rain-tanks in their agonies of un-
quenchable thirst; though it made no differ-
ence whether they drank little or much. Be-
sides this, the miserable feeling of not being
able to rest or sleep never ceased to torment
them. The body meanwhile did not waste away
so long as the distemper was at its height, but
held out to a marvel against its ravages; so that

400

THUCYDIDES

when they succumbed, as in most cases, on the
seventh or eighth day to the internal inflam-
mation, they had still some strength in them.
But if they passed this stage, and the disease
descended further into the bowels, inducing a
violent ulccration there accompanied by severe
diarrhoea, this brought on a weakness which
was generally fatal. For the disorder first
settled in the head, ran its course from thence
through the whole of the body, and, even
where it did not prove mortal, it still left its
mark on the extremities; for it settled in the
privy parts, the fingers and the toes, and many
escaped with the loss of these, some too with
that of their eyes. Others again were seized
with an entire loss of memory on their first re-
covery, and did not know either themselves or
their friends.

[50] But while the nature of the distemper
was such as to baffle all description, and its
attacks almost too grievous for human nature
to endure, it was still in the following circum-
stance that its difference from all ordinary dis-
orders was most clearly shown. All the birds
and beasts that prey upon human bodies, either
abstained from touching them (though there
were many lying unburied), or died after
tasting them. In proof of this, it was noticed
that birds of this kind actually disappeared;
they were not about the bodies, or indeed to
be seen at all. But of course the effects which
I have mentioned could best be studied in a
domestic animal like the dog.

/5/7 Such then, if we pass over the varieties
of particular cases which were many and pe-
culiar, were the general features of the dis-
temper. Meanwhile the town enjoyed an im-
munity from all the ordinary disorders; or if
any case occurred, it ended in this. Some died
in neglect, others in the midst of every atten-
tion. No remedy was found that could be used
as a specific; for what did good in one case, did
harm in another. Strong and weak constitu-
tions proved equally incapable of resistance, all
alike being swept away, although dieted with
the utmost precaution. By far the most terrible
feature in the malady was the dejection which
ensued when any one felt himself sickening,
for the despair into which they instantly fell
took away their power of resistance, and left
them a much easier prey to the disorder; be-
sides which, there was the awful spectacle of
men dying like sheep, through having caught
the infection in nursing each other. This
caused the greatest mortality. On the one hand,
if they were afraid to visit each other, they

[BooK ii

perished from neglect; indeed many houses
were emptied of their inmates for want of a
nurse: on the other, if they ventured to do so,
death was the consequence. This was especially
the case with such as made any pretensions to
goodness: honour made them unsparing of
themselves in their attendance in their friends'
houses, where even the members of the family
were at last worn out by the moans of the dy-
ing, and succumbed to the force of the disaster.
Yet it was with those who had recovered from
the disease that the sick and the dying found
most compassion. These knew what it was
from experience, and had now no fear for
themselves; for the same man was never at-
tacked twice — never at least fatally. And such
persons not only received the congratulations
of others, but themselves also, in the elation of
the moment, half entertained the vain hope
that they were for the future safe from any
disease whatsoever.

[52] An aggravation of the existing calam-
ity was the influx from the country into the
city, and this was especially felt by the new
arrivals. As there were no houses to receive
them, they had to be lodged at the hot season
of the year in stifling cabins, where the mor-
tality raged without restraint. The bodies of
dying men lay one upon another, and half-
dead creatures reeled about the streets and
gathered round all the fountains in their long-
ing for water. The sacred places also in which
they had quartered themselves were full of
corpses of persons that had died there, just as
they were; for as the disaster passed all bounds,
men, not knowing what was to become of
them, became utterly careless of everything,
whether sacred or profane. All the burial rites
before in use were entirely upset, and they
buried the bodies as best they could. Many
from want of the proper appliances, through
so many of their friends having died already,
had recourse to the most shameless sepultures:
sometimes getting the start of those who had
raised a pile, they threw their own dead body
upon the stranger's pyre and ignited it; some-
times they tossed the corpse which they were
carrying on the top of another that was burn-
ing, and so went off.

[53] Nor was this the only form of lawless
extravagance which owed its origin to the
plague. Men now coolly ventured on what they
had formerly done in a corner, and not just as
they pleased, seeing the rapid transitions pro-
duced by persons in prosperity suddenly dying
and those who before had nothing succeeding

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

401

to their property. So they resolved to spend
quickly and enjoy themselves, regarding their
lives and riches as alike things of a day. Per-
severance in what men called honour was
popular with none, it was so uncertain whether
they would be spared to attain the object; but
it was settled that present enjoyment, and all
that contributed to it, was both honourable
and useful. Fear of gods or law of man there
was none to restrain them. As for the first, they
judged it to be just the same whether they w6r-
shipped them or not, as they saw all alike per-
ishing; and for the last, no one expected to live
to be brought to trial for his offences, but each
felt that a far severer sentence had been already
passed upon them all and hung ever over their
heads, and before this fell it was only reason-
able to enjoy life a little.

/5</7 Such was the nature of the calamity,
and heavily did it weigh on the Athenians;
death raging within the city and devastation
without. Among other things which they re-
membered in their distress was, very naturally,
the following verse which the old men said had
long ago been uttered:

A Dorian war shall come and with it death.

So a dispute arose as to whether dearth and not
death had not been the word in the verse; but
at the present juncture, it was of course decided
in favour of the latter; for the people made
their recollection fit in with their sufferings. I
fancy, however, that if another Dorian war
should ever afterwards come upon us, and a
dearth should happen to accompany it, the
verse will probably be read accordingly. The
oracle also which had been given to the Lace-
daemonians was now remembered by those
who knew of it. When the god was asked
whether they should go to war, he answered
that if they put their might into it, victory
would be theirs, and that he would himself be
with them. With this oracle events were sup-
posed to tally. For the plague broke out as soon
as the Peloponnesians invaded Attica, and nev-
er entering Peloponnese (not at least to an ex-
tent worth noticing), committed its worst rav-
ages at Athens, and next to Athens, at the most
populous of the other towns. Such was the his-
tory of the plague.

[55] After ravaging the plain, the Pelopon-
nesians advanced into the Paralian region as
far as Laurium, where the Athenian silver
mines are, and first laid waste the side looking
towards Peloponnese, next that which faces
Euboca and Andros. But Pericles, who was

still general, held the same opinion as in the
former invasion, and would not let the Athe-
nians march out against them.

^567 However, while they were still in the
plain, and had not yet entered the Paralian
land, he had prepared an armament of a hun-
dred ships for Peloponnese, and when all was
ready put out to sea. On board the ships he
took four thousand Athenian heavy infantry,
and three hundred cavalry in horse transports,
and then for the first time made out of old
galleys; fifty Chian and Lesbian vessels also
joining in the expedition. When this Athenian
armament put out to sea, they left the Pelopon-
nesians in Attica in the Paralian region. Ar-
riving at Epidaurus in Peloponnese they rav-
aged most of the territory, and even had hopes
of taking the town by an assault: in this how-
ever they were not successful. Putting out from
Epidaurus, they laid waste the territory of
Troezen, Halieis, and Hermione, all towns on
the coast of Peloponnese, and thence sailing to
Prasiai, a maritime town in Laconia, ravaged
part of its territory, and took and sacked the
place itself; after which they returned home,
but found the Peloponnesians gone and no
longer in Attica.

[57] During the whole time that the Pelo-
ponnesians were in Attica and the Athenians
on the expedition in their ships, men kept dy-
ing of the plague both in the armament and in
Athens. Indeed it was actually asserted that the
departure of the Peloponnesians was hastened
by fear of the disorder; as they heard from de-
serters that it was in the city, and also could
see the burials going on. Yet in this invasion
they remained longer than in any other, and
ravaged the whole country, for they were
about forty days in Attica.

[58] The same summer Hagnon, son of
Nicias, and Cleopompus, son of Clinias, the
colleagues of Pericles, took the armament of
which he had lately made use, and went off
upon an expedition against the Chalcidians in
the direction of Thrace and Potidaea, which
was still under siege. As soon as they arrived,
they brought up their engines against Potidaea
and tried every means of taking it, but did not
succeed either in capturing the city or in doing
anything else worthy of their preparations. For
the plague attacked them here also, and com-
mitted such havoc as to cripple them com-
pletely, even the previously healthy soldiers of
the former expedition catching the infection
from Hagnon's troops; while Phormio and the
sixteen hundred men whom he commanded

402

THUCYDIDES

[BOOK ii

only escaped by being no longer in the neigh-
bourhood of the Chalcidians. The end of it
was that Hagnon returned with his ships to
Athens, having lost one thousand and fifty out
of four thousand heavy infantry in about forty
days; though the soldiers stationed there before
remained in the country and carried on the
siege of Potidaea.

[59] After the second invasion of the Pelo-
ponnesians a change came over the spirit of the
Athenians. Their land had now been twice
laid waste; and war and pestilence at once
pressed heavy upon them. They began to find
fault with Pericles, as the author of the war
and the cause of all their misfortunes, and be-
came eager to come to terms with Lacedaemon,
and actually sent ambassadors thither, who did
not however succeed in their mission. Their
despair was now complete and all vented it-
self upon Pericles. When he saw them exasper-
ated at the present turn of affairs and acting
exactly as he had anticipated, he called an as-
sembly, being (it must be remembered) still
general, with the double object of restoring
confidence and of leading them from these
angry feelings to a calmer and more hopeful
state of mind. He accordingly came forward
and spoke as follows:

[60] "I was not unprepared for the indigna-
tion of which I have been the object, as I know
its causes; and I have called an assembly for
the purpose of reminding you upon certain
points, and of protesting against your being
unreasonably irritated with me, or cowed by
your sufferings. I am of opinion that national
greatness is more for the advantage of private
citizens, than any individual well-being cou-
pled with public humiliation. A man may be
personally ever so well off, and yet if his coun-
try be ruined he must be ruined with it;
whereas a flourishing commonwealth always
affords chances of salvation to unfortunate in-
dividuals. Since then a state can support the
misfortunes of private citizens, while they can-
not support hers, it is surely the duty of every
one to be forward in her defence, and not like
you to be so confounded with your domestic
afflictions as to give up all thoughts of the com-
mon safety, and to blame me for having coun-
selled war and yourselves for having voted it.
And yet if you are angry with me, it is with
one who, as I believe, is second to no man
either in knowledge of the proper policy, or in
the ability to expound it, and who is moreover
not only a patriot but an honest one. A man
possessing that knowledge without that faculty

of exposition might as well have no idea at all
on the matter: if he had both these gifts, but
no love for his country, he would be but a
cold advocate for her interests; while were his
patriotism not proof against bribery, every-
thing would go for a price. So that if you
thought that I was even moderately distin-
guished for these qualities when you took my
advice and went to war, there is certainly no
reason now why I should be charged with hav-
ing done wrong.

[61] "For those of course who have a free
choice in the matter and whose fortunes are
not at stake, war is the greatest of follies. But
if the only choice was between submission
with loss of independence, and danger with
the hope of preserving that independence, in
such a case it is he who will not accept the risk
that deserves blame, not he who will. I am the
same man and do not alter, it is you who
change, since in fact you took my advice while
unhurt, and waited for misfortune to repent
of it; and the apparent error of my policy lies
in the infirmity of your resolution, since the
suffering that it entails is being felt by every
one among you, while its advantage is still re-
mote and obscure to all, and a great and sud-
den reverse having befallen you, your mind is
too much depressed to persevere in your re-
solves. For before what is sudden, unexpected,
and least within calculation, the spirit quails;
and putting all else aside, the plague has cer-
tainly been an emergency of this kind. Born,
however, as you are, citizens of a great state,
and brought up, as you have been, with habits
equal to your birth, you should be ready to
face the greatest disasters and still to keep un-
impaired the lustre of your name. For the
judgment of mankind is as relentless to the
weakness that falls short of a recognized re-
nown, as it is jealous of the arrogance that as-
pires higher than its due. Cease then to grieve
for your private afflictions, and address your-
selves instead to the safety of the common-
wealth.

/62/ "If you shrink before the exertions
which the war makes necessary, and fear that
after all they may not have a happy result, you
know the reasons by which I have often dem-
onstrated to you the groundlessness of your ap-
prehensions. If those are not enough, I will
now reveal an advantage arising from the
greatness of your dominion, which I think has
never yet suggested itself to you, which I never
mentioned in my previous speeches, and which
has so bold a sound that I should scarce advcn-

59-64]

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

403

ture it now, were it not for the unnatural de-
pression which I see around me. You perhaps
think that your empire extends only over your
allies; I will declare to you the truth. The vis-
ible field of action has two parts, land and sea.
In the whole of one of these you are complete-
ly supreme, not merely as far as you use it at
present, but also to what further extent you
may think fit: in fine, your naval resources are
such that your vessels may go where they
please, without the King or any other natiim
on earth being able to stop them. So that al-
though you may think it a great privation to
lose the use ot your land and houses, still you
must see that this power is something widely
different; and instead of fretting on their ac-
count, you should really regard them in the
light of the gardens and other accessories that
embellish a great fortune, and as, in compari-
son, of little moment. You should know too
that liberty preserved by your efforts will easily
recover for us what we have lost, while, the
knee once bowed, even what you have will
pass from you. Your fathers receiving these
possessions not from others, but from them-
selves, did not let slip what their labour had
acquired, but delivered them safe to you; and
in this respect at least you must prove your-
selves their equals, remembering that to lose
what one has got is more disgraceful than to
be balked in getting, and you must confront
your enemies not merely with spirit but with
disdain. Confidence indeed a blissful ignorance
can impart, ay, even to a coward's breast, but
disdain is the privilege of those who, like us,
have been assured by reflection of their superi-
ority to their adversary. And where the chances
are the same, knowledge fortifies courage by
the contempt which is its consequence, its trust
being placed, not in hope, which is the prop
of the desperate, but in a judgment grounded
upon existing resources, whose anticipations
are more to be depended upon.

[63] "Again, your country has a right to
)our services in sustaining the glories of her
position. These are a common source of pride
to you all, and you cannot decline the burdens
of empire and still expect to share its honours.
You should remember also that what you are
lighting against is not merely slavery as an ex-
change for independence, but also loss of em-
pire and danger from the animosities incurred
in its exercise. Besides, to recede is no longer
possible, it indeed any of you in the alarm of
the moment has become enamoured of the
honesty of such an unambitious part. For what

you hold is, to speak somewhat plainly, a tyran-
ny; to take it perhaps was wrong, but to let it
go is unsafe. And men of these retiring views,
making converts of others, would quickly ruin
a state; indeed the result would be the same if
they could live independent by themselves; for
the retiring and unambitious are never secure
without vigorous protectors at their side; in
fine, such qualities are useless to an imperial
city, though they may help a dependency to an
unmolested servitude.

[64] "But you must not be seduced by citi-
zens like these or angry with me — who, if I
voted for war, only did as you did yourselves
— in spite of the enemy having invaded your
country and done what you could be certain
that he would do, if you refused to comply
with his demands; and although besides what
we counted for, the plague has come upon us
— the only point indeed at which our calcula-
tion has been at fault. It is this, I know, that
has had a large share in making me more un-
popular than I should otherwise have been —
quite undeservedly, unless you are also pre-
pared to give me the credit of any success with
which chance may present you. Besides, the
hand of heaven must be borne with resigna-
tion, that of the enemy with fortitude; this was
the old way at Athens, and do not you prevent
it being so still. Remember, too, that if your
country has the greatest name in all the world,
it is because she never bent before disaster; be-
cause she has expended more life and effort in
war than any other city, and has won for her-
self a power greater than any hitherto known,
the memory of which will descend to the latest
posterity; even if now, in obedience to the gen-
eral law of decay, we should ever be forced to
yield, still it will be remembered that we held
rule over more Hellenes than any other Hel-
lenic state, that we sustained the greatest wars
against their united or separate powers, and
inhabited a city unrivalled by any other in re-
sources or magnitude. These glories may incur
the censure of the slow and unambitious; but
in the breast of energy they will awake emu-
lation, and in those who must remain without
them an envious regret. Hatred and unpopu-
larity at the moment have fallen to the lot of all
who have aspired to rule others; but where
odium must be incurred, true wisdom incurs
it for the highest objects. Hatred also is short-
lived; but that which makes the splendour of
the present and the glory of the future remains
for ever unforgotten. Make your decision,
therefore, for glory then and honour now, and

404

THUCYDIDES

[BOOK ii

attain both objects by instant and zealous ef-
fort: do not send heralds to Laccdaemon, and
do not betray any sign of being oppressed by
your present sufferings, since they whose
minds are least sensitive to calamity, and whose
hands are most quick to meet it, are the great-
est men and the greatest communities."

/^57 Such were the arguments by which
Pericles tried to cure the Athenians of their
anger against him and to divert their thoughts
from their immediate afflictions. As a com-
munity he succeeded in convincing them; they
riot only gave up all idea of sending to Lacedae-
mon, but applied themselves with increased
energy to the war; still as private individuals
they could not help smarting under their suf-
ferings, the common people having been de-
prived of the little that they were possessed,
while the higher orders had lost fine properties
with costly establishments and buildings in the
country, and, worst of all, had war instead of
peace. In fact, the public feeling against him
did not subside until he had been fined. Not
long afterwards, however, according to the
way of the multitude, they again elected him
general and committed all their affairs to his
hands, having now become less sensitive to
their private and domestic afflictions, and un-
derstanding that he was the best man of all for
the public necessities. For as long as he was at
the head of the state during the peace, he pur-
sued a moderate and conservative policy; and
in his time its greatness was at its height.
When the war broke out, here also he seems
to have rightly gauged the power of his coun-
try. He outlived its commencement two years
and six months, and the correctness of his
previsions respecting it became better known
by his death. He told them to wait quietly, to
pay attention to their marine, to attempt no
new conquests, and to expose the city to no
hazards during the war, and doing this, prom-
ised them a favourable result. What they did
was the vuy contrary, allowing private ambi-
tions and private interests, in matters apparent-
ly quite foreign to the war, to lead them into
projects unjust both to themselves and to their
allies — projects whose success would only con-
duce to the honour and advantage of private
persons, and whose failure entailed certain dis-
aster on the country in the war. The causes of
this are not far to seek. Pericles indeed, by his
rank, ability, and known integrity, was en-
abled to exercise an independent control over
the multitude — in short, to lead them instead
ot being led by them; for as he never sought

power by improper means, he was never com-
pelled to flatter them, but, on the contrary, en-
joyed so high an estimation that he could
afford to anger them by contradiction. When-
ever he saw them unseasonably and insolently
elated, he would with a word reduce them to
alarm; on the other hand, if they fell victims
to a panic, he could at once restore them to
confidence. In short, what was nominally a de-
mocracy became in his hands government by
the first citizen. With his successors it was
different. More on a level with one another,
and each grasping at supremacy, they ended
by committing even the conduct of state affairs
to the whims of the multitude. This, as might
have been expected in a great and sovereign
state, pioduced a host of blunders, and
amongst them the Sicilian expedition; though
this failed not so much through a miscalcula-
tion of the power of those against whom it was
sent, as through a fault in the senders in not
taking the best measures afterwards to assist
those who had gone out, but choosing rather
to occupy themselves with private cabals for
the leadership of the commons, by which they
not only paralysed operations in the field, but
also first introduced civil discord at home. Yet
after losing most of their fleet besides othei
forces in Sicily, and with faction already domi-
nant in the city, they could still for three years
make head against their original adversaries,
joined not only by the Sicilians, but also by
their own allies nearly all in revolt, and at last
by the King's son, Cyrus, who furnished the
funds for the Peloponnesian navy. Nor did
they finally succumb till they fell the victims of
their own intestine disorders. So superfluously
abundant were the resources from which the
genius of Pericles foresaw an easy triumph in
the war over the unaided forces ot the Pelopon-
nesians.

[66] During the same summer the Lacedae-
monians and their allies made an expedition
with a hundred ships against Zacymhus, an
island lying off the coast of Elis, peopled by a
colony of Achaeans from Peloponnese, and in
alliance with Athens. There were a thousand
Lacedaemonian heavy infantry on board, and
Cnemus, a Spartan, as admiral. They made a
descent from their ships, and ravaged most of
the country; but as the inhabitants would not
submit, they sailed back home.

[6j] At the end of the same summer the
Corinthian Aristeus, Aneristus, Nicolaus, and
Stratodemus, envoys from Lacedaemon, Tima-
goras, a Tegcan, and a private individual

65-70]

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

405

named Pollis from Argos, on their way to Asia
to persuade the King to supply funds and join
in the war, came to Sitalces, son of Teres in
Thrace, with the idea of inducing him, if pos-
sible, to forsake the alliance of Athens and to
march on Potidaea then besieged by an Athe-
nian force, and also of getting conveyed by his
means to their destination across the Helles-
pont to Pharnabazus, who was to send them up
the country to the King. But there chanced to
be with Sitalces some Athenian ambassadors —
Learchus, son of Callimachus, and Ameini-
acles, son of Philemon — who persuaded Sital-
ces' son, Sadocus, the new Athenian citizen, to
put the men into their hands and thus prevent
their crossing over to the King and doing their
part to injure the country of his choice. He ac-
cordingly had them seized, as they were travel-
ling through Thrace to the vessel in which they
were to cross the Hellespont, by a party whom
he had sent on with Learchus and Ameiniades,
and gave orders for their delivery to the Athe-
nian ambassadors, by whom they were brought
to Athens. On their arrival, the Athenians,
afraid that Ansteus, who had been notably the
prime mover in the previous affairs of Poti-
daea and their Thracian possessions, might live
to do them still more mischief if he escaped,
slew them all the same day, without giving
them a trial or hearing the defence which they
wished to offer, and cast their bodies into a pit;
thinking themselves justified in using in re-
taliation the same mode of warfare which the
Lacedaemonians had begun, when they slew
and cast into pits all the Athenian and allied
traders whom they caught on board the mer-
chantmen round Peloponnese. Indeed, at the
outset of the war, the Lacedaemonians butch-
ered as enemies all whom they took on the
sea, whether allies of Athens or neutrals.

[68] About the same time towards the close
of the summer, the Ambraciot forces, with a
number of barbarians that they had raised,
marched against the Amphilochian Argos and
the rest of that country. The origin of their en-
mity against the Argives was this. This Argos
and the rest of Amphilochia were colonized
by Amphilochus, son of Amphiaraus. Dissatis-
fied with the state of affairs at home on his re-
turn thither after the Trojan War, he built this
city in the Ambracian Gulf, and named it Ar-
gos after his own country. This was the largest
town in Amphilochia, and its inhabitants the
most powerful. Under the pressure of misfor-
tune many generations afterwards, they called
in the Ambraciots, their neighbours on the

Amphilochian border, to join their colony; and
it was by this union with the Ambraciots that
they learnt their present Hellenic speech, the
rest of the Amphilochians being barbarians.
After a time the Ambraciots expelled the Ar-
gives and held the city themselves. Upon this
the Amphilochians gave themselves over to the
Acarnanians; and the two together called the
Athenians, who sent them Phormio as general
and thirty ships; upon whose arrival they took
Argos by storm, and made slaves of the Am-
braciots; and the Amphilochians and Acarna-
nians inhabited the town in common. After
this began the alliance between the Athenians
and Acarnanians. The enmity of the Ambra-
ciots against the Argives thus commenced with
the enslavement of their citizens; and after-
wards during the war they collected this arma-
ment among themselves and the Chaonians,
and other of the neighbouring barbarians. Ar-
rived before Argos, they became masters of
the country; but not being successful in their
attacks upon the town, returned home and dis-
persed among their different peoples.

Such were the events of the summer.
[69] The ensuing winter the Athenians sent
twenty ships round Peloponnese, under the
command of Phormio, who stationed himself
at Naupactus and kept watch against any one
sailing in or out of Corinth and the Crissaean
Gulf. Six others went to Caria and Lycia under
Melesander, to collect tribute in those parts,
and also to prevent the Peloponnesian priva-
teers from taking up their station in those
waters and molesting the passage of the mer-
chantmen from Phaselis and Phoenicia and the
adjoining continent. However, Melesander,
going up the country into Lycia with a force of
Athenians from the ships and the allies, was
defeated and killed in battle, with the loss of a
number of his troops.

[jo] The same winter the Potidaeans at
length found themselves no longer able to hold
out against their besiegers. The inroads of the
Peloponnesians into Attica had not had the
desired effect of making the Athenians raise
the siege. Provisions there were none left; and
so far had distress for food gone in Potidaea
that, besides a number of other horrors, in-
stances had even occurred of the people having
eaten one another. So in this extremity they at
last made proposals for capitulating to the
Athenian generals in command against them
— Xenophon, son of Euripides, Hestiodorus,
son of Aristocleides, and Phanomachus, son of
Callimachus. The generals accepted their pro-

406

THUCYDIDES

[BOOK ii

posals, seeing the sufferings of the army in so
exposed a position; besides which the state
had already spent two thousand talents upon
the siege. The terms of the capitulation were
as follows: a free passage out for themselves,
their children, wives and auxiliaries, with one
garment apiece, the women with two, and a
fixed sum of money for their journey. Under
this treaty they went out to Chalcidice and
other places, according as was their power.
The Athenians, however, blamed the generals
for granting terms without instructions from
home, being of opinion that the place would
have had to surrender at discretion. They af-
terwards sent settlers of their own to Potidaea,
and colonized it. Such were the events of the
winter, and so ended the second year of this
war of which Thucydides was the historian.

CHAPTER VIII

Third year of the Wm — Investment of Flataea —

Ntwul [' ic tones of Phoimio— Thiactan Irrup-

tion into Macedonia ttndet Sitalccs

HE next summer the Peloponnesians and
their allies, instead of invading Attica,
marched against Platacn, under the command
of Archidamus, son of Zcuxidamus, king of the
Lacedaemonians. He had encamped his army
and was about to lay waste the country, when
the Plataeans hastened to send envoys to him,
and spoke as follows: " Archidamus and Lace-
daemonians, in invading the Plataean terri-
tory, you do what is wrong in itself, and
worthy neither of yourselves nor of the fathers
who begot you. Pausanias, son of Cleombrotus,
your countryman, after freeing Hellas from
the Medes with the help of those Hellenes who
were willing to undertake the risk of the bat-
tle fought near our city, offered sacrifice to
Zeus the Liberator in the marketplace of Pla-
taca, and calling all the allies together restored
to the Plataeans their city and territory, and
declared it independent and inviolate against
aggression or conquest. Should any such be
attempted, the allies present were to help ac-
cording to their power. Your fathers rewarded
us thus for the courage and patriotism that
we displayed at that perilous epoch; but you
do just the contrary, coming with our bitterest
enemies, the Thebans, to enslave us. We apj
peal, therefore, to the gods to whom the oaths
were then made, to the gods oi your ancestors,
and lastly to those of our country, and call
upon you to refrain from violating our terri-
tory or transgressing the oaths, and to let us

live independent, as Pausanias decreed."

^727 The Plataeans had got thus far when
they were cut short by Archidamus saying:
"There is justice, Plataeans, in what you say,
if you act up to your words. According to the
grant of Pausanias, continue to be independent
yourselves, and join in freeing those of your
fellow countrymen who, after sharing in the
perils of that period, joined in the oaths to you,
and are now subject to the Athenians; for it
is to free them and the rest that all this provi-
sion and war has been made. I could wish that
you would share our labours and abide by the
oaths yourselves; if this is impossible, do what
we have already required of you — remain neu-
tral, enjoying your own; join neither side, but
receive both as friends, neither as allies for the
war. With this we shall be satisfied." Such
were the words of Archidamus. The Platae-
ans, after hearing what he had to say, went
into the city and acquainted the people with
what had passed, and presently returned for
answer that it was impossible for them to do
what he proposed without consulting the Athe-
nians, with whom their children and wives
now were; besides which they had their fears
for the town. After his departure, what was to
prevent the Athenians from coming and tak-
ing it out of their hands, or the Thebans, who
would be included in the oaths, from taking
advantage of the proposed neutrality to make
a second attempt to seize the city? Upon these
points he tried to reassure them by saying:
"You have only to deliver over the city and
houses to us Lacedaemonians, to point out the
boundaries of your land, the number of your
fruit-trees, and whatever else can be numeri-
cally stated, and yourselves to withdraw wher-
ever you like as long as the war shall last.
When it is over we will restore to you what-
ever we received, and in the interim hold it in
trust and keep it in cultivation, paying you a
sufficient allowance."

[73] When they had heard what he had to
say, they re-entered the city, and after con-
sulting with the people said that they wished
first to acquaint the Athenians with this pro-
posal, and in the event of their approving to
accede to it; in the meantime they asked him
to grant them a truce and not to lay waste their
territory. He accordingly granted a truce for
the number of days requisite for the journey,
and meanwhile abstained from ravaging their
territory. The Plataean envoys went to Athens,
and consulted with the Athenians, and re-
turned with the following message to those in

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

407

the city: "The Athenians say, Plataeans, that
they never hitherto, since we became their al-
lies, on any occasion abandoned us to an en-
emy, nor will they now neglect us, but will
help us according to their ability; and they ad-
jure you by the oaths which your fathers swore,
to keep the alliance unaltered."

[74] On the delivery of this message by the
envoys, the Plataeans resolved not to be un-
faithful to the Athenians but to endure, if it
must be, seeing their lands laid waste and a*ny
other trials that might come to them, and not
to send out again, but to answer from the wall
that it was impossible foV them to do as the
Lacedaemonians proposed. As soon as he had
received this answer, King Archidamus pro-
ceeded first to make a solemn appeal to the
gods and heroes of the country in words fol-
lowing: "Ye gods and heroes of the Plataean
territory, be my witnesses that not as aggres-
sors originally, nor until these had first de-
parted from the common oath, did we invade
this land, in which our fathers offered you
their prayers before defeating the Medes, and
which you made auspicious to the Hellenic
arms; nor shall we be aggressors in the meas-
ures to which we may now resort, since we have
made many fair proposals but have not been
successful. Graciously accord that those who
were the first to offend may be punished for it,
and that vengeance may be attained by those
who would righteously inflict it."

[75] After this appeal to the gods Archida-
mus put his army in motion. First he enclosed
the town with a palisade formed of the fruit-
trees which they cut down, to prevent further
egress from Plataea; next they threw up a
mound against the city, hoping that the large-
ness of the force employed would ensure the
speedy reduction of the place. They accordingly
cut down timber from Cithaeron, and built it
up on either side, laying it like lattice-work to
serve as a wall to keep the mound from spread-
ing abroad, and carried to it wood and stones
and earth and whatever other material might
help to complete it. They continued to work
at the mound for seventy days and nights
without intermission, being divided into relief
parties to allow of some being employed in
carrying while others took sleep and refresh-
ment; the Lacedaemonian officer attached to
each contingent keeping the men to the work.
But the Plataeans, observing the progress of
the mound, constructed a wall of wood and
fixed it upon that part of the city wall against
which the mound was being erected, and built

up bricks inside it which they took from the
neighbouring houses. The timbers served to
bind the building together, and to prevent its
becoming weak as it advanced in height; it
had also a covering of skins and hides, which
protected the woodwork against the attacks of
burning missiles and allowed the men to work
in safety. Thus the wall was raised to a great
height, and the mound opposite made no less
rapid progress. The Plataeans also thought of
another expedient; they pulled out part of the
wall upon which the mound abutted, and car-
ried the earth into the city.

[j6] Discovering this the Peloponnesians
twisted up clay in wattles of reed and threw it
into the breach formed in the mound, in order
to give it consistency and prevent its being car-
ried away like the soil. Stopped in this way the
Plataeans changed their mode of operation,
and digging a mine from the town calculated
their way under the mound, and began to car-
ry off its material as before. This went on for
a long while without the enemy outside find-
ing it out, so that for all they threw on the top
their mound made no progress in proportion,
being carried away from beneath and constant-
ly settling down in the vacuum. But the Pla-
taeans, fearing that even thus they might not
be able to hold out against the superior num-
bers of the enemy, had yet another invention.
They stopped working at the large building
in front of the mound, and starting at either
end of it inside from the old low wall, built a
new one in the form of a crescent running in
towards the town; in order that in the event of
the great wall being taken this might remain,
and the enemy have to throw up a fresh
mound against it, and as they advanced within
might not only have their trouble over again,
but also be exposed to missiles on their flanks.
While raising the mound the Peloponnesians
also brought up engines against the city, one
of which was brought up upon the mound
against the great building and shook down a
good piece of it, to the no small alarm of the
Plataeans. Others were advanced against dif-
ferent parts of the wall but were lassoed and
broken by the Plataeans; who also hung up
great beams by long iron chains from either
extremity of two poles laid on the wall and
projecting over it, and drew them up at an
angle whenever any point was threatened by
the engine, and loosing their hold let the beam
go with its chains slack, so that it fell with a
run and snapped off the nose of the battering
ram.

408

THUCYDIDES

After this the Peloponnesians, finding
that their engines effected nothing, and that
their mound was met by the counterwork, con-
cluded that their present means of offence were
unequal to the taking of the city, and prepared
for its circumvallation. First, however, they
determined to try the effects of fire and see
whether they could not, with the help of a
wind, burn the town, as it was not a large one;
indeed they thought of every possible expedi-
ent by which the place might be reduced with-
out the expense of a blockade. They according-
ly brought faggots of brushwood and threw
them from the mound, first into the space be-
tween it and the wall; and this soon becoming
full from the number of hands at work, they
next heaped the faggots up as far into the
town as they could reach from the top, and
then lighted the wood by setting fire to it with
sulphur and pitch. The consequence was a fire
greater than any one had ever yet seen pro-
duced by human agency, though it could not
of course be compared to the spontaneous con-
flagrations sometimes known to occur through
the wind rubbing the branches of a mountain
forest together. And this fire was not only re-
markable for its magnitude, but was also, at
the end of so many perils, within an ace of
proving fatal to the Plataeans; a great part of
the town became entirely inaccessible, and had
a wind blown upon it, in accordance with the
hopes of the enemy, nothing could have saved
them. As it was, there is also a story of heavy
rain and thunder having come on by which the
fire was put out and the danger averted.

[j8] Failing in this last attempt the Pelo-
ponnesians left a portion of their forces on the
spot, dismissing the rest, and built a wall of
circumvallation round the town, dividing the
ground among the various cities present; a
ditch being made within and without the lines,
from which they got their bricks. All being
finished by about the rising of Arcturus, they
left men enough to man half the wall, the rest
being, manned by the Boeotians, and drawing
off their army dispersed to their several cities.
The Plataeans had before sent off their wives
and children and oldest men and the mass of
the non-combatants to Athens; so that the
number of the besieged left in the place com-
prised four hundred of their own citizens,
eighty Athenians, and a hundred and ten
women to bake their bread. This was the sum
total at the commencement of the siege, and
there was no one else within the walls, bond
or free. Such were the arrangements made for

[BOOK ii

the blockade of Plataea.

[79] The same summer and simultaneously
with the expedition against Plataea, the Athe-
nians marched with two thousand heavy in-
fantry and two hundred horse against the
Chalcidians in the direction ot Thrace and the
Bottiaeans, just as the corn was getting ripe,
under the command of Xenophon, son of Euri-
pides, with two colleagues. Arriving before
Spartolus in Bottiaea, they destroyed the corn
and had some hopes of the city coming over
through the intrigues of a faction within. But
those of a different way of thinking had sent
to Olynthus; and a* garrison of heavy infantry
and other troops arrived accordingly. These
issuing from Spartolus were engaged by the
Athenians in front of the town: the Chalcidian
heavy infantry, and some auxiliaries with them,
were beaten and retreated into Spartolus; but
the Chalcidian horse and light troops defeated
the horse and light troops of the Athenians.
The Chalcidians had already a few targeteers
from Crusis, and presently after the battle were
joined by some others from Olynthus; upon
seeing whom the light troops from Spartolus,
emboldened by this accession and by their
previous success, with the help of the Chalcidi-
an horse and the reinforcement just arrived
again attacked the Athenians, who retired
upon the two divisions which they had left
with their baggage. Whenever the Athenians
advanced, their adversary gave way, pressing
them with missiles the instant they began to
retire. The Chalcidian horse also, riding up
and charging them just as they pleased, at last
caused a panic amongst them and routed and
pursued them to a great distance. The Athe-
nians took refuge in Potidaea, and afterwards
recovered their dead under truce, and returned
to Athens with the remnant of their army; four
hundred and thirty men and all the generals
having fallen. The Chalcidians and Bottiaeans
set up a trophy, took up their dead, and dis-
persed to their several cities.

[80] The same summer, not long after this,
the Ambraciots and Chaonians, being desirous
of reducing the whole of Acarnama and de-
taching it from Athens, persuaded the Lacedae-
monians to equip a fleet from their confederacy
and send a thousand heavy infantry to Acar-
nama, representing that, if a combined move-
ment were made by land and sea, the coast
Acarnamans would be unable to march, and
the conquest of Zacynthus and Cephallenia
easily following on the possession of Acar-
nania, the cruise refund Peloponnese would be

77-83]

no longer so convenient for the Athenians. Be-
sides which there was a hope oi taking Nau-
pactus. The Lacedaemonians accordingly at
once sent off a few vessels with Cncmus, who
was still high admiral, and the heavy infantry
on board; and sent round orders for the fleet to
equip as quickly as possible and sail to Leucas.
The Corinthians were the most foiward in
the business; the Ambraciots being a colony
of theirs. While the ships from Corinth, Sicy-
on, and the neighbourhood were getting ready,
and those from Leucas, Anactonum, and Am-
bracia, which had arrived before, were waiting
for them at Leucas, Cnemus and his thousand
heavy infantry had run into the gulf, giving
the slip to Phormio, the commander of the
Athenian squadron stationed oft Naupactus,
and began at once to prepare for the land ex-
pedition. The Hellenic troops with him con-
sisted of the Ambraciots, Lcucadians, and An-
actonans, and the thousand Peloponnesuns
with whom he came; the barbarian of a thou-
sand Chaomans, who, belonging to a nation
that has no king, were led by Photys and Ni-
canor, the two members of the royal family to
whom the chieftainship for that year had been
confided. With the Chaomans came also some
Thesprotians, like them without a king, some
Molossians and Atmtanians led by Sabylin-
thus, the guardian of King Tharyps who was
still a minor, and some Paravacans, under their
king Orocdus, accompanied by a thousand
Orestians, subjects of King Antichus and
placed by him under the command of Oroedus.
There were also a thousand Macedonians sent
by Perdiccas without the knowledge of the
Athenians, but they arrived too late. With this
force Cnemus set out, without waiting for the
fleet from Corinth. Passing through the terri-
tory of Amphilochian Argos, and sacking the
open village of Limnaea, they advanced to
Stratus the Acarnanian capital; this once taken,
the rest of the country, they felt convinced,
would speedily follow.

[81] The Acarnanians, finding themselves
invaded by a large army by land, and from
the sea threatened by a hostile fleet, made no
combined attempt at resistance, but remained
to defend their homes, and sent for help to
Phormio, who replied that, when a fleet was
on the point of sailing from Corinth, it was
impossible for him to leave Naupactus unpro-
tected. The Peloponnesians meanwhile and
their allies advanced upon Stratus in three di-
visions, with the intention of encamping near
it and attempting the wall by force if they

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

409

failed to succeed by negotiation. The order of
march was as follows: the centre was occupied
by the Chaonians and the rest of the barbari-
ans, with the Leucadians and Anactorians and
their followers on the right, and Cnemus with
the Peloponnesians and Ambraciots on the left;
each division being a long way off from, and
sometimes even out of sight of, the others. The
Hellenes advanced in good order, keeping a
look-out till they encamped in a good position;
but the Chaonians, filled with self-confidence,
and having the highest character for courage
among the tribes of that part of the continent,
without waiting to occupy their camp, rushed
on with the rest of the barbarians, in the idea
that they should take the town by assault and
obtain the sole glory of the enterprise. While
they were coming on, the Stratians, becoming
aware how things stood, and thinking that the
defeat of this division would considerably dis-
hearten the Hellenes behind it, occupied the
environs of the town with ambuscades, and as
soon as they approached engaged them at close
quarters from the city and the ambuscades. A
panic seizing the Chaomans, great numbers of
them were slain, and as soon as they were seen
to give way the rest of the barbarians turned
and fled. Owing to the distance by which their
allies had preceded them, neither oi the Hel-
lenic divisions knew anything of the battle, but
fancied they were hastening on to encamp.
However, when the flying barbarians broke in
upon them, they opened their ranks to receive
them, brought their divisions together, and
stopped quiet where they were for the day; the
Stratians not offering to engage them, as the
rest of the Acarnanians had not yet arrived, but
contenting themselves with slinging at them
from a distance, which distressed them greatly,
as there was no stirring without their armour.
The Acarnanians would seem to excel in this
mode of warfare.

[82] As soon as night fell, Cnemus hastily
drew off his army to the river Annpus, about
nine miles from Stratus, recovering his dead
next day under truce, and being there joined
by the friendly Oemadae, fell back upon their
city before the enemy's reinforcements came
up. From hence each returned home; and the
Stratians set up a trophy for the battle with
the barbarians.

[83] Meanwhile the fleet from Corinth and
the rest of the confederates in the Crissaean
Gulf, which was to have co-operated with
Cnemus and prevented the coast Acarnanians
from joining their countrymen in the inteiior,

410

THUCYDIDES

[BOOK ii

was disabled from doing so by being com-
pelled about the same time as the battle at
Stratus to fight with Phormio and the twenty
Athenian vessels stationed at Naupactus. For
they were watched, as they coasted along out
of the gulf, by Phormio, who wished to at-
tack in the open sea. But the Corinthians and
allies had started for Acarnania without any
idea of fighting at sea, and with vessels more
like transports for carrying soldiers; besides
which, they never dreamed of the twenty
Athenian ships venturing to engage their forty-
seven. However, while they were coasting
along their own shore, there were the Atheni-
ans sailing along in line with them; and when
they tried to cross over from Patrae in Achaea
to the mainland on the other side, on their way
to Acarnania, they saw them again coming out
from Chalcis and the river Evenus to meet
them. They slipped from their moorings in the
night, but were observed, and were at length
compelled to fight in mid passage. Each state
that contributed to the armament had its own
general; the Corinthian commanders were
Machaon, Isocratcs, and Agatharchidas. The
Peloponnesians ranged their vessels in as large
a circle as possible without leaving an opening,
with the prows outside and the sterns in; and
placed within all the small craft in company,
and their five best sailers to issue out at a mo-
ment's notice and strengthen any point threat-
ened by the enemy.

[84] The Athenians, formed in line, sailed
round and round them, and forced them to
contract their circle, by continually brushing
past and making as though they would attack
at once, having been previously cautioned by
Phormio not to do so till he gave the signal.
His hope was that the Peloponnesians would
not retain their order like a force on shore, but
that the ships would fall foul of one another
and the small craft cause confusion; and if
the wind should blow from the gulf (in ex-
pectation of which he kept sailing round them,
and which usually rose towards morning), they
would not, he felt sure, remain steady an in-
stant. He also thought that it rested with him
to attack when he pleased, as his ships were
better sailers, and that an attack timed by the
coming of the wind would tell best. When the
wind came down, the enemy's ships were now
in a narrow space, and what with the wind
and the small craft dashing against them, at
once fell into confusion: ship fell foul of ship,
while the crews were pushing them off with
poles, and by their shouting, swearing, and

struggling with one another, made captains'
orders and boatswains' cries alike inaudible,
and through being unable for want of practice
to clear their oars in the rough water, prevent-
ed the vessels from obeying their helmsmen
properly. At this moment Phormio gave the
signal, and the Athenians attacked. Sinking
first one of the admirals, they then disabled all
they came across, so that no one thought of re-
sistance for the confusion, but fled for Patrae
and Dyme in Achaea. The Athenians gave
chase and captured twelve ships, and taking
most of the men out of them sailed to Moly-
crium, and after setting up a trophy on the
promontory of Rhium and dedicating a ship
to Poseidon, returned to Naupactus. As for the
Peloponnesians, they at once sailed with their
remaining ships along the coast from Dyme
and Patrae to Cyllene, the Eleian arsenal;
where Cnemus, and the ships from Leucas that
were to have joined them, also arrived after
the battle at Stratus.

[85] The Lacedaemonians now sent to the
fleet to Cnemus three commissioners — Timo-
crates, Bradidas, and Lycophron — with orders
to prepare to engage again with better fortune,
and not to be driven from the sea by a few
vessels; for they could not at all account for
their discomfiture, the less so as it was their
first attempt at sea; and they fancied that it
was not that their marine was so inferior, but
that there had been misconduct somewhere,
not considering the long experience of the
Athenians as compared with the little practice
which they had had themselves. The commis-
sioners were accordingly sent in anger. As soon
as they arrived they set to work with Cnemus
to order ships from the different states, and
to put those which they already had in fighting
order. Meanwhile Phormio sent word to Ath-
ens of their preparations and his own victory,
and desired as many ships as possible to IDC
speedily sent to him, as he stood in daily ex-
pectation of a battle. Twenty were accordingly
sent, but instructions were given to their com-
mander to go first to Crete. For Nicias, a
Cretan of Gortys, who was proxenus of the
Athenians, had persuaded them to sail against
Cydonia, promising to procure the reduction of
that hostile town; his real wish being to oblige
the Polichnitans, neighbours of the Cydomans.
He accordingly went with the ships to Crete,
and, accompanied by the Polichnitans, laid
waste the lands of the Cydonians; and, what
with adverse winds and stress of weather,
wasted no little time there.

84-89]

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

411

[86] While the Athenians were thus de-
tained in Crete, the Peloponnesians in Cyllene
got ready for battle, and coasted along to Pa-
normus in Achaea, where their land army had
come to support them. Phormio also coasted
along to Molycrian Rhium, and anchored out-
side it with twenty ships, the same as he had
fought with before. This Rhium was friendly
to the Athenians. The other, in Peloponnese,
lies opposite to it; the sea between them is
about three-quarters of a mile broad, and
forms the mouth of the Crissaean gulf. At this,
the Achaean Rhium, not far off Panormus,
where their army lay, the Peloponnesians now
cast anchor with seventy-seven ships, when they
saw the Athenians do so. For six or seven days
they remained opposite each other, practising
and preparing for the battle; the one resolved
not to sail out of the Rhia into the open sea,
for fear of the disaster which had already hap-
pened to them, the other not to sail into the
straits, thinking it advantageous to the enemy
to fight in the narrows. At last Cnemus and
Brasidas and the rest of the Peloponnesian
commanders, being desirous of bringing on a
battle as soon as possible, before reinforcements
should arrive from Athens, and noticing that
the men were most of them cowed by the pre-
vious defeat and out of heart for the business,
first called them together and encouraged
them as follows:

[8j] "Peloponnesians, the late engagement,
which may have made some of you afraid of
the one now in prospect, really gives no just
ground for apprehension. Preparation for it,
as you know, there was little enough; and the
object of our voyage was not so much to fight
at sea as an expedition by land. Besides this,
the chances of war were largely against us;
and perhaps also inexperience had something
to do with our failure in our first naval action.
It was not, therefore, cowardice that produced
our defeat, nor ought the determination which
force has not quelled, but which still has a
word to say with its adversary, to lose its edge
from the result of an accident; but admitting
the possibility of a chance miscarriage, we
should know that brave hearts must be always
brave, and while they remain so can never put
forward inexperience as an excuse for miscon-
duct. Nor are you so behind the enemy in ex-
perience as you are ahead of him in courage;
and although the science of your opponents
would, if valour accompanied it, have also the
presence of mind to carry out at in emergency
the lesson it has learnt, yet a faint heart will

make all art powerless in the face of danger.
For fear takes away presence of mind, and
without valour art is useless. Against their su-
perior experience set your superior daring, and
against the fear induced by defeat the fact of
your having been then unprepared; remember,
too, that you have always the advantage of su-
perior numbers, and of engaging off your own
coast, supported by your heavy infantry; and
as a rule, numbers and equipment give victory.
At no point, therefore, is defeat likely; and as
for our previous mistakes, the very fact of their
occurrence will teach us better for the future.
Steersmen and sailors may, therefore, confi-
dently attend to their several duties, none
quitting the station assigned to them: as for
ourselves, we promise to prepare for the en-
gagement at least as well as your previous com-
manders, and to give no excuse for any one
misconducting himself. Should any insist on
doing so, he shall meet with the punishment he
deserves, while the brave shall be honoured
with the appropriate rewards of valour."

[88] The Peloponnesian commanders en-
couraged their men after this fashion. Phor-
mio, meanwhile, being himself not without
fears for the courage of his men, and noticing
that they were forming in groups among them-
selves and were alarmed at the odds against
them, desired to call them together and give
them confidence and counsel in the present
emergency. He had before continually told
them, and had accustomed their minds to the
idea, that there was no numerical superiority
that they could not face; and the men them-
selves had long been persuaded that Atheni-
ans need never retire before any quantity of
Peloponnesian vessels. At the moment, how-
ever, he saw that they were dispirited by the
sight before them, and wishing to refresh their
confidence, called them together and spoke as
follows:

[89] "I see, my men, that you are frightened
by the number of the enemy, and I have ac-
cordingly called you together, not liking you
to be afraid of what is not really terrible. In the
first place, the Peloponnesians, already defeat-
ed, and not even themselves thinking that they
are a match for us, have not ventured to meet
us on equal terms, but have equipped this mul-
titude of ships against us. Next, as to that
upon which they most rely, the courage which
they suppose constitutional to them, their con-
fidence here only arises from the success which
their experience in land service usually gives
them, and which they fancy will do the same

412

THUCYDIDES

for them at sea. But this advantage will in all
justice belong to us on this element, if to them
on that; as they are not superior to us in cour-
age, but we are each of us more confident, ac-
cording to our experience in our particular de-
partment. Besides, as the Lacedaemonians use
their supremacy over their allies to promote
their own glory, they are most of them being
brought into danger against their will, or they
would never, after such a decided defeat, have
ventured upon a fresh engagement. You need
not, therefore, be afraid of their dash. You, on
the contrary, inspire a much greater and better
founded alarm, both because of your late vic-
tory and also of their belief that we should not
face them unless about to do something worthy
of a success so signal. An adversary numerical-
ly superior, like the one before us, comes into
action trusting more to strength than to resolu-
tion; while he who voluntarily confronts tre-
mendous odds must have very great internal
resources to draw upon. For these reasons the
Peloponnesians fear our irrational audacity
more than they would ever have done a more
commensurate preparation. Besides, many ar-
maments have betore now succumbed to an
inferior through want or skill or sometimes of
courage; neither of which defects certainly arc
ours. As to the battle, it shall not be, if I can
help it, in the strait, nor will I sail in there at
all; seeing that in a contest between a number
of clumsily managed vessels and a small, fast,
well-handled squadron, want of sea room is an
undoubted disadvantage. One cannot run
down an enemy properly without having a
sight of him a good way off, nor can one re-
tire at need when pressed; one can neither
break the line nor return upon his rear, the
proper tactics ior a tast sailer; but the naval
action necessarily becomes a land one, in which
numbers must decide the matter. For all this
I will provide as far as can be. Do you stay at
your posts by your ships, and be sharp at
catching the word of command, the more so
as we are observing one another from so short
a distance; and in action think order and si-
lence all-important — qualities useful in war
generally, and in naval engagements in par-
ticular; and behave before the enemy in a man-
ner worthy of your past exploits. The issues
you will fight for are great — to destroy the
naval hopes of the Peloponnesians or to bring
nearer to the Athenians their fears for the sea.
And I may once more remind you that you
have defeated most of them already; and
beaten men do not face a danger twice

[BooK II

with the same determination."

[go] Such was the exhortation of Phormio.
The Peloponnesians finding that the Athenians
did not sail into the gulf and the narrows, in
order to lead them in whether they wished it
or not, put out at dawn, and forming four
abreast, sailed inside the gulf in the direction
of their own country, the right wing leading
as they had lain at anchor. In this wing were
placed twenty of their best sailers; so that in
the event of Phormio thinking that their object
was Naupactus, and coasting along thither to
save the place, the Athenians might not be able
to escape their onset by getting outside their
wing, but might be cut off by the vessels in
question. As they expected, Phormio, in alarm
for the place at that moment emptied of its
garrison, as soon as he saw them put out, re-
luctantly and hurriedly embarked and sailed
along shore; the Messeman land forces moving
along also to support him. The Peloponnesians
seeing him coasting along with his ships in
single file, and by this inside the gulf and close
inshore as they so much wished, at one signal
tacked suddenly and bore down in line at their
best speed on the Athenians, hoping to cut
ofT the whole squadron. The eleven leading
vessels, however, escaped the Peloponnesian
wing and its sudden movement, and reached
the more open water; but the rest were over-
taken as they tried to run through, driven
ashore and disabled; such of the crews being
slam as had not swum out of them. Some of
the ships the Peloponnesians lashed to their
own, and towed off empty; one they took with
the men m it; others were just being towed off,
when they were saved by the Messenians dash-
ing into the sea with their armour and fighting
from the decks that they had boarded.

[yi] Thus far victory was with the Pelopon-
nesians, and the Athenian fleet destroyed; the
twenty ships in the right wing being mean-
while in chase of the eleven Athenian vessels
that had escaped their sudden movement and
reached the more open water. These, with the
exception of one ship, all outsailed them and
got safe into Naupactus, and forming close in-
shore opposite the temple of Apollo, with their
prows facing the enemy, prepared to defend
themselves in case the Peloponnesians should
sail inshore against them. After a while the
Peloponnesians came up, chanting the paean
for their victory as they sailed on; the single
Athenian ship remaining being chased by a
Leucadian far ahead of the rest. But there hap-
pened to be a merchantman lying at anchor

9°-95]

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

413

m the roadstead, which the Athenian ship
found time to sail round, and struck the Leu-
cadian in chase amidships and sank her. An
exploit so sudden and unexpected produced a
panic among the Peloponnesians; and having
fallen out of order in the excitement of victory,
some of them dropped their oars and stopped
their way in order to let the main body come
up — an unsafe thing to do considering how
near they were to the enemy's prows; while
others ran aground in the shallows, in their ig-
norance of the localities.

^927 Elated at this incident, the Athenians
at one word gave a cheer, and dashed at the
enemy, who, embarrassed by his mistakes and
the disorder in which he found himself, only
stood for an instant, and then fled for Panor-
mus, whence he had put out. The Athenians
following on his heels took the six vessels near-
est them, and recovered those of their own
which had been disabled close inshore and
taken in tow at the beginning of the action;
they killed some of the crews and took some
prisoners. On board the Leucadian which
went down of? the merchantman, was the La-
cedaemonian Timocrates, who killed himself
when the ship was sunk, and was cast up in
the harbour of Naupactus. The Athenians on
their return set up a trophy on the spot from
which they had put out and turned the day,
and picking up the wrecks and dead that were
on their shore, gave back to the enemy their
dead under truce. The Peloponnesians also
set up a trophy as victors for the defeat in-
flicted upon the ships they had disabled in
shore, and dedicated the vessel which they had
taken at Achaean Rhium, side by side with
the trophy. After this, apprehensive of the re-
inforcement expected from Athens, all except
the Leucadians sailed into the Crissaean Gulf
for Corinth. Not long after their retreat, the
twenty Athenian ships, which were to have
joined Phormio before the battle, arrived at
Naupactus.

Thus the summer ended. [93] Winter was
now at hand; but dispersing the fleet, which
had retired to Corinth and the Crissaean Gulf,
Cnemus, Brasidas, and the other Peloponnesi-
an captains allowed themselves to be persuad-
ed by the Megarians to make an attempt upon
Piraeus, the port of Athens, which from her
decided superiority at sea had been naturally
left unguarded and open. Their plan was as
follows: The men were each to take their oar,
cushion, and rowlock thong, and, going over-
land from Corinth to the sea on the Athenian

side, to get to Megara as quickly as they could,
and launching forty vessels, which happened
to be in the docks at Nisaea, to sail at once to
Piraeus. There was no fleet on the look-out in
the harbour, and no one had the least idea of
the enemy attempting a surprise; while an
open attack would, it was thought, never be
deliberately ventured on, or, if in contempla-
tion, would be speedily known at Athens.
Their plan formed, the next step was to put it
in execution. Arriving by night and launching
the vessels from Nisaea, they sailed, not to
Piraeus as they had originally intended, being
afraid of the risk, besides which there was
some talk of a wind having stopped them, but
to the point of Salamis that looks towards Me-
gara; where there was a fort and a squadron
of three ships to prevent anything sailing in or
out of Megara. This fort they assaulted, and
towed off the galleys empty, and surprising the
inhabitants began to lay waste the rest of the
island.

[94] Meanwhile fire signals were raised to
alarm Athens, and a panic ensued there as seri-
ous as any that occurred during the war. The
idea in the city was that the enemy had already
sailed into Piraeus: in Piraeus it was thought
that they had taken Salamis and might at any
moment arrive in the port; as indeed might
easily have been done if their hearts had been
a little firmer: certainly no wind would have
prevented them. As soon as day broke, the
Athenians assembled in full force, launched
their ships, and embarking in haste and up-
roar went with the fleet to Salamis, while
their soldiery mounted guard in Piraeus. The
Peloponnesians, on becoming aware of the
coming relief, after they had overrun most of
Salamis, hastily sailed off with their plunder
and captives and the three ships from Fort
Budorum to Nisaea; the state of their ships
also causing them some anxiety, as it was a
long while since they had been launched, and
they were not water-tight. Arrived at Megara,
they returned back on foot to Corinth. The
Athenians finding them no longer at Salamis,
sailed back themselves; and after this made ar-
rangements for guarding Piraeus more dili-
gently in future, by closing the harbours, and
by other suitable precautions.

[95] About the same time, at the beginning
of this winter, Sitalces, son of Teres, the
Odrysian king of Thrace, made an expedition
against Perdiccas, son of Alexander, king of
Macedonia, and the Chalcidians in the neigh-
bourhood of Thrace; his object being to en-

414

THUCYDIDES

force one promise and fulfil another. On the
one hand Perdiccas had made him a promise,
when hard pressed at the commencement of
the war, upon condition that Sitalces should
reconcile the Athenians to him and not at-
tempt to restore his brother and enemy, the
pretender Philip, but had not offered to fulfil
his engagement; on the other he, Sitalces, on
entering into alliance with the Athenians, had
agreed to put an end to the Chalcidian war in
Thrace. These were the two objects of his in-
vasion. With him he brought Amyntas, the son
of Philip, whom he destined for the throne of
Macedonia, and some Athenian envoys then
at his court on this business, and Hagnon as
general; for the Athenians were to join him
against the Chalcidians with a fleet and as
many soldiers as they could get together.

[96] Beginning with the Odrysians, he first
called out the Thracian tribes subject to him
between Mounts Haemus and Rhodope and
the Euxine and Hellespont; next the Getae be-
yond Haemus, and the other hordes settled
south of the Danube in the neighbourhood of
the Euxine, who, like the Getae, border on the
Scythians and are armed in the same manner,
being all mounted archers. Besides these he
summoned many of the hill Thracian inde-
pendent swordsmen, called Dn and mostly in-
habiting Mount Rhodope, some of whom
came as mercenaries, others as volunteers; also
the Agrianes and Laeaeans, and the rest of the
Paeonian tribes in his empire, at the confines
of which these lay, extending up to the Lae-
aean Paeonians and the river Strymon, which
flows from Mount Scombrus through the
country of the Agriancs and Laeaeans; there
the empire ot Sitalces ends and the territory of
the independent Paeonians begins. Bordering
on the Triballi, also independent, were the
Treres and Tilataeans, who dwell to the north
of Mount Scombrus and extend towards the
setting sun as far as the river Oskius. This
river rises in the same mountains as the Nestus
and Hebrus, a wild and extensive range con-
nected with Rhodope.

^977 The empire of the Odrysians extended
along the seaboard from Abdera to the mouth
of the Danube in the Euxine. The navigation
of this coast by the shortest route takes a mer-
chantman four days and four nights with a
wind astern the whole way: by land an active
man, travelling by the shortest road, can get
trom Abdera to the Danube in eleven days.
Such was the length of its coast line. Inland
trom Byzantium to the Laeaeans and the Stry-

[BooK II

mon, the farthest limit of its extension into the
interior, it is a journey of thirteen days for an
active man. The tribute from all the barbarian
districts and the Hellenic cities, taking what
they brought in under Seuthes, the successor of
Sitalces, who raised it to its greatest height,
amounted to about four hundred talents in
gold and silver. There were also presents in
gold and silver to a no less amount, besides
stuff, plain and embroidered, and other ar-
ticles, made not only for the king, but also for
the Odrysian lords and nobles. For there was
here established a custom opposite to that pre-
vailing in the Persian kingdom, namely, of
taking rather than giving; more disgrace being
attached to not giving when asked than to
asking and being refused; and although this
prevailed elsewhere in Thrace, it was practised
most extensively among the powerful Odrysi-
ans, it being impossible to get anything done
without a present. It was thus a very powerful
kingdom; in revenue and general prosperity
surpassing all in Europe between the Ionian
Gulf and the Euxine, and in numbers and mili-
tary resources coming decidedly next to the
Scythians, with whom indeed no people in
Europe can bear comparison, there not being
even in Asia any nation singly a match for
them if unanimous, though of course they are
not on a level with other races in general in-
telligence and the arts of civilized life.

[98] It was the master of this empire that
now prepared to take the field. When every-
thing was ready, he set out on his march for
Macedonia, first through his own dominions,
next over the desolate range of Cercme that di-
vides the Sintians and Paeonians, crossing by
a road which he had made by felling the timber
on a former campaign against the latter people.
Passing over these mountains, with the Pae-
onians on his right and the Sintians and Mae-
dians on the left, he finally arrived at Doberus,
in Paeonia, losing none of his army on the
march, except perhaps by sickness, but receiv-
ing some augmentations, many of the inde-
pendent Thracians volunteering to join him
in the hope of plunder; so that the whole is
said to have formed a grand total of a hundred
and fifty thousand. Most of this was infantry,
though there was about a third cavalry, fur-
nished principally by the Odrysians themselves
and next to them by the Getae. The most war-
like of the infantry were the independent
swordsmen who came down from Rhodope ; the
rest of the mixed multitude that followed him
being chiefly formidable by their numbers.

96-102]

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

41S

/997 Assembling in Doberus, they prepared
for descending from the heights upon Lower
Macedonia, where the dominions of Perdiccas
lay; for the Lynccstae, Elimiots, and other
tribes more inland, though Macedonians by
blood, and allies and dependants of their kin-
dred, still have their own separate govern-
ments. The country on the sea coast, now
called Macedonia, was first acquired by Alex-
ander, the father of Perdiccas, and his ances-
tors, originally Temenids from Argos. This
was effected by the expulsion from Pieria of
the Pierians, who afterwards inhabited Pha-
gres and other places under Mount Pangaeus,
beyond the Strymon (indeed the country be-
tween Pangaeus and the sea is still called the
Pierian Gulf); of the Bottiacans, at present
neighbours of the Chalcidians, from Bottia,
and by the acquisition in Paeonia of a narrow
strip along the river Axius extending to Pella
and the sea; the district of Mygdonia, between
the Axius and the Strymon, being also added
by the expulsion of the Edonians. From Eordia
also were driven the Eordians, most of whom
perished, though a few of them still live round
Physca, and the Almopians from Almopia.
These Macedonians also conquered places be-
longing to the other tribes, which are still
theirs — Anthcmus, Crestonia, Bisaltia, and
much of Macedonia proper. The whole is now
called Macedonia, and at the time of the inva-
sion of Sitalces, Perdiccas, Alexander's son,
was the reigning king.

[100] These Macedonians, unable to take
the field against so numerous an invader, shut
themselves up in such strong places and for-
tresses as the country possessed. Of these there
was no great number, most of those now found
in the country having been erected subsequent-
ly by Archelaus, the son of Perdiccas, on his
accession, who also cut straight roads, and
otherwise put the kingdom on a better footing
as regards horses, heavy infantry, and other
war material than had been done by all the
eight kings that preceded him. Advancing
from Doberus, the Thracian host first invaded
what had been once Philip's government, and
took Idomene by assault, Gortynia, Atalanta,
and some other places by negotiation, these
last coming over for love of Philip's son,
Amyntas, then with Sitalces. Laying siege to
Europus, and failing to take it, he next ad-
vanced into the rest of Macedonia to the left
of Pella and Cyrrhus, not proceeding beyond
this into Bottiaea and Pieria, but staying to lay
waste Mygdonia, Crestonia, and Anthemus.

The Macedonians never even thought of meet-
ing him with infantry; but the Thracian host
was, as opportunity offered, attacked by hand-
fuls of their horse, which had been reinforced
from their allies in the interior. Armed with
cuirasses, and excellent horsemen, wherever
these charged they overthrew all before them,
but ran considerable risk in entangling them-
selves in the masses of the enemy, and so final-
ly desisted from these efforts, deciding that
they were not strong enough to venture against
numbers so superior.

[101] Meanwhile Sitalces opened negotia-
tions with Perdiccas on the objects of his ex-
pedition; and finding that the Athenians, not
believing that he would come, did not appear
with their fleet, though they sent presents and
envoys, dispatched a large part of his army
against the Chalcidians and Bottiaeans, and
shutting them up inside their walls laid waste
their country. While he remained in these
parts, the people farther south, such as the
Thessalians, Magnetes, and the other tribes
subject to the Thessalians, and the Hellenes as
far as Thermopylae, all feared that the army
might advance against them, and prepared ac-
cordingly. These fears were shared by the
Thracians beyond the Strymon to the north,
who inhabited the plains, such as the Panae-
ans, the Odomanti, the Droi, and the Dersac-
ans, all of whom are independent. It was even
matter of conversation among the Hellenes
who were enemies of Athens whether he might
not be invited by his ally to advance also
against them. Meanwhile he held Chalcidice
and Bottice and Macedonia, and was ravaging
them all; but finding that he was not succeed-
ing in any of the objects of his invasion, and
that his army was without provisions and was
suffering from the severity of the season, he
listened to the advice of Seuthes, son of Spar-
dacus, his nephew and highest officer, and de-
cided to retreat without delay. This Seuthes
had been secretly gained by Perdiccas by the
promise of his sister in marriage with a rich
dowry. In accordance with this advice, and
after a stay of thirty days in all, eight of which
were spent in Chalcidice, he retired home as
quickly as he could; and Perdiccas afterwards
gave his sister Stratonice to Seuthes as he had
promised. Such was the history of the expedi-
tion of Sitalces.

[102] In the course of this winter, after the
dispersion of the Peloponnesian fleet, the Athe-
nians in Naupactus, under Phormio, coasted
along to Astacus and disembarked, and

416

THUCYDIDES

marched into the interior of Acarnania with
four hundred Athenian heavy infantry and
four hundred Messenians. After expelling
some suspected persons from Stratus, Coronta,
and other places, and restoring Cynes, son of
Theolytus, to Coronta, they returned to their
ships, deciding that it was impossible in the
winter season to march against Oeniadae, a
place which, unlike the rest of Acarnania, had
been always hostile to them; for the river
Achelous flowing from Mount Pindus through
Dolopia and the country of the Agraeans and
Amphilochians and the plain of Acarnania,
past the town of Stratus in the upper part of
its course, forms lakes where it falls into the
sea round Oeniadae, and thus makes it im-
practicable for an army in winter by reason of
the water. Opposite to Oeniadae lie most of the
islands called Echinades, so close to the mouths
of the Achelous that that powerful stream is
constantly forming deposits against them, and
has already joined some of the islands to the
continent, and seems likely in no long while
to do the same with the rest. For the current
is strong, deep, and turbid, and the islands are
so thick together that they serve to imprison
the alluvial deposit and prevent its dispersing,
lying, as they do, not in one line, but irregu-
larly, so as to leave no direct passage for the
water into the open sea. The islands in ques-

tion are uninhabited and of no great size.
There is also a story that Alcmaeon, son of
Amphiraus, during his wanderings after the
murder of his mother was bidden by Apollo
to inhabit this spot, through an oracle which
intimated that he would have no release from
his terrors until he should find a country to
dwell in which had not been seen by the sun,
or existed as land at the time he slew his moth-
er; all else being to him polluted ground. Per-
plexed at this, the story goes on to say, he at
last observed this deposit of the Achelous, and
considered that a place sufficient to support life
upon, might have been thrown up during the
long interval that had elapsed since the death
of his mother and the beginning of his wan-
derings. Settling, therefore, in the district
round Oeniadae, he founded a dominion, and
left the country its name from his son Acarnan.
Such is the story we have received concerning
Alcmaeon.

[103] The Athenians and Phormio putting
back from Acarnania and arriving at Naupac-
tus, sailed home to Athens in the spring, tak-
ing with them the ships that they had cap-
tured, and such of the prisoners made in the
late actions as were freemen; who were ex-
changed, man for man. And so ended this win-
ter, and the third year of this war, of which
Thucydidcs was the historian.

The Third Book

vJx v//

CHAPTER IX

Fourth and Ftjth Years of the War
Revolt of

[i] THE next summer, just as the corn was
getting ripe, the Pcloponnesians and their al-
lies invaded Attica under the command of
Archidamus, son of Zeuxidamus, king of the
Lacedaemonians, and sat down and ravaged
the land; the Athenian horse as usual attack-
ing them, wherever it was practicable, and pre-
venting the mass of the light troops from ad-
vancing from their camp and wasting the parts
near the city. After staying the time for which
they had taken provisions, the invaders retired
and dispersed to their several cities.

[2] Immediately after the invasion of the
Peloponnesians all Lesbos, except Methymna,
revolted from the Athenians. The Lesbians had
wished to revolt even before the war, but the
Lacedaemonians would not receive them; and
yet now when they did revolt, they were com-
pelled to do so sooner than they had intended.
While they were waiting until the moles for
their harbours and the ships and walls that
they had in building should be finished, and
for the arrival of archers and corn and other
things that they were engaged in fetching from
the Pontus, the Tenedians, with whom they
were at enmity, and the Methymnians, and
some factious persons in Mitylene itself, who
were proxeni of Athens, informed the Athe-
nians that the Mitylenians were forcibly unit-
ing the island under their sovereignty, and
that the preparations about which they were
so active, were all concerted with the Boeotians
their kindred and the Lacedaemonians with a
view to a revolt, and that, unless they were im-
mediately prevented, Athens would lose Les-
bos.

[3] However, the Athenians, distressed by
the plague, and by the war that had recently

broken out and was now raging, thought it a
serious matter to add Lesbos with its fleet and
untouched resources to the list of their ene-
mies; and at first would not believe the charge,
giving too much weight to their wish that it
might not be true. But when an embassy which
they sent had failed to persuade the Mityleni-
ans to give up the union and preparations
complained of, they became alarmed, and re-
solved to strike the first blow. They according-
ly suddenly sent off forty ships that had been
got ready to sail round Pcloponnese, under the
command of Cleippides, son of Deinias, and
two others; word having been brought them
of a festival in honour of the Malean Apollo
outside the town, which is kept by the whole
people of Mitylene, and at which, if haste were
made, they might hope to take them by sur-
prise. If this plan succeeded, well and good; if
not, they were to order the Mitylenians to de-
liver up their ships and to pull down their
walls, and if they did not obey, to declare war.
The ships accordingly set out; the ten galleys,
forming the contingent of the Mitylenians
present with the fleet according to the terms
of the alliance, being detained by the Atheni-
ans, and their crews placed in custody. How-
ever, the Mitylenians were informed of the ex-
pedition by a man who crossed from Athens
to Euboea, and going overland to Geraestus,
sailed from thence by a merchantman which he
found on the point of putting to sea, and so
arrived at Mitylene the third day after leaving
Athens. The Mitylenians accordingly refrained
from going out to the temple at Malea, and
moreover barricaded and kept guard round the
half-finished parts of their walls and harbours.
[4] When the Athenians sailed in not long
after and saw how things stood, the generals
delivered their orders, and upon the Mityleni-
ans refusing to obey, commenced hostilities.
The Mitylenians, thus compelled to go to war

417

418

THUCYDIDES

[BooK in

without notice and unprepared, at first sailed
out with their fleet and made some show of
fighting, a little in front of the harbour; but
being driven back by the Athenian ships, im-
mediately offered to treat with the comman-
ders, wishing, if possible, to get the ships away
for the present upon any tolerable terms. The
Athenian commanders accepted their offers,
being themselves fearful that they might not
be able to cope with the whole of Lesbos; and
an armistice having been concluded, the Mity-
lenians sent to Athens one of the informers, al-
ready repentant of his conduct, and others with
him, to try to persuade the Athenians of the
innocence of their intentions and to get the
fleet recalled. In the meantime, having no great
hope of a favourable answer from Athens, they
also sent off a galley with envoys to Lacedae-
mon, unobserved by the Athenian fleet which
was anchored at Malea to the north of the
town.

While these envoys, reaching Lacedaemon
after a difficult journey across the open sea,
were negotiating for succours being sent them,
[5] the ambassadors from Athens returned
without having effected anything; and hostili-
ties were at once begun by the Mitylenians and
the rest of Lesbos, with the exception of the
Methymnians, who came to the aid of the
Athenians with the Imbrians and Lemnians
and some few of the other allies. The Mityleni-
ans made a sortie with all their forces against
the Athenian camp; and a battle ensued, in
which they gained some slight advantage, but
retired notwithstanding, not feeling sufficient
confidence in themselves to spend the night
upon the field. After this they kept quiet, wish-
ing to wait for the chance of reinforcements
arriving from Peloponnese before making a
second venture, being encouraged by the ar-
rival of Meleas, a Laconian, and Hermaeondas,
a Theban, who had been sent off before the
insurrection but had been unable to reach Les-
bos before the Athenian expedition, and who
now stole in in a galley after the battle, and
advised them to send another galley and en-
voys back with them, which the Mitylenians
accordingly did.

[6] Meanwhile the Athenians, greatly en-
couraged by the inaction of the Mitylenians,
summoned allies to their aid, who came in all
the quicker from seeing so little vigour dis-
played by the Lesbians, and bringing round
their ships to a new station to the south of the
town, fortified two camps, one on each side of
the city, and instituted a blockade of both the

harbours. The sea was thus closed against the
Mitylenians, who, however, commanded the
whole country, with the rest of the Lesbians
who had now joined them; the Athenians only
holding a limited area round their camps, and
using Malea more as the station for their ships
and their market.

[7] While the war went on in this way at
Mitylene, the Athenians, about the same time
in this summer, also sent thirty ships to Pelo-
ponnese under Asopius, son of Phormio; the
Acarnamans insisting that the commander sent
should be some son or relative of Phormio. As
the ships coasted along shore they ravaged the
seaboard of Laconia; after which Asopius sent
most of the fleet home, and himself went on
with twelve vessels to Naupactus, and after-
wards raising the whole Acarnanian popula-
tion made an expedition against Oeniadae, the
fleet sailing along the Achelous, while the army
laid waste the country. The inhabitants, how-
ever, showing no signs of submitting, he dis-
missed the land forces and himself sailed to
Lcucas, and making a descent upon Nericus
was cut off during his retreat, and most of his
troops with him, by the people in those parts
aided by some coastguards; after which the
Athenians sailed away, recovering their dead
from the Leucadians under truce.

[8] Meanwhile the envoys of the Mityleni-
ans sent out in the first ship were told by the
Lacedaemonians to come to Olympia, in order
that the rest of the allies might hear them and
decide upon their matter, and so they jour-
neyed thither. It was the Olympiad in which
the Rhodian Doneus gained his second victory,
and the envoys having been introduced to
make their speech after the festival, spoke as
follows:

[g] "Lacedaemonians and allies, the rule es-
tablished among the Hellenes is not unknown
to us. Those who revolt in war and forsake
their former confederacy are favourably re-
garded by those who receive them, in so far as
they are of use to them, but otherwise are
thought less well of, through being considered
traitors to their former friends. Nor is this an
unfair way of judging, where the rebels and
the power from whom they secede are at one
in policy and sympathy, and a match for each
other in resources and power, and where no
reasonable ground exists for the rebellion. But
with us and the Athenians this was not the
case; and no one need think the worse of us
for revolting from them in danger, after hav-
ing been honoured by them in time of peace.

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

410

[10] "Justice and honesty will be the first
topics of our speech, especially as we are ask-
ing for alliance; because we know that there
can never be any solid friendship between in-
dividuals, or union between communities that
is worth the name, unless the parties be per-
suaded of each other's honesty, and be general-
ly congenial the one to the other; since from
difference in feeling springs also difference in
conduct. Between ourselves and the Athenians
alliance began, when you withdrew from the
Median War and they remained to finish the
business. But we did not become allies of the
Athenians for the subjugation of the Hellenes,
but allies of the Hellenes for their liberation
from the Mede; and as long as the Athenians
led us fairly we followed them loyally; but
when we saw them relax their hostility to the
Medc, to try to compass the subjection of the
allies, then our apprehensions began. Unable,
however, to unite and defend themselves, on
account of the number of confederates that had
votes, all the allies were enslaved, except our-
selves and the Chians, who continued to send
our contingents as independent and nominally
free. Trust in Athens as a leader, however, we
could no longer feel, judging by the examples
already given; it being unlikely that she would
reduce our fellow confederates, and not do the
same by us who were left, if ever she had the
power.

[n] "Had we all been still independent, we
could have had more faith in their not attempt-
ing any change; but the greater number being
their subjects, while they were treating us as
equals, they would naturally chafe under this
solitary instance of independence as contrasted
with the submission of the majority; particu-
larly as they daily grew more powerful, and
we more destitute. Now the only sure basis
of an alliance is for each party to be equally
afraid of the other; he who would like to en-
croach is then deterred by the reflection that
he will not have odds in his favour. Again, if
we were left independent, it was only because
they thought they saw their way to empire
more clearly by specious language and by the
paths of policy than by those of force. Not
only were we useful as evidence that powers
who had votes, like themselves, would not,
surely, join them in their expeditions, against
their will, without the party attacked being in
the wrong; but the same system also enabled
them to lead the stronger states against the
weaker first, and so to leave the former to the
last, stripped of their natural allies, and less

capable of resistance. But if they had begun
with us, while all the states still had their re-
sources under their own control, and there was
a centre to rally round, the work of subjuga-
tion would have been found less easy. Besides
this, our navy gave them some apprehension:
it was always possible that it might unite with
you or with some other power, and become
dangerous to Athens. The court which we paid
to their commons and its leaders for the time
being also helped us to maintain our indepen-
dence. However, we did not expect to be able
to do so much longer, if this war had not brok-
en out, from the examples that we had had of
their conduct to the rest.

[12] "How then could we put our trust in
such friendship or freedom as we had here?
We accepted each other against our inclina-
tion; fear made them court us in war, and us
them in peace; sympathy, the ordinary basis of
confidence, had its place supplied by terror,
fear having more share than friendship in de-
taining us in the alliance; and the first party
that should be encouraged by the hope of im-
punity was certain to break faith with the
other. So that to condemn us for being the
first to break off, because they delay the blow
that we dread, instead of ourselves delaying to
know for certain whether it will be dealt or
not, is to take a false view of the case. For if
we were equally able with them to meet their
plots and imitate their delay, we should be
their equals and should be under no necessity
of being their subjects; but the liberty of of-
fence being always theirs, that of defence ought
clearly to be ours.

[13] "Such, Lacedaemonians and allies, are
the grounds and the reasons of our revolt; clear
enough to convince our hearers of the fairness
of our conduct, and sufficient to alarm our-
selves, and to make us turn to some means of
safety. This we wished to do long ago, when
we sent to you on the subject while the peace
yet lasted, but were balked by your refusing
to receive us; and now, upon the Boeotians in-
viting us, we at once responded to the call, and
decided upon a twofold revolt, from the Hel-
lenes and from the Athenians, not to aid the
latter in harming the former, but to join in
their liberation, and not to allow the Athenians
in the end to destroy us, but to act in time
against them. Our revolt, however, has taken
place prematurely and without preparation —
a fact which makes it all the more incumbent
on you to receive us into alliance and to send
us speedy relief, in order to show that you

420

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support your friends, and at the same time do
harm to your enemies. You have an oppor-
tunity such as you never had hefore. Disease
and expenditure have wasted the Athenians:
their ships are either cruising round your
coasts, or engaged in blockading us; and it is
not probable that they will have any to spare,
if you invade them a second time this summer
by sea and land; but they will either offer no
resistance to your vessels, or withdraw from
both our shores. Nor must it be thought that
this is a case of putting yourselves into danger
for a country which is not yours. Lesbos may
appear far off, but when help is wanted she
will be found near enough. It is not in Attica
that the war will be decided, as some imagine,
but in the countries by which Attica is sup-
ported; and the Athenian revenue is drawn
from the allies, and will become still larger if
they reduce us; as not only will no other state
revolt, but our resources will be added to theirs,
and we shall be treated worse than those that
were enslaved before. But if you will frankly
support us, you will add to your side a state
that has a large navy, which is your great
want; you will smooth the way to the over-
throw of the Athenians by depriving them of
their allies, who will be greatly encouraged to
come over; and you will free yourselves from
the imputation made against you, of not sup-
porting insurrection. In short, only show your-
selves as liberators, and you may count upon
having the advantage in the war.

[14] "Respect, therefore, the hopes placed
in you by the Hellenes, and that Olympian
Zeus, in whose temple we stand as very sup-
pliants; become the allies and defenders of the
Mitylenians, and do not sacrifice us, who put
our lives upon the hazard, in a cause in which
general good will result to all from our suc-
cess, and still more general harm if we fail
through your refusing to help us; but be the
men that the Hellenes think you, and our fears
desire."

//j7 Such were the words of the Mityleni-
ans. After hearing them out, the Lacedaemo-
nians and confederates granted what they
urged, and took the Lesbians into alliance, and
deciding in favour of the invasion of Attica,
told the allies present to march as quickly as
possible to the Isthmus with two-thirds of their
forces; and arriving there first themselves, got
ready hauling machines to carry their ships
across from Corinth to the sea on the side of
Athens, in order to make their attack by sea
and land at once. However, the zeal which

they displayed was not imitated by the rest of
the confederates, who came in but slowly, be-
ing engaged in harvesting their corn and sick
of making expeditions.

[/6] Meanwhile the Athenians, aware that
the preparations of the enemy were due to his
conviction of their weakness, and wishing to
show him that he was mistaken, and that they
were able, without moving the Lesbian fleet,
to repel with ease that with which they were
menaced from Peloponnese, manned a hun-
dred ships by embarking the citizens of Ath-
ens, except the knights and Pentacosiomedim-
ni, and the resident aliens; and putting out to
the Isthmus, displayed their power, and made
descents upon Peloponnese wherever they
pleased. A disappointment so signal made the
Lacedaemonians think that the Lesbians had
not spoken the truth; and embarrassed by the
non-appearance of the confederates, coupled
with the news that the thirty ships round Pelo-
ponnese were ravaging the lands near Sparta,
they went back home. Afterwards, however,
they got ready a fleet to send to Lesbos, and
ordering a total of forty ships from the differ-
ent cities in the league, appointed Alcidas to
command the expedition in his capacity of
high admiral. Meanwhile the Athenians in the
hundred ships, upon seeing the Lacedaemoni-
ans go home, went home likewise.

[ij] If, at the time that this fleet was at sea,
Athens had almost the largest number of first-
rate ships in commission that she ever pos-
sessed at any one moment, she had as many or
even more when the war began. At that time
one hundred guarded Attica, Euboea, and
Salamis; a hundred more were cruising round
Peloponnese, besides those employed at Poti-
daea and in other places; making a grand total
of two hundred and fifty vessels employed on
active service in a single summer. It was this,
with Potidaea, that most exhausted her rev-
enues— Potidaea being blockaded by a force
of heavy infantry (each drawing two drach-
mae a day, one for himself and another for his
servant), which amounted to three thousand
at first, and was kept at this number down to
the end of the siege; besides sixteen hundred
with Phormio who went away before it was
over; and the ships being all paid at the same
rate. In this way her money was wasted at first;
and this was the largest number of ships ever
manned by her.

[18] About the same time that the Lacedae-
monians were at the Isthmus, the Mitylenians
marched by land with their mercenaries

I4-22J

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

421

against Methymna, which they thought to
gain by treachery. After assaulting the town,
and not meeting with the success that they an-
ticipated, they withdrew to Antissa, Pyrrha,
and Eresus; and taking measures for the better
security of these towns and strengthening their
walls, hastily returned home. After their de-
parture the Methymnians marched against An-
tissa, but were defeated in a sortie by the An-
tissians and their mercenaries, and retreated in
haste after losing many of their number. Word
of this reaching Athens, and the Athenians
learning that the Mitylcnians were masters of
the country and their own soldiers unable to
hold them in check, they sent out about the
beginning of autumn Pachcs, son of Epicurus,
to take the command, and a thousand Athe-
nian heavy infantry; who worked their own
passage and, arriving at Mitylene, built a single
wall all round it, forts being erected at some of
the strongest points. Mitylene was thus block-
aded strictly on both sides, by land and by sea;
and winter now drew near.

[19] The Athenians needing money for the
siege, although they had for the first time
raised a contribution of two hundred talents
from their own citizens, now sent out twelve
ships to levy subsidies from their allies, with
Lysicles and four others in command. After
cruising to different places and laying them un-
der contribution, Lysicles went up the country
from Myus, in Caria, across the plain of the
Meander, as far as the hill of Sandius; and be-
ing attacked by the Carians and the people of
Anaia, was slain with many of his soldiers.

[20] The same winter the Plataeans, who
were still being besieged by the Peloponnesians
and Boeotians, distressed by the failure of their
provisions, and seeing no hope of relief from
Athens, nor any other means of safety, formed
a scheme with the Athenians besieged with
them for escaping, if possible, by forcing their
way over the enemy's walls; the attempt hav-
ing been suggested by Theaenetus, son of Tol-
mides, a soothsayer, and Eupompides, son of
Daimachus, one of their generals. At first all
were to join: afterwards, half hung back,
thinking the risk great; about two hundred
and twenty, however, voluntarily persevered
in the attempt, which was carried out in the
following way. Ladders were made to match
the height of the enemy's wall, which they
measured by the layers of bricks, the side
turned towards them not being thoroughly
whitewashed. These were counted by many
persons at once; and though some might miss

the right calculation, most would hit upon it,
particularly as they counted over and over
again, and were no great way from the wall,
but could see it easily enough for their pur-
pose. The length required for the ladders was
thus obtained, being calculated from the
breadth of the brick.

[21] Now the wall of the Peloponnesians
was constructed as follows. It consisted of two
lines drawn round the place, one against the
Plataeans, the other against any attack on the
outside from Athens, about sixteen feet apart.
The intermediate space of sixteen feet was oc-
cupied by huts portioned out among the sol-
diers on guard, and built in one block, so as
to give the appearance of a single thick wall
with battlements on either side. At intervals of
every ten battlements were towers of consider-
able size, and the same breadth as the wall,
reaching right across from its inner to its outer
face, with no means of passing except through
the middle. Accordingly on stormy and wet
nights the battlements were deserted, and
guard kept from the towers, which were not
far apart and roofed in above.

Such being the structure of the wall by which
the Plataeans were blockaded, [22] when their
preparations were completed, they waited for
a stormy night of wind and rain and without
any moon, and then set out, guided by the
authors of the enterprise. Crossing first the
ditch that ran round the town, they next
gained the wall of the enemy unperceived by
the sentinels, who did not see them in the dark-
ness, or hear them, as the wind drowned with
its roar the noise of their approach; besides
which they kept a good way off from each
other, that they might not be betrayed by the
clash of their weapons. They were also lightly
equipped, and had only the left foot shod to
preserve them from slipping in the mire. They
came up to the battlements at one of the in-
termediate spaces where they knew them to be
unguarded: those who carried the ladders
went first and planted them; next twelve light-
armed soldiers with only a dagger and a breast-
plate mounted, led by Ammias, son of Coroe-
bus, who was the first on the wall; his follow-
ers getting up after him and going six to each
of the towers. After these came another party
of light troops armed with spears, whose
shields, that they might advance the easier,
were carried by men behind, who were to hand
them to them when they found themselves in
presence of the enemy. After a good many had
mounted they were discovered by the sentinels

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in the towers, by the noise made by a tile which
was knocked down by one of the Plataeans
as he was laying hold of the battlements. The
alarm was instantly given, and the troops
rushed to the wall, not knowing the nature of
the danger, owing to the dark night and
stormy weather; the Plataeans in the town hav-
ing also chosen that moment to make a sortie
against the wall of the Peloponnesians upon
the side opposite to that on which their men
were getting over, in order to divert the atten-
tion of the besiegers. Accordingly they re-
mained distracted at their several posts, with-
out any venturing to stir to give help from his
own station, and at a loss to guess what was go-
ing on. Meanwhile the three hundred set aside
for service on emergencies went outside the
wall in the direction of the alarm. Fire-signals
of an attack were also raised towards Thebes;
but the Plataeans in the town at once displayed
a number of others, prepared beforehand for
this very purpose, in order to render the en-
emy's signals unintelligible, and to prevent his
friends getting a true idea of what was passing
and coming to his aid before their comrades
who had gone out should have made good
their escape and be in safety.

[23] Meanwhile the first of the scaling party
that had got up, after carrying both the towers
and putting the sentinels to the sword, posted
themselves inside to prevent any one coming
through against them; and rearing ladders
from the wall, sent several men up on the tow-
ers, and from their summit and base kept in
check all of the enemy that came up, with their
missiles, while their main body planted a num-
ber of ladders against the wall, and knocking
down the battlements, passed over between the
towers; each as soon as he had got over taking
up his station at the edge of the ditch, and
plying from thence with arrows and darts any
who came along the wall to stop the passage of
his comrades. When all were over, the party
on the towers came down, the last of them not
without difficulty, and proceeded to the ditch,
just as the three hundred came up carrying
torches. The Plataeans, standing on the edge
of the ditch in the dark, had a good view of
their opponents, and discharged their arrows
and darts upon the unarmed parts of their
bodies, while they themselves could not be so
well seen in the obscurity for the torches; and
thus even the last of them got over the ditch,
though not without effort and difficulty; as
ice had formed in it, not strong enough to
walk upon, but of that watery kind which gen-

erally comes with a wind more east than north,
and the snow which this wind had caused to
fall during the night had made the water in
the ditch rise, so that they could scarcely breast
it as they crossed. However, it was mainly the
violence of the storm that enabled them to
effect their escape at all.

[24] Starting from the ditch, the Plataeans
went all together along the road leading to
Thebes, keeping the chapel of the hero Andro-
crates upon their right; considering that the
last road which the Peloponnesians would sus-
pect them of having taken would be that to-
wards their enemies* country. Indeed they
could see them pursuing with torches upon the
Athens road towards Cithaeron and Druos-
kephalai or Oakheads. After going for rather
more than half a mile upon the road to Thebes,
the Plataeans turned off and took that leading
to the mountain, to Erythrae and Hysiae, and
reaching the hills, made good their escape to
Athens, two hundred and twelve men in all;
some of their number having turned back into
the town before getting over the wall, and one
archer having been taken prisoner at the outer
ditch. Meanwhile the Peloponnesians gave up
the pursuit and returned to their posts; and the
Plataeans in the town, knowing nothing of
what had passed, and informed by those who
had turned back that not a man had escaped,
sent out a herald as soon as it was day to make
a truce for the recovery of the dead bodies,
and then, learning the truth, desisted. In this
way the Platacan party got over and were
saved.

[25] Towards the close of the same winter,
Salaethus, a Lacedaemonian, was sent out in a
galley from Laccdaernon to Mitylene. Going
by sea to Pyrrha, and from thence overland, he
passed along the bed of a torrent, where the
line of circumvallation was passable, and thus
entering unperccived into Mitylene told the
magistrates that Attica would certainly be in-
vaded, and the forty ships destined to relieve
them arrive, and that he had been sent on to
announce this and to superintend matters gen-
erally. The Mitylenians upon this took cour-
age, and laid aside the idea of treating with the
Athenians; and now this winter ended, and
with it ended the fourth year of the war of
which Thucydides was the historian.

[26] The next summer the Peloponnesians
sent off the forty-two ships for Mitylene, un-
der Alcidas, their high admiral, and them-
selves and their allies invaded Attica, their ob-
ject being to distract the Athenians by a double

23-31]

movement, and thus to make it less easy for
them to act against the fleet sailing to Mity-
lene. The commander in this invasion was
Cleomenes, in the place of King Pausanias, son
of Pleistoanax, his nephew, who was still a
minor. Not content with laying waste what-
ever had shot up in the parts which they had
before devastated, the invaders now extended
their ravages to lands passed over in their pre-
vious incursions; so that this invasion was
more severely felt by the Athenians than any
except the second; the enemy staying on and
on until they had overrun most of the country,
in the expectation of hearing from Lesbos of
something having been achieved by their fleet,
which they thought must now have got over.
However, as they did not obtain any of the re-
sults expected, and their provisions began to
run short, they retreated and dispersed to their
different cities.

[27] In the meantime the Mitylenians, find-
ing their provisions failing, while the fleet
from Peloponnese was loitering on the way
instead of appearing at Mitylene, were com-
pelled to come to terms with the Athenians in
the following manner. Salaethus having him-
self ceased to expect the fleet to arrive, now
armed the commons with heavy armour,
which they had not before possessed, with the
intention of making a sortie against the Athe-
nians. The commons, however, no sooner
found themselves possessed of arms than they
refused any longer to obey their officers; and
forming in knots together, told the authorities
to bring out in public the provisions and di-
vide them amongst them all, or they would
themselves come to terms with the Athenians
and deliver up the city.

[28] The government, aware of their ina-
bility to prevent this, and of the danger they
would be in, if left out of the capitulation, pub-
licly agreed with Paches and the army to sur-
render Mitylene at discretion and to admit the
troops into the town; upon the understanding
that the Mitylenians should be allowed to send
an embassy to Athens to plead their cause, and
that Paches should not imprison, make slaves
of, or put to death any of the citizens until its
return. Such were the terms of the capitula-
tion; in spite of which the chief authors of the
negotiation with Lacedaemon were so com-
pletely overcome by terror when the army en-
tered that they went and seated themselves by
the altars, from which they were raised up by
Paches under promise that he would do them
no wrong, and lodged by him in Tenedos, until

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

423

he should learn the pleasure of the Athenians
concerning them. Paches also sent some galleys
and seized Antissa, and took such other mili-
tary measures as he thought advisable.

[29] Meanwhile the Peloponnesians in the
forty ships, who ought to have made all haste
to relieve Mitylene, lost time in coming round
Peloponnese itself, and proceeding leisurely on
the remainder of the voyage, made Delos with-
out having been seen by the Athenians at Ath-
ens, and from thence arriving at Icarus and
Myconus, there first heard of the fall of Mity-
lene. Wishing to know the truth, they put into
Embatum, in the Erythraeid, about seven days
after the capture of the town. Here they
learned the truth, and began to consider what
they were to do; and Teutiaplus, an Elean, ad-
dressed them as follows:

[30] "Alcidas and Peloponnesians who share
with me the command of this armament, my
advice is to sail just as we are to Mitylene, be-
fore we have been heard of. We may expect to
find the Athenians as much off their guard as
men generally are who have just taken a city:
this will certainly be so by sea, where they have
no idea of any enemy attacking them, and
where our strength, as it happens, mainly lies;
while even their land forces are probably scat-
tered about the houses in the carelessness of vic-
tory. If therefore we were to fall upon them sud-
denly and in the night, I have hopes, with the
help of the well-wishers that we may have left
inside the town, that we shall become masters
of the place. Let us not shrink from the risk,
but let us remember that this is just the occasion
for one of the baseless panics common in war:
and that to be able to guard against these in
one's own case, and to detect the moment when
an attack will find an enemy at this disadvan-
tage, is what makes a successful general/'

[31] These words of Teutiaplus failing to
move Alcidas, some of the Ionian exiles and the
Lesbians with the expedition began to urge
him, since this seemed too dangerous, to seize
one of the Ionian cities or the Aeolic town of
Cyme, to use as a base for effecting the revolt
of Ionia. This was by no means a hopeless en-
terprise, as their coming was welcome every-
where; their object would be by this move to
deprive Athens of her chief source of revenue,
and at the same time to saddle her with ex-
pense, if she chose to blockade them; and they
would probably induce Pissuthnes to join them
in the war. However, Alcidas gave this pro-
posal as bad a reception as the other, being
eager, since he had come too late for Mitylene,

424

THUCYDIDES

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to find himself back in Peloponncsc as soon as
possible.

[32] Accordingly he put out from Embatum
and proceeded along shore; and touching at
the Teian town, Myonnesus, there butchered
most of the prisoners that he had taken on his
passage. Upon his coming to anchor at Eph-
esus, envoys came to him from the Samians at
Anaia, and told him that he was not going the
right way to free Hellas in massacring men
who had never raised a hand against him, and
who were not enemies of his, but allies of Ath-
ens against their will, and that if he did not stop
he would turn many more friends into enemies
than enemies into friends. Alcidas agreed to
this, and let go all the Chians still in his hands
and some of the others that he had taken; the
inhabitants, instead of flying at the sight of his
vessels, rather coming up to them, taking them
for Athenian, having no sort of expectation that
while the Athenians commanded the sea Pelo-
ponnesian ships would venture over to Ionia.
[33] From Ephesus Alcidas set sail in haste
and fled. He had been seen by the Salaminian
and Parahan galleys, which happened to be
sailing from Athens, while still at anchor off
Clarus; and fearing pursuit he now made
across the open sea, fully determined to touch
nowhere, if he could help it, until he got to
Peloponnese. Meanwhile news of him had
come in to Paches from the Erythraeid, and
indeed from all quarters. As Ionia was unforti-
fied, great fears were felt that the Peloponnesi-
ans coasting along shore, even if they did not
intend to stay, might make descents in passing
and plunder the towns; and now the Paralian
and Salaminian, having seen him at Clarus,
themselves brought intelligence of the fact.
Paches accordingly gave hot chase, and con-
tinued the pursuit as far as the isle of Patmos,
and then finding that Alcidas had got on too
far to be overtaken, came back again. Mean-
while he thought it fortunate that, as he had
not fallen in with them out at sea, he had not
overtaken them anywhere where they would
have been forced to encamp, and so give him
the trouble of blockading them.

[34] On his return along shore he touched,
among other places, at Notium, the port of
Colophon, where the Colophonians had settled
after the capture of the upper town by Ita-
mencs and the barbarians, who had been called
in by certain individuals in a party quarrel.
The capture of the town took place about the
time of the second Peloponnesian invasion of
Attica. However, the refugees, after settling

at Notium, again split up into factions, one of
which called in Arcadian and barbarian mer-
cenaries from Pissuthnes and, entrenching
these in a quarter apart, formed a new com-
munity with the Median party of the Colopho-
nians who joined them from the upper town.
Their opponents had retired into exile, and
now called in Paches, who invited Hippias,
the commander of the Arcadians in the forti-
fied quarter, to a parley, upon condition that,
if they could not agree, he was to be put back
safe and sound in the fortification. However,
upon his coming out to him, he put him into
custody, though not in chains, and attacked
suddenly and took by surprise the fortification,
and putting the Arcadians and the barbarians
found in it to the sword, afterwards took Hip-
pias into it as he had promised, and, as soon
as he was inside, seized him and shot him
down. Paches then gave up Notium to the
Colophonians not of the Median party; and
settlers were afterwards sent out from Athens,
and the place colonized according to Athenian
laws, after collecting all the Colophonians
found in any of the cities.

[35] Arrived at Mitylene, Paches reduced
Pyrrha and Eresus; and finding the Lacedae-
monian, Salaethus, in hiding in the town, sent
him off to Athens, together with the Mityleni-
ans that he had placed in Tcnedos, and any
other persons that he thought concerned in the
revolt. He also sent back the greater part of
his forces, remaining with the rest to settle
Mitylene and the rest of Lesbos as he thought
best.

[36] Upon the arrival of the prisoners with
Salaethus, the Athenians at once put the lat-
ter to death, although he offered, among other
things, to procure the withdrawal of the Pelo-
ponnesians from Plataea, which was still un-
der siege; and after deliberating as to what
they should do with the former, in the fury of
the moment determined to put to death not
only the prisoners at Athens, but the whole
adult male population of Mitylene, and to
make slaves of the women and children. It was
remarked that Mitylene had revolted without
being, like the rest, subjected to the empire;
and what above all swelled the wrath of the
Athenians was the fact of the Peioponnesian
fleet having ventured over to Ionia to her sup-
port, a fact which was held to argue a long
meditated rebellion. They accordingly sent a
galley to communicate the decree to Paches,
commanding him to lose no time in dispatch-
ing the Mitylenians. The morrow brought re-

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

425

pentancc with it and reflection on the horrid
cruelty of a decree, which condemned a whole
city to the fate merited only by the guilty. This
was no sooner perceived by the Mitylenian
ambassadors at Athens and their Athenian sup-
porters, than they moved the authorities to
put the question again to the vote; which they
the more easily consented to do, as they them-
selves plainly saw that most of the citizens
wished some one to give them an opportunity
for reconsidering the matter. An assembly was
therefore at once called, and after much ex-
pression of opinion upon both sides, Cleon, son
of Cleaenetus, the same who had carried the
former motion of putting the Mitylenians to
death, the most violent man at Athens, and at
that time by far the most powerful with the
commons, came forward again and spoke as
follows:

[$j] "I have often before now been con-
vinced that a democracy is incapable of em-
pire, and never more so than by your present
change of mind in the matter of Mitylene.
Fears or plots being unknown to you in your
daily relations with each other, you feel just
the same with regard to your allies, and never
reflect that the mistakes into which you may
be led by listening to their appeals, or by giv-
ing way to your own compassion, are full of
danger to yourselves, and bring you no thanks
tor your weakness from your allies; entirely
forgetting that your empire is a despotism and
your subjects disaffected conspirators, whose
obedience is ensured not by your suicidal con-
cessions, but by the superiority given you by
your own strength and not their loyalty. The
most alarming feature in the case is the con-
stant change of measures with which we ap-
pear to be threatened, and our seeming igno-
rance of the fact that bad laws which are never
changed are better for a city than good ones
that have no authority; that unlearned loyalty
is more serviceable than quick-witted insub-
ordination; and that ordinary men usually
manage public affairs better than their more
gifted fellows. The latter are always wanting
to appear wiser than the laws, and to overrule
every proposition brought forward, thinking
that they cannot show their wit in more im-
portant matters, and by such behaviour too
often ruin their country; while those who mis-
trust their own cleverness are content to be
less learned than the laws, and less able to pick
holes in the speech of a good speaker; and be-
ing fair judges rather than rival athletes, gen-
erally conduct affairs successfully. These we

ought to imitate, instead of being led on by
cleverness and intellectual rivalry to advise
your people against our real opinions.

[38] "For myself, I adhere to mv former
opinion, and wonder at those who have pro-
posed to reopen the case of the Mitylenians,
and who are thus causing a delay which is all
in favour of the guilty, by making the sufferer
proceed against the offender with the edge of
his anger blunted; although where vengeance
follows most closely upon the wrong, it best
equals it and most amply requites it. I wonder
also who will be the man who will maintain
the contrary, and will pretend to show that the
crimes of the Mitylenians are of service to us,
and our misfortunes injurious to the allies.
Such a man must plainly either have such con-
fidence in his rhetoric as to adventure to prove
that what has been once for all decided is still
undetermined, or be bribed to try to delude us
by elaborate sophisms. In such contests the
state gives the rewards to others, and takes the
dangers for herself. The pcisons to blame arc
you who are so foolish as to institute these con-
tests; who go to see an oration as you would to
see a sight, take your facts on hearsay, judge
of the practicability of a project by the wit of
its advocates, and trust for the truth as to past
events not to the fact which you saw more than
to the clever strictures which you heard; the
easy victims of new-fangled arguments, unwill-
ing to follow received conclusions; slaves to
every new paradox, despisers of the common-
place; the first wish of every man being that
he could speak himself, the next to rival those
who can speak by seeming to be quite up with
their ideas by applauding every hit almost be-
fore it is made, and by being as quick in catch-
ing an argument as you are slow in foreseeing
its consequences; asking, if I may so say, for
something different from the conditions under
which we live, and yet comprehending inad-
equately those very conditions; very slaves to
the pleasure of the ear, and more like the audi-
ence of a rhetorician than the council of a city.

[39] "In order to keep you from this, I pro-
ceed to show that no one state has ever in-
jured you as much as Mitylene. I can make
allowance for those who revolt because they
cannot bear our empire, or who have been
forced to do so by the enemy. But for those
who possessed an island with fortifications;
who could fear our enemies only by sea, and
there had their own force of galleys to protect
them; who were independent and held in the
highest honour by you — to act as these have

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done, this is not revolt — revolt implies oppres-
sion; it is deliberate and wanton aggression;
an attempt to ruin us by siding with our bitter-
est enemies; a worse offence than a war under-
taken on their own account in the acquisition
of power. The fate of those of their neighbours
who had already rebelled and had been sub-
dued was no lesson to them; their own pros-
perity could not dissuade them from affronting
danger; but blindly confident in the future,
and full of hopes beyond their power though
not beyond their ambition, they declared war
and made their decision to prefer might to
right, their attack being determined not by
provocation but by the moment which seemed
propitious. The truth is that great good for-
tune coming suddenly and unexpectedly tends
to make a people insolent; in most cases it is
safer for mankind to have success in reason
than out of reason; and it is easier for them,
one may say, to stave off adversity than to pre-
serve prosperity. Our mistake has been to dis-
tinguish the Mitylemans as we have done: had
they been long ago treated like the rest, they
never would have so far forgotten themselves,
human nature being as surely made arrogant
by consideration as it is awed by firmness. Let
them now therefore be punished as their crime
requires, and do not, while you condemn the
aristocracy, absolve the people. This is certain,
that all attacked you without distinction, al-
though they might have come over to us and
been now again in possession of their city. But
no, they thought it safer to throw in their lot
with the aristocracy and so joined their re-
bellion! Consider therefore: if you subject to
the same punishment the ally who is forced to
rebel by the enemy, and him who does so by
his own free choice, which of them, think you,
is there that will not rebel upon the slightest
pretext; when the reward of success is freedom,
and the penalty of failure nothing so very ter-
rible? We meanwhile shall have to risk our
money and our lives against one state after an-
other; and if successful, shall receive a ruined
town from which we can no longer draw the
revenue upon which our strength depends;
while if unsuccessful, we shall have an enemy
the more upon our hands, and shall spend the
time that might be employed in combating our
existing foes in warring with our own allies.

[40] "No hope, therefore, that rhetoric may
instil or money purchase, of the mercy due to
human infirmity must be held out to the Mity-
lemans. Their offence was not involuntary, but
of malice and deliberate; and mercy is only for

unwilling offenders. I therefore, now as before,
persist against your reversing your first deci-
sion, or giving way to the three failings most
fatal to empire — pity, sentiment, and indul-
gence. Compassion is due to those who can re-
ciprocate the feeling, not to those who will nev-
er pity us in return, but are our natural and
necessary foes: the orators who charm us with
sentiment may find other less important arenas
for their talents, in the place of one where the
city pays a heavy penalty for a momentary
pleasure, themselves receiving fine acknowl-
edgments for their fine phrases; while indul-
gence should be shown towards those who will
be our friends in future, instead of towards
men who will remain just what they were, and
as much our enemies as before. To sum up
shortly, I say that if you follow my advice you
will do what is just towards the Mitylenians,
and at the same time expedient; while by a dif-
ferent decision you will not oblige them so
much as pass sentence upon yourselves. For if
they were right in rebelling, you must be
wrong in ruling. However, if, right or wrong,
you determine to rule, you must carry out your
principle and punish the Mitylemans as your
interest requires; or else you must give up your
empire and cultivate honesty without danger.
Make up your minds, therefore, to give them
like for like; and do not let the victims who
escaped the plot be more insensible than the
conspirators who hatched it; but reflect what
they would have done if victorious over you,
especially as they were the aggressors. It is they
who wrong their neighbour without a cause,
that pursue their victim to the death, on ac-
count of the danger which they foresee in let-
ting their enemy survive; since the object of a
wanton wrong is more dangerous, if he escape,
than an enemy who has not this to complain
of. Do not, therefore, be traitors to yourselves,
but recall as nearly as possible the moment of
suffering and the supreme importance which
you then attached to their reduction; and now
pay them back in their turn, without yielding
to present weakness or forgetting the peril that
once hung over you. Punish them as they de-
serve, and teach your other allies by a striking
example that the penalty of rebellion is death.
Let them once understand this and you will
not have so often to neglect your enemies while
you are fighting with your own confederates."
[41] Such were the words of Cleon. After
him Diodotus, son of Eacrates, who had
also in the previous assembly spoken most
strongly against putting the Mitylenians to

40-45]

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

427

death, came forward and spoke as follows:

[42] "I do not blame the persons who have
reopened the case of the Mitylemans, nor do I
approve the protests which we have heard
against important questions being frequently
debated. I think the two things most opposed
to good counsel are haste and passion; haste
usually goes hand in hand with folly, passion
with coarseness and narrowness of mind. As
for the argument that speech ought not to be
the exponent of action, the man who uses it
must be either senseless or interested: senseless
if he believes it possible to treat of the uncer-
tain future through any other medium; inter-
ested if, wishing to carry a disgraceful measure
and doubting his ability to speak well in a bad
cause, he thinks to frighten opponents and
hearers by well-aimed calumny. What is still
more intolerable is to accuse a speaker of mak-
ing a display in order to be paid for it. If igno-
rance only were imputed, an unsuccessful
speaker might retire with a reputation for
honesty, if not for wisdom; while the charge of
dishonesty makes him suspected, if successful,
and thought, if defeated, not only a fool but a
rogue. The city is no gainer by such a system,
since fear deprives it of its advisers; although
in truth, if our speakers are to make such as-
sertions, it would be better for the country if
they could not speak at all, as we should then
make fewer blunders. The good citizen ought
lo triumph not by frightening his opponents
but by beating them fairly in argument; and a
wise city, without over-distinguishing its best
advisers, will nevertheless not deprive them of
their due, and, far from punishing an unlucky
counsellor, will not even regard him as dis-
graced. In this way successful orators would be
least tempted to sacrifice their convictions to
popularity, in the hope of still higher honours,
and unsuccessful speakers to resort to the same
popular arts in order to win over the multitude.
[43] "This is not our way; and, besides, the
moment that a man is suspected of giving ad-
vice, however good, from corrupt motives, we
feel such a grudge against him for the gain
which after all we are not certain he will re-
ceive, that we deprive the city of its certain
benefit. Plain good advice has thus come to be
no less suspected than bad; and the advocate of
the most monstrous measures is not more
obliged to use deceit to gain the people, than
the best counsellor is to lie in order to be be-
lieved. The city and the city only, owing to
these refinements, can never be served openly
and without disguise; he who does serve it

openly being always suspected of serving him-
self in some secret way in return. Still, consitj-
ering the magnitude of the interests involved,
and the position of affairs, we orators must
make it our business to look a little farther than
you who judge offhand; especially as we, your
advisers, are responsible, while you, our audi-
ence, are not so. For if those who gave the ad-
vice, and those who took it, suffered equally,
you would judge more calmly; as it is, you visit
the disasters into which the whim of the mo-
ment may have led you upon the single person
of your adviser, not upon yourselves, his num-
erous companions in error.

[44] "However, I have not come forward
either to oppose or to accuse in the matter of
Mitylene; indeed, the question before us as
sensible men is not their guilt, but our inter-
ests. Though I prove them ever so guilty, I
shall not, therefore, advise their death, unless it
be expedient; nor though they should have
claims to indulgence, shall I recommend it, un-
less it be clearly for the good of the country. I
consider that we are deliberating for the future
more than for the present; and where Cleon is
so positive as to the useful deterrent effects that
will follow from making rebellion capital, I,
who consider the interests of the future quite
as much as he, as positively maintain the con-
trary. And I require you not to reject my useful
considerations for his specious ones: his speech
may have the attraction of seeming the more
just in your present temper against Mitylene;
but we are not in a court of justice, but in a
political assembly; and the question is not jus-
tice, but how to make the Mitylenians useful
to Athens.

[45] "Now of course communities have en-
acted the penalty of death for many offences
far lighter than this: still hope leads men to
venture, and no one ever yet put himself in
peril without the inward conviction that he
would succeed in his design. Again, was there
ever city rebelling that did not believe that it
possessed either in itself or in its alliances re-
sources adequate to the enterprise? All, states
and individuals, are alike prone to err, and
there is no law that will prevent them; or why
should men have exhausted the list of punish-
ments in search of enactments to protect them
from evildoers ? It is probable that in early times
the penalties for the greatest offences were less
severe, and that, as these were disregarded, the
penalty of death has been by degrees in most
cases arrived at, which is itself disregarded in
like manner. Either then some means of terror

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THUCYDIDES

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more terrible than this must be discovered, or
it must be owned that this restraint is useless;
and that as long as poverty gives men the cour-
age of necessity, or plenty fills them with the
ambition which belongs to insolence and pride,
and the other conditions of life remain each
under the thraldom of some fatal and master
passion, so long will the impulse never be
wanting to drive men into danger. Hope also
and cupidity, the one leading and the other
following, the one conceiving the attempt, the
other suggesting the facility of succeeding,
cause the widest ruin, and, although invisible
agents, are far stronger than the dangers that
are seen. Fortune, too, powerfully helps the de-
lusion and, by the unexpected aid that she
sometimes lends, tempts men to venture with
inferior means; and this is especially the case
with communities, because the stakes played
for are the highest, freedom or empire, and,
when all are acting together, each man irra-
tionally magnifies his own capacity. In fine, it
is impossible to prevent, and only great sim-
plicity can hope to prevent, human nature do-
ing what it has once set its mind upon, by
force of law or by any other deterrent force
whatsoever.

[46] "We must not, therefore, commit our-
selves to a false policy through a belief in the
efficacy of the punishment of death, or exclude
rebels from the hope of repentance and an early
atonement of their error. Consider a moment.
At present, if a city that has already revolted
perceive that it cannot succeed, it will come to
terms while it is still able to refund expenses,
and pay tribute afterwards. In the other case,
what city, think you, would not prepare better
than is now done, and hold out to the last
against its besiegers, if it is all one whether it
surrender late or soon? And how can it be
otherwise than hurtful to us to be put to the
expense of a siege, because surrender is out of
the question; and if we take the city, to receive
a ruined town from which we can no longer
draw the revenue which forms our real
strength against the enemy? We must not,
therefore, sit as strict judges of the offenders to
our own prejudice, but rather see how by mod-
erate chastisements we may be enabled to bene-
fit in future by the revenue-producing powers
of our dependencies; and we must make up
our minds to look for our protection not to
legal terrors but to careful administration. At
present we do exactly the opposite. When a free
community, held in subjection by force, rises,
as is only natural, and asserts its independence,

it is no sooner reduced than we fancy ourselves
obliged to punish it severely; although the
right course with freemen is not to chastise
them rigorously when they do rise, but rigor-
ously to watch them before they rise, and to
prevent their ever entertaining the idea, and,
the insurrection suppressed, to make as few
responsible for it as possible.

[47] "Only consider what a blunder you
would commit in doing as Clcon recommends.
As things are at present, in all the cities the peo-
ple is your friend, and either does not revolt
with the oligarchy, or, if forced to do so, be-
comes at once the enemy of the insurgents; so
that in the war with the hostile city you have
the masses on your side. But if you butcher the
people of Mitylene, who had nothing to do with
the revolt, and who, as soon as they got arms,
of their own motion surrendered the town, first
you will commit the crime of killing your bene-
factors; and next you will play directly into the
hands of the higher classes, who when they in-
duce their cities to rise, will immediately have
the people on their side, through your having
announced in advance the same punishment
for those who are guilty and for those who are
not. On the contrary, even if they were guilty,
you ought to seem not to notice it, in order to
avoid alienating the only class still friendly to
us. In short, I consider it iar more useful for
the preservation of our empire voluntarily to
put up with injustice, than to put to death,
however justly, those whom it is our interest to
keep alive. As for Cleon's idea that in punish-
ment the claims of justice and expediency can
both be satisfied, facts do not confirm the pos-
sibility of such a combination.

[48] "Confess, therefore, that this is the
wisest course, and without conceding too much
either to pity or to indulgence, by neither of
which motives do I any more than Cleon wish
you to be influenced, upon the plain merits of
the case before you, be persuaded by me to try
calmly those of the Mitylenians whom Paches
sent off as guilty, and to leave the rest undis-
turbed. This is at once best for the future, and
most terrible to your enemies at the present
moment; inasmuch as good policy against an
adversary is superior to the blind attacks of
brute force."

[41)] Such were the words of Diodotus. The
two opinions thus expressed were the ones that
most directly contradicted each other; and the
Athenians, notwithstanding their change of
feeling, now proceeded to a division, in which
the show of hands was almost equal, although

46-53]

the motion of Diodotus carried the day. An-
other galley was at once sent off in haste, for
fear that the first might reach Lesbos in the in-
terval, and the city be found destroyed; the
first ship having about a day and a night's start.
Wine and barley-cakes were provided for the
vessel by the Mitylenian ambassadors, and
great promises made if they arrived in time;
which caused the men to use such diligence
upon the voyage that they took their meals of
barley-cakes kneaded with oil and wine as they
rowed, and only slept by turns while the others
were at the oar. Luckily they met with no con-
trary wind, and the first ship making no haste
upon so horrid an errand, while the second
pressed on in the manner described, the first
arrived so little before them, that Paches had
only just had time to read the decree, and to
prepare to execute the sentence, when the sec-
ond put into port and prevented the massacre.
The danger of Mitylene had indeed been great.
[50] The other party whom Paches had sent
off as the prime movers in the rebellion, were
upon Clcon's motion put to death by the Athe-
nians, the number being rather more than a
thousand. The Athenians also demolished the
walls of the Mitylemans, and took possession
of their ships. Afterwards tribute was not im-
posed upon the Lesbians; but all their land,
except that of the Methymnians, was divided
into three thousand allotments, three hundred
of which were reserved as sacred for the gods,
and the rest assigned by lot to Athenian share-
holders, who were sent out to the island. With
these the Lesbians agreed to pay a rent of two
minae a year for each allotment, and cultivated
the land themselves. The Athenians also took
possession of the towns on the continent be-
longing to the Mitylenians, which thus became
for the future subject to Athens. Such were the
events that took place at Lesbos.

CHAPTER X

Ftjth Year of the War — Trial and Execution of
the Platacans — Corcyraean Revolution

/5/7 DURING the same summer, after the re-
duction of Lesbos, the Athenians under Nicias,
son of Niceratus, made an expedition against
the island of Minoa, which lies off Megara and
was used as a fortified post by the Megarians,
who had built a tower upon it. Nicias wished
to enable the Athenians to maintain their
blockade from this nearer station instead of
from Budorum and Salamis; to stop the Pelo-
galleys and privateers sailing out

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

420

unobserved from the island, as they had been
in the habit of doing; and at the same time pre-
vent anything from coming into Megara. Ac-
cordingly, after taking two towers projecting
on the side of Nisaea, by engines from the sea,
and clearing the entrance into the channel be-
tween the island and the shore, he next pro-
ceeded to cut off all communication by build-
ing a wall on the mainland at the point where
a bridge across a morass enabled succours to be
thrown into the island, which was not far off
from the continent. A few days sufficing to ac-
complish this, he afterwards raised some works
in the island also, and leaving a garrison there,
departed with his forces.

^527 About the same time in this summer,
the Plataeans, being now without provisions
and unable to support the siege, surrendered to
the Peloponnesians in the following manner.
An assault had been made upon the wall,
which the Plataeans were unable to repel. The
Lacedaemonian commander, perceiving their
weakness, wished to avoid taking the place by
storm; his instructions from Lacedaemon hav-
ing been so conceived, in order that if at any
future time peace should be made with Athens,
and they should agree each to restore the places
that they had taken in the war, Plataea might
be held to have come over voluntarily, and not
be included in the list. He accordingly sent a
herald to them to ask if they were willing vol-
untarily to surrender the town to the Lacedae-
monians, and accept them as their judges, upon
the understanding that the guilty should be
punished, but no one without form of law. The
Plataeans were now in the last state of weak-
ness, and the herald had no sooner delivered
his message than they surrendered the town.
The Peloponnesians fed them for some days
until the judges from Lacedaemon, who were
five in number, arrived. Upon their arrival no
charge was preferred; they simply called up the
Plataeans, and asked them whether they had
done the Lacedaemonians and allies any serv-
ice in the war then raging. The Plataeans
asked leave to speak at greater length, and de-
puted two of their number to represent them:
Astymachus, son of Asopolaus, and Lacon, son
of Aeimnestus, proxenus of the Lacedaemo-
nians, who came forward and spoke as follows:

[53] "Lacedaemonians, when we surren-
dered our city we trusted in you, and looked
forward to a trial more agreeable to the forms
of law than the present, to which we had no
idea of being subjected; the judges also in
whose hands we consented to place ourselves

430

THUCYDIDES

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were you, and you only (from whom we
thought we were most likely to obtain justice),
and not other persons, as is now the case. As
matters stand, we are afraid that we have been
doubly deceived. We have good reason to sus-
pect, not only that the issue to be tried is the
most terrible of all, but that you will not prove
impartial; if we may argue from the fact that
no accusation was first brought forward for us
to answer, but we had ourselves to ask leave to
speak, and from the question being put so
shortly, that a true answer to it tells against us,
while a false one can be contradicted. In this
dilemma, our safest, and indeed our only
course, seems to be to say something at all risks:
placed as we are, we could scarcely be silent
without being tormented by the damning
thought that speaking might have saved us.
Another difficulty that we have to encounter is
the difficulty of convincing you. Were we un-
known to each other we might profit by bring-
ing forward new matter with which you were
unacquainted: as it is, we can tell you nothing
that you do not know already, and we fear, not
that you have condemned us in your own
minds of having failed m our duty towards
you, and make this our crime, but that to please
a third party we have to submit to a trial the
result of which is already decided. [54] Nev-
ertheless, we will place before you what we
can justly urge, not only on the question of
the quarrel which the Thebans have against
us, but also as addressing you and the rest
of the Hellenes; and we will remind you of
our good services, and endeavour to prevail
with you.

"To your short question, whether we have
done the Lacedaemonians and allies any serv-
ice in this war, we say, if you ask us as enemies,
that to refrain from serving you was not to do
you injury; if as friends, that you are more in
fault for having inarched against us. During
the peace, and against the Mede, we acted
well: we have not now been the first to break
the peace, and we were the only Boeotians who
then joined in defending against the Mede the
liberty of Hellas. Although an inland people,
we were present at the action at Artemisium;
in the battle that took place in our territory we
iought by the side of yourselves and Pausanias;
and in all the other Hellenic exploits of the
time we took a part quite out of proportion to
our strength. Besides, you, as Lacedaemonians,
ought not to forget that at the time of the great
panic at Sparta, after the earthquake, caused
by the secession of the Helots to Ithome, we

sent the third part of our citizens to assist
you.

[55] "O" these great and historical occa-
sions such was the part that we chose, although
afterwards we became your enemies. For this
you were to blame. When we asked for your
alliance against our Theban oppressors, you re-
jected our petition, and told us to go to the
Athenians who were our neighbours, as you
lived too far off. In the war we never have
done to you, and never should have done to
you, anything unreasonable. If we refused to
desert the Athenians when you asked us, we
did no wrong; they had helped us against the
Thebans when you drew back, and we could
no longer give them up with honour; especially
as we had obtained their alliance and had been
admitted to their citizenship at our own re-
quest, and after receiving benefits at their
hands; but it was plainly our duty loyally to
obey their orders. Besides, the faults that either
of you may commit in your supremacy must
be laid, not upon the followers, but on the
chiefs that lead them astray.

^567 "With regard to the Thebans, they
have wronged us repeatedly, and their last ag-
gression, which has been the means of bring-
ing us into our present position, is within your
own knowledge. In seizing our city in time of
peace, and what is more at a holy time in the
month, they justly encountered our vengeance,
in accordance with the universal law which
sanctions resistance to an invader; and it can-
not now be right that we should suffer on their
account. By taking your own immediate inter-
est and their animosity as the test of justice,
you will prove yourselves to be rather waiters
on expediency than judges of right; although if
they seem useful to you now, we and the rest
of the Hellenes gave you much more valuable
help at a time of greater need. Now you are the
assailants, and others fear you; but at the crisis
to which we allude, when the barbarian threat-
ened all with slavery, the Thebans were on his
side. It is just, therefore, to put our patriotism
then against our error now, if error there has
been; and you will find the merit outweighing
the fault, and displayed at a juncture when
there were few Hellenes who would set their
valour against the strength of Xerxes, and
when greater praise was theirs who preferred
the dangerous path of honour to the safe
course of consulting their own interest with
respect to the invasion. To these few we be-
longed, and highly were we honoured for it;
and yet we now fear to perish by having again

54-59]

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

431

acted on the same principles, and chosen to act
well with Athens sooner than wisely with
Sparta. Yet in justice the same cases should be
decided in the same way, and policy should not
mean anything else than lasting gratitude for
the service of a good ally combined with a
proper attention to one's own immediate inter-
est.

[57] "Consider also that at present the Hel-
lenes generally regard you as a pattern of
worth and honour; and if you pass an unjust
sentence upon us in this which is no obscure
cause, but one in which you, the judges, are as
illustrious as we, the prisoners, are blameless,
take care that displeasure be not felt at an un-
worthy decision in the matter of honourable
men made by men yet more honourable than
they, and at the consecration in the national
temples of spoils taken from the Plataeans, the
benefactors of Hellas. Shocking indeed will it
seem for Lacedaemonians to destroy Plataea,
and for the city whose name your fathers in-
scribed upon the tripod at Delphi for its good
service, to be by you blotted out from the map
of Hellas, to please the Thebans. To such a
depth of misfortune have we fallen that, while
the Medes' success had been our ruin, Thebans
now supplant us in your once fond regards;
and we have been subjected to two dangers, the
greatest of any — that of dying of starvation
then, if we had not surrendered our town, and
now of being tried for our lives. So that we
Plataeans, after exertions beyond our power in
the cause of the Hellenes, are rejected by all,
forsaken and unassisted; helped by none of our
allies, and reduced to doubt the stability of our
only hope, yourselves.

[58] "Still, in the name of the gods who
once presided over our confederacy, and of
our own good service in the Hellenic cause,
we adjure you to relent; to recall the decision
which we fear that the Thebans may have
obtained from you; to ask back the gift that
you have given them, that they disgrace not
you by slaying us; to gain a pure instead of a
guilty gratitude, and not to gratify others to
be yourselves rewarded with shame. Our lives
may be quickly taken, but it will be a heavy
task to wipe away the infamy of the deed; as
we are no enemies whom you might justly
punish, but friends forced into taking arms
against you. To grant us our lives would be,
therefore, a righteous judgment; if you con-
sider also that we are prisoners who sur-
rendered of their own accord, stretching out
our hands for quarter, whose slaughter Hel-

lenic law forbids, and who besides were al-
ways your benefactors. Look at the sepulchres
of your fathers, slain by the Medes and buried
in our country, whom year by year we hon-
oured with garments and all other dues, and
the first-fruits of all that our land produced
in their season, as friends from a friendly
country and allies to our old companions in
arms. Should you not decide aright, your con-
duct would be the very opposite to ours. Con-
sider only: Pausanias buried them thinking
that he was laying them in friendly ground
and among men as friendly; but you, if you
kill us and make the Plataea n territory The-
ban, will leave your fathers and kinsmen in a
hostile soil and among their murderers, de-
prived of the honours which they now enjoy.
What is more, you will enslave the land in
which the freedom of the Hellenes was won,
make desolate the temples of the gods to whom
they prayed before they overcame the Medes,
and take away your ancestral sacrifices from
those who founded and instituted them.

[59] "It were not to your glory, Lacedae-
monians, cither to offend in this way against
the common law of the Hellenes and against
your own ancestors, or to kill us your bene-
factors to gratify another's hatred without hav-
ing been wronged yourselves: it were more so
to spare us and to yield to the impressions of
a reasonable compassion; reflecting not merely
on the awtul fate in store for us, but also on the
character of the sufferers, and on the impos-
sibility of predicting how soon misfortune may
fall even upon those who deserve it not. We,
as we have a right to do and as our need im-
pels us, entreat you, calling aloud upon the
gods at whose common altar all the Hellenes
worship, to hear our request, to be not un-
mindful of the oaths which your lathers swore,
and which we now plead — we supplicate you
by the tombs of your fathers, and appeal to
those that are gone to save us from falling into
the hands of the Thebans and their dearest
friends from being given up to their most de-
tested foes. We also remind you of that day on
which we did the most glorious deeds, by your
fathers' sides, we who now on this are like to
suffer the most dreadful fate. Finally, to do
what is necessary and yet most difficult for men
in our situation — that is, to make an end of
speaking, since with that ending the peril of
our lives draws near — in conclusion we say
that we did not surrender our city to the The-
bans (to that we would have preferred in-
glorious starvation), but trusted in and capitu-

432

THUCYDIDES

la ted to you; and it would be just, if we fail to
persuade you, to put us back in the same posi-
tion and let us take the chance that falls to us.
And at the same time we adjure you not to
give us up — your suppliants, Lacedaemonians,
out of your hands and faith, Plataeans foremost
of the Hellenic patriots, to Thebans, our most
hated enemies — but to be our saviours, and
not, while you free the rest of the Hellenes, to
bring us to destruction."

[60] Such were the words of the Plataeans.
The Thebans, afraid that the Lacedaemonians
might be moved by what they had heard, came
forward and said that they too desired to ad-
dress them, since the Plataeans had, against
their wish, been allowed to speak at length in-
stead of being confined to a simple answer to
the question. Leave being granted, the The-
bans spoke as follows:

[6/J "We should never have asked to make
this speech if the Plataeans on their side had
contended themselves with shortly answering
the question, and had not turned round and
made charges against us, coupled with a long
defence of themselves upon matters outside the
present inquiry and not even the subject of
accusation, and with praise of what no one
finds fault with. However, since they have
done so, we must answer their charges and
refute their self-praise, in order that neither
our bad name nor their good may help them,
but that you may hear the real truth on both
points, and so decide.

"The origin of our quarrel was this. We
settled Plataea some time after the rest of
Boeotia, together with other places out of
which we had driven the mixed population.
The Plataeans not choosing to recognize our
supremacy, as had been first arranged, but
separating themselves from the rest of the
Boeotians, and proving traitors to their na-
tionality, we used compulsion; upon which
they went over to the Athenians, and with
them did as much harm, for which we re-
taliated.

[62] "Next, when the barbarian invaded
Hellas, they say that they were the only Boeo-
tians who did not Medize; and this is where
they most glorify themselves and abuse us.
We say that if they did not Medize, it was be-
cause the Athenians did not do so either; just
as afterwards when the Athenians attacked the
Hellenes they, the Plataeans, were again the
only Boeotians who Atticized. And yet con-
sider the forms of our respective governments
when we so acted. Our city at that juncture

[BooK in

had neither an oligarchical constitution in
which all the nobles enjoyed equal rights, nor
a democracy, but that which is most opposed
to law and good government and nearest a
tyranny — the rule of a close cabal. These, hop-
ing to strengthen their individual power by
the success of the Mede, kept down by force
the people, and brought him into the town.
The city as a whole was not its own mistress
when it so acted, and ought not to be re-
proached for the errors that it committed while
deprived of its constitution. Examine only how
we acted after the departure of the Mede and
the recovery of the constitution; when the
Athenians attacked the rest of Hellas and
endeavoured to subjugate our country, of the
greater part of which faction had already made
them masters. Did not we fight and conquer at
Coronea and liberate Boeotia, and do we not
now actively contribute to the liberation of the
rest, providing horses to the cause and a force
unequalled by that of any other state in the
confederacy ?

"Let this suffice to excuse us for our Me-
dism. [63] We will now endeavour to show
that you have injured the Hellenes more than
we, and are more deserving of condign punish-
ment. It was in defence against us, say you,
that you became allies and citizens of Athens.
If so, you ought only to have called in the
Athenians against us, instead of joining them
in attacking others: it was open to you to do
this if you ever felt that they were leading you
where you did not wish to follow, as Lacedae-
mon was already your ally against the Mede,
as you so much insist; and this was surely
sufficient to keep us off, and above all to allow
you to deliberate in security. Nevertheless, of
your own choice and without compulsion you
chose to throw your lot m with Athens. And
you say that it had been base for you to betray
your benefactors; but it was surely far baser
and more iniquitous to sacrifice the whole
body of the Hellenes, your fellow confederates,
who were liberating Hellas, than the Athenians
only, who were enslaving it. The return that
you made them was therefore neither equal
nor honourable, since you called them in, as
you say, because you were being oppressed
yourselves, and then became their accomplices
in oppressing others; although baseness rather
consists in not returning like for like than in
not returning what is justly due but must be
unjustly paid.

[64] "Meanwhile, after thus plainly show-
ing that it was not for the sake of the Hellenes

6o-6;]

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

433

that you alone then did not Medize, but be-
cause the Athenians did not do so either, and
you wished to side with them and to be against
the rest; you now claim the benefit of good
deeds done to please your neighbours. This
cannot be admitted: you chose the Athenians,
and with them you must stand or fall. Nor can
you plead the league then made and claim that
it should now protect you. You abandoned
that league, and offended against it by helping
instead of hindering the subjugation of the
Aeginetans and others of its members, and
that not under compulsion, but while in en-
joyment of the same institutions that you enjoy
to the present hour, and no one forcing you as
in our case. Lastly, an invitation was addressed
to you before you were blockaded to be neutral
and join neither party: this you did not accept.
Who then merit the detestation of the Hellenes
more justly than you, you who sought their
ruin under the mask of honour'5 The former
virtues that you allege you now show not to
be proper to your character; the real bent of
your nature has been at length dammngly
proved: when the Athenians took the path of
injustice you followed them.

"Of our unwilling Medism and your wilful
Atticizing this then is our explanation. [65]
The last wrong of which you complain con-
sists in our having, as you say, lawlessly in-
vaded your town in time of peace and festival.
Here again we cannot think that we were more
in fault than yourselves. If of our own proper
motion we made an armed attack upon your
city and ravaged your territory, we aie guilty;
but if the first men among you in estate and
family, wishing to put an end to the foreign
connection and to restore you to the common
Boeotian country, of their own free will invited
us, wherein is our crime? Where wrong is
done, those who lead, as you say, are more to
blame than those who follow. Not that, in
our judgment, wrong was done either by them
or by us. Citizens like yourselves, and with
more at stake than you, they opened their own
walls and introduced us into their own city,
not as foes but as friends, to prevent the bad
among you from becoming worse; to give
honest men their due; to reform principles
without attacking persons, since you were not
to be banished from your city, but brought
home to your kindred, nor to be made enemies
to any, but friends alike to all.

^667 "That our intention was not hostile is
proved by our behaviour. We did no harm to
any one, but publicly invited those who wished

to live under a national, Boeotian government
to come over to us; which as first you gladly
did, and made an agreement with us and re-
mained tranquil, until you became aware of
the smallness of our numbers. Now it is pos-
sible that there may have been something not
quite fair in our entering without the consent
of your commons. At any rate you did not re-
pay us in kind. Instead of refraining, as we
had done, from violence, and inducing us to
retire by negotiation, you fell upon us in viola-
tion of your agreement, and slew some of us in
fight, of which we do not so much complain,
for in that there was a certain justice; but
others who held out their hands and received
quarter, and whose lives you subsequently
promised us, you lawlessly butchered. If this
was not abominable, what is? And after these
three crimes Committed one after the other —
the violation of your agreement, the murder
of the men afterwards, and the lying breach of
your promise not to kill them, if we refrained
from injuring your property in the country —
you still affirm that we are the criminals and
yourselves pretend to escape justice. Not so,
if these your judges decide aright, but you will
be punished for all together.

[67] "Such, Lacedaemonians, are the facts.
We have gone into them at some length both
on your account and on our own, that you may
feel that you will justly condemn the prisoners,
and we, that we have given an additional sanc-
tion to our vengeance. We would also prevent
you from being melted by hearing of their past
virtues, if any such they had: these may be
fairly appealed to by the victims of injustice,
but only aggravate the guilt of criminals, since
they oflend against their better nature. Nor let
them gain anything by crying and wailing, by
calling upon your fathers' tombs and their own
desolate condition. Against this we point to
the far more dreadful fate of our youth,
butchered at their hands; the fathers of whom
either fell at Coronea, bringing Bocotia over
to you, or seated, forlorn old men by desolate
hearths, with far more reason implore your
justice upon the prisoners. The pity which they
appeal to is rather due to men who suffer un-
worthily; those who suffer justly as they do
are on the contrary subjects for triumph. For
their present desolate condition they have
themselves to blame, since they wilfully re-
jected the better alliance. Their lawless act was
not provoked by any action of ours: hate, not
justice, inspired their decision; and even now
the satisfaction which they afford us is not

434

THUCYDIDES

[BOOK in

adequate; they will suffer by a legal sentence,
not as they pretend as suppliants asking for
quarter in battle, but as prisoners who have
surrendered upon agreement to take their trial.
Vindicate, therefore, Lacedaemonians, the
Hellenic law which they have broken; and to
us, the victims of its violation, grant the re-
ward merited by our zeal. Nor let us be sup-
planted in your favour by their harangues, but
offer an example to the Hellenes, that the
contests to which you invite them are of deeds,
not words: good deeds can be shortly stated,
but where wrong is done a wealth of language
is needed to veil its deformity. However, if
leading powers were to do what you are now
doing, and putting one short question to all
alike were to decide accordingly, men would
be less tempted to seek fine phrases to cover
bad actions." »

[68] Such were the words of the Thebans.
The Lacedaemonian judges decided that the
question whether they had received any service
from the Plataeans in the war, was a fair one
for them to put; as they had always invited
them to be neutral, agreeably to the original
covenant of Pausanias after the defeat of the
Mede, and had again definitely oflcrcd them
the same conditions before the blockade. This
offer having been refused, they were now, they
conceived, by the loyalty of their intention re-
leased from their covenant; and having, as
they considered, suffered evil at the hands of
the Plataeans, they brought them in again
one by one and asked each of them the same
question, that is to say, whether they had done
the Lacedaemonians and allies any service in
the war; and upon their saying that they had
not, took them out and slew them, all without
exception. The number of Plataeans thus mas-
sacred was not less than two hundred, with
twenty-live Athenians who had shared in the
siege. The women were taken as slaves. The
city the Thebans gave for about a year to some
political emigrants from Mcgara and to the
surviving Plataeans of their own party to in-
habit, and afterwards rared it to the ground
from the very foundations, and built on to the
precinct of Hera an inn two hundred feet
square, with rooms all round above and be-
low, making use for this purpose of the roofs
and doors of the Plataeans: of the rest of the
materials in the wall, the brass and the iron,
they made couches which they dedicated to
Hera, tor whom they also built a stone chapel
of a hundred feet square. The land they con-
fiscated and let out on a ten years' lease to

Theban occupiers. The adverse attitude of the
Lacedaemonians in the whole Platacan affair
was mainly adopted to please the Thebans,
who were thought to be useful in the war at
that moment raging. Such was the end ot
Plataea, in the ninety-third year after she be-
came the ally of Athens.

[69] Meanwhile, the forty ships of the Pelo-
ponnesians that had gone to the relief of the
Lesbians, and which we left flying across the
open sea, pursued by the Athenians, were
caught in a storm off Crete, and scattering
from thence made their way to Peloponnese,
where they found at Cyllene thirteen Leucadi-
an and Ambraciot galleys, with Brasidas, son
of Tellis, lately arrived as counsellor to Alci-
das; the Lacedaemonians, upon the failure of
the Lesbian expedition, having resolved to
strengthen their fleet and sail to Corey ra,
where a revolution had broken out, so as to ar-
rive there before the twelve Athenian ships at
Naupactus could be reinforced from Athens.
Brasidas and Alcidas began to prepare accord-
ingly.

[?°] The Coicyraean revolution began with
the return of the prisoners taken in the sea-
fights off Rpidamnus. These the Corinthians
had released, nominally upon the security of
eight hundred talents given by their proxctu,
but in reality upon their engagement to bring
over Corcyra to Corinth. These men proceeded
to canvass each of the citizens, and to intrigue
with the view of detaching the city from Ath-
ens. Upon the arrival of an Athenian and a
Corinthian vessel, with envoys on board, a con-
ference was held in which the Corcyraeans
voted to remain allies of the Athenians accord-
ing to their agreement, but to be friends of the
Peloponnesians as they had been formerly.
Meanwhile, the returned prisoners brought
Peithias, a volunteer proxenus of the Athenians
and leader of the commons, to trial, upon the
charge of enslaving Corcyra to Athens. He,
being acquitted, retorted by accusing five of the
richest of their number of cutting stakes in the
ground sacred to Zeus and Alcinous; the legal
penalty being a stater for each stake. Upon
their conviction, the amount of the penalty be-
ing very large, they seated themselves as sup-
pliants m the temples to be allowed to pay it
by instalments; but Peithias, who was one ot
the senate, prevailed upon that body to enforce
the law; upon which the accused, rendered des-
perate by the law, and also learning that Peith-
ias had the intention, while still a member
of the senate, to persuade the people to con-

68-77]

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

435

elude a defensive and offensive alliance with
Athens, banded together armed with daggers,
and suddenly bursting into the senate killed
Peithias and sixty others, senators and private
persons; some few only of the party of Peithias
taking refuge in the Athenian galley, which
had not yet departed.

[yi] After this outrage, the conspirators
summoned the Corcyraeans to an assembly,
and said that this would turn out for the best,
and would save them from being enslaved by
Athens: for the future, they moved to receive
neither party unless they came peacefully in a
single ship, treating any larger number as ene-
mies. This motion made, they compelled it to
be adopted, and instantly sent off envoys to
Athens to justify what had been done and to
dissuade the refugees there from any hostile
proceedings which might lead to a reaction.

[^2] Upon the arrival of the embassy, the
Athenians arrested the envoys and all who lis-
tened to them, as revolutionists, and lodged
them in Aegina. Meanwhile a Corinthian gal-
ley arriving in the island with Lacedaemonian
envoys, the dominant Corcyraean party at-
tacked the commons and defeated them in bat-
tle. Night coming on, the commons took ref-
uge in the Acropolis and the higher parts of the
city, and concentrated themselves there, having
also possession of the Hyllaic harbour; their
adversaries occupying the market-place, where
most of them lived, and the harbour adjoining,
looking towards the mainland.

[jlJ The next day passed in skirmishes of
little importance, each party sending into the
country to offer freedom to the slaves and to
invite them to join them. The mass of the
slaves answered the appeal of the commons;
their antagonists being reinforced by eight
hundred mercenaries from the continent.

/7£/ After a day's interval hostilities recom-
menced, victory remaining with the commons,
who had the advantage in numbers and posi-
tion, the women also valiantly assisting them,
pelting with tiles from the houses, and support-
ing the mele*e with a fortitude beyond their
sex. Towards dusk, the oligarchs in full rout,
fearing that the victorious commons might
assault and carry the arsenal and put them to
the sword, fired the houses round the market-
place and the lodging-houses, in order to bar
their advance; sparing neither their own, nor
those of their neighbours; by which much stuff
of the merchants was consumed and the city
risked total destruction, if a wind had come to
help the flame by blowing on it. Hostilities

now ceasing, both sides kept quiet, passing the
night on guard, while the Corinthian ship
stole out to sea upon the victory of the com-
mons, and most of the mercenaries passed over
secretly to the continent.

/757 The next day the Athenian general,
Nicostratus, son of Diitrephes, came up from
Naupactus with twelve ships and five hundred
Messenian heavy infantry. He at once endeav-
oured to bring about a settlement, and persuad-
ed the two parties to agree together to bring
to trial ten of the ringleaders, who presently
fled, while the rest were to live in peace, mak-
ing terms with each other, and entering into a
defensive and offensive alliance with the Athe-
nians. This arranged, he was about to sail
away, when the leaders of the commons in-
duced him to leave them five of his ships to
make their adversaries less disposed to move,
while they manned and sent with him an
equal number of their own. He had no sooner
consented, than they began to enroll their ene-
mies for the ships; and these, fearing that they
might be sent off to Athens, seated themselves
as suppliants in the temple of the Dioscuri. An
attempt on the part of Nicostratus to reassure
them and to persuade them to rise proving un-
successful, the commons armed upon this pre-
text, alleging the refusal of their adversaries to
sail with them as a proof of the hollow ness of
their intentions, and took their arms out of
their houses, and would have dispatched some
whom they fell in with, if Nicostratus had not
prevented it. The rest of the party, seeing what
was going on, seated themselves as suppliants
in the temple of Hera, being not less than four
hundred in number; until the commons, fear-
ing that they might adopt some desperate reso-
lution, induced them to rise, and conveyed
them over to the island in front of the temple,
where provisions were sent across to them.

[j6] At this stage in the revolution, on the
fourth or fifth day after the removal of the
men to the island, the Peloponncsian ships ar-
rived from Cyllene where they had been sta-
tioned since their return from Ionia, fifty-three
in number, still under the command of Alci-
das, but with Brasidas also on board as his ad-
viser; and dropping anchor at Sybota, a har-
bour on the mainland, at daybreak made sail
for Corey ra.

[??] The Corcyraeans in great confusion
and alarm at the state of things in the city and
at the approach of the invader, at once proceed-
ed to equip sixty vessels, which they sent out,
as fast as they were manned, against the en-

436

THUCYDIDES

cmy, in spite of the Athenians recommending
them to let them sail out first, and to follow
themselves afterwards with all their ships to-
gether. Upon their vessels coming up to the
enemy in this straggling fashion, two immedi-
ately deserted: in others the crews were fight-
ing among themselves, and there was no order
in anything that was done; so that the Pelo-
ponnesians, seeing their confusion, placed
twenty ships to oppose the Corcyraeans, and
ranged the rest against the twelve Athenian
ships, amongst which were the two vessels
Salami nia and Paralus.

[j8] While the Corcyraeans, attacking with-
out judgment and in small detachments, were
already crippled by their own misconduct, the
Athenians, afraid of the numbers of the enemy
and of being surrounded, did not venture to
attack the main body or even the centre of the
division opposed to them, but fell upon its
wing and sank one vessel; after which the Pel-
oponnesians formed in a circle, and the Athe-
nians rowed round them and tried to throw
them into disorder. Perceiving this, the divi-
sion opposed to the Corcyraeans, fearing a rep-
etition of the disaster of Naupactus, came to
support their friends, and the whole fleet now
bore down, united, upon the Athenians, who
retired before it, backing water, retiring as
leisurely as possible in order to give the Corcy-
raeans time to escape, while the enemy was
thus kept occupied. Such was the character of
this sea-fight, which lasted until sunset.

^797 The Corcyraeans now feared that the
enemy would follow up their victory and sail
against the town and rescue the men in the
island, or strike some other blow equally de-
cisive, and accordingly carried the men over
agtim to the temple of Hera, and kept guard
over the city. The Peloponncsians, however,
although victorious in the sea-fight, did not
venture to attack the town, but took the thir-
teen Corcyraean vessels which they had cap-
tured, and with them sailed back to the conti-
nent from whence they had put out. The next
day equally they refrained from attacking the
city, although the disorder and panic were at
their height, and though Brasidas, it is said,
urged Alcidas, his superior officer, to do so,
but they landed upon the promontory of Leu-
kimme and laid waste the country.

[So] Meanwhile the commons in Corcyra,
being still in great fear of the fleet attacking
them, came to a parley with the suppliants and
their friends, in order to save the town; and
prevailed upon some of them to go on board

[BooK in

the ships, of which they still manned thirty,
against the expected attack. But the Pelopon-
nesians after ravaging the country until mid-
day sailed away, and towards nightfall were
informed by beacon signals of the approach of
sixty Athenian vessels from Leucas, under the
command of Eurymedon, son of Thucles;
which had been sent off by the Athenians upon
the news of the revolution and of the fleet with
Alcidas being about to sail for Corcyra.

[81] The Peloponnesians accordingly at
once set off in haste by night for home, coast-
ing along shore; and hauling their ships across
the Isthmus of Leucas, in order not to be seen
doubling it, so departed. The Corcyraeans,
made aware of the approach of the Athenian
fleet and of the departure of the enemy,
brought the Messenians from outside the walls
into the town, and ordered the fleet which
they had manned to sail round into the Hyl-
laic harbour; and while it was so doing, slew
such of their enemies as they laid hands on,
dispatching afterwards, as they landed them,
those whom they had persuaded to go on
board the ships. Next they went to the sanctu-
ary of Hera and persuaded about fifty men to
take their trial, and condemned them all to
death. The mass of the suppliants who had re-
fused to do so, on seeing what was taking
place, slew each other there in the consecrated
ground; while some hanged themselves upon
the trees, and others destroyed themselves as
they were severally able. During seven days
that Eurymedon stayed with his sixty ships, the
Corcyraeans were engaged in butchering those
of their fellow citizens whom they regarded
as their enemies: and although the crime im-
puted was that of attempting to put down the
democracy, some were slain also for private
hatred, others by their debtors because oi the
moneys owed to them. Death thus raged in
every shape; and, as usually happens at such
times, there was no length to which violence
did not go; sons were killed by their fathers,
and suppliants dragged from the altar or slam
upon it; while some were even walled up in
the temple of Dionysus and died there.

[82] So bloody was the march of the revolu-
tion, and the impression which it made was
the greater as it was one of the first to occur.
Later on, one may say, the whole Hellenic
world was convulsed; struggles being every-
where made by the popular chiefs to bring in
the Athenians, and by the oligarchs to intro-
duce the Lacedaemonians. In peace there
would have been neither the pretext nor the

78-83]

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

437

wish to make such an invitation; but in war,
with an alliance always at the command of
either faction for the hurt of their adversaries
and their own corresponding advantage, op-
portunities for bringing in the foreigner were
never wanting to the revolutionary parties.
The sufferings which revolution entailed upon
the cities were many and terrible, such as have
occurred and always will occur, as long as the
nature of mankind remains the same; though
in a severer or milder form, and varying in
their symptoms, according to the variety of the
particular cases. In peace and prosperity, states
and individuals have better sentiments, because
they do not find themselves suddenly confront-
ed with imperious necessities; but war takes
away the easy supply of daily wants, and so
proves a rough master, that brings most men's
characters to a level with their fortunes. Revo-
lution thus ran its course from city to city, and
the places which it arrived at last, from having
heard what had been done before, carried to a
still greater excess the refinement of their in-
ventions, as manifested in the cunning of their
enterprises and the atrocity of their reprisals.
Words had to change their ordinary meaning
and to take that which was now given them.
Reckless audacity came to be considered the
courage of a loyal ally; prudent hesitation,
specious cowardice; moderation was held to be
a cloak for unmanlmess; ability to see all sides
of a question, inaptness to act on any. Frantic
violence became the attribute of manliness;
cautious plotting, a justifiable means of self-
defence. The advocate of extreme measures
was always trustworthy; his opponent a man to
be suspected. To succeed in a plot was to have
a shrewd head, to divine a plot a still shrewder;
but to try to provide against having to do
either was to break up your party and to be
afraid of your adversaries. In fine, to forestall
an intending criminal, or to suggest the idea
of a crime where it was wanting, was equally
commended, until even blood became a weak-
er tie than party, from the superior readiness
of those united by the latter to dare everything
without reserve; for such associations had not
in view the blessings derivable from estab-
lished institutions but were formed by ambi-
tion for their overthrow; and the confidence of
their members in each other rested less on any
religious sanction than upon complicity in
crime. The fair proposals of an adversary were
met with jealous precautions by the stronger of
the two, and not with a generous confidence.
Revenge also was held of more account than

self-preservation. Oaths of reconciliation, being
only proffered on either side to meet an im-
mediate difficulty, only held good so long as no
other weapon was at hand; but when oppor-
tunity offered, he who first ventured to seize
it and to take his enemy off his guard, thought
this perfidious vengeance sweeter than an open
one, since, considerations of safety apart, suc-
cess by treachery won him the palm of superior
intelligence. Indeed it is generally the case that
men are readier to call rogues clever than sim-
pletons honest, and are as ashamed of being
the second as they are proud of being the
first. The cause of all these evils was the
lust for power arising from greed and ambi-
tion; and from these passions proceeded the vi-
olence of parties once engaged in contention.
The leaders in the cities, each provided with
the fairest professions, on the one side with
the cry of political equality of the people, on
the other of a moderate aristocracy, sought
prizes for themselves in those public interests
which they pretended to cherish, and, recoil-
ing from no means in their struggles ior ascen-
dancy, engaged in the direst excesses; in their
acts of vengeance they went to even greater
lengths, not stopping at what justice or the
good of the state demanded, but making the
party caprice of the moment their only stand-
ard, and invoking with equal readiness the
condemnation of an unjust verdict or the au-
thority of the strong arm to glut the animosities
of the hour. Thus religion was in honour with
neither party; but the use of fair phrases to ar-
rive at guilty ends was in high reputation.
Meanwhile the moderate part of the citizens
perished between the two, either for not join-
ing in the quarrel, or because envy would not
suffer them to escape.

[8]] Thus every form of iniquity took root
in the Hellenic countries by reason of the
troubles. The ancient simplicity into which
honour so largely entered was laughed down
and disappeared; and society became divided
into camps in which no man trusted his fellow.
To put an end to this, there was neither prom-
ise to be depended upon, nor oath that could
command respect; but all parties dwelling rath-
er in their calculation upon the hopelessness of
a permanent state of things, were more intent
upon self-defence than capable of confidence.
In this contest the blunter wits were most suc-
cessful. Apprehensive of their own deficiencies
and of the cleverness of their antagonists, they
feared to be worsted in debate and to be sur-
prised by the combinations of their more versa-

438

THUCYDIDES

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tile opponents, and so at once boldly had re-
course to action: while their adversaries, ar-
rogantly thinking that they should know in
time, and that it was unnecessary to secure by
action what policy afforded, often fell victims
to their want of precaution.

[84] Meanwhile Corcyra gave the first ex-
ample of most of the crimes alluded to; of the
reprisals exacted by the governed who had
never experienced equitable treatment or in-
deed aught but insolence from their rulers —
when their hour came; of the iniquitous re-
solves of those who desired to get rid of their
accustomed poverty, and ardently coveted their
neighbours' goods; and lastly, of the savage and
pitiless excesses into which men who had begun
the struggle, not in a class but in a party spirit,
were hurried by their ungovernable passions.
In the confusion into which life was now
thrown in the cities, human nature, always re-
belling against the law and now its master,
gladly showed itself ungoverned in passion,
above respect for justice, and the enemy of all
superiority; since revenge would not have been
set above religion, and gain above justice, had
it not been for the fatal power of envy. Incfeed
men too often take upon themselves in the
prosecution of their revenge to set the example
of doing away with those general laws to
which all alike can look for salvation in ad-
versity, instead of allowing them to subsist
against the day of danger when their aid may
be required.

[85] While the revolutionary passions thus
for the first time displayed themselves in the
factions ol Corcyra, Eurymedon and the Athe-
nian ilcct sailed away; after which some five
hundred Corey raean exiles who had succeeded
in escaping, took some forts on the mainland,
and becoming masters of the Corcyraean terri-
tory over the water, made this their base to
plunder their countrymen in the island, and
did so much damage as to cause a severe fam-
ine in the town. They also sent envoys to Lace-
dacinon and Corinth to negotiate their restora-
tion; but meeting with no success, afterwards
got together boats and mercenaries and crossed
over to the island, being about six hundred in
all; and burning their boats so as to have no
hope except in becoming masters of the
country, went up to Mount Istone, and forti-
fying themselves there, began to annoy those
in the city and obtained command of the
country.

[86] At the close of the same summer the
Athenians sent twenty ships under the com-

mand of Laches, son of Melanopus, and Char-
oeades, son of Euphiletus, to Sicily, where the
Syracusans and Leontines were at war. The
Syracusans had for allies all the Dorian cities
except Camarina — these had been included in
the Lacedaemonian confederacy from the com-
mencement of the war, though they had not
taken any active part in it — the Leontines had
Camarina and the Chalcidian cities. In Italy
the Locrians were for the Syracusans, the Rhe-
gians for their Leontine kinsmen. The allies
of the Leontines now sent to Athens and ap-
pealed to their ancient alliance and to their
Ionian origin, to persuade the Athenians to
send them a fleet, as the Syracusans were block-
ading them by land and sea. The Athenians
sent it upon the plea of their common descent,
but in reality to prevent the exportation of
Sicilian corn to Peloponnese and to test the
possibility of bringing Sicily into subjection.
Accordingly they established themselves at
Rhegium in Italy, and from thence carried on
the war in concert with their allies.

CHAPTER XI

Sixth Year of the Wat — Campaigns of Demos-
thenes tn Western Greece — Ruin of Ambracia

SUMMER was now over. [8j] The winter fol-
lowing, the plague a second time attacked the
Athenians; for although it had never entirely
left them, still there had been a notable abate-
ment in its ravages. The second visit lasted no
less than a year, the first having lasted two;
and nothing distressed the Athenians and re-
duced their power more than this. No less than
four thousand four hundred heavy infantry in
the ranks died of it and three hundred cavalry,
besides a number of the multitude that was
never ascertained. At the same time took place
the numerous earthquakes in Athens, Euboea,
and Boeotia, particularly at Orchomenus in the
last-named country.

[88] The same winter the Athenians in Sic-
ily and the Rhegians, with thirty ships, made
an expedition against the islands of Aeolus; it
being impossible to invade them in summer,
owing to the want of water. These islands are
occupied by the Liparaeans, a Cnidian colony,
who live in one of them of no great size called
Lipara; and from this as their headquarters
cultivate the rest, Didyme, Strongyle, and
Hiera. In Hiera the people in those parts be-
lieve that Hephaestus has his forge, from the
quantity of flame which they see it send out by
night, and of smoke by day. These islands lie

84-92]

off the coast of the Sicels and Messmese, and
were allies of the Syracusans. The Athenians
laid waste their land, and as the inhabitants
did not submit, sailed back to Rhegium. Thus
the winter ended, and with it ended the fifth
year of this war, of which Thucydides was the
historian.

[89] The next summer the Peloponnesians
and their allies set out to invade Attica under
the command of Agis, son of Archidamus, and
went as far as the Isthmus, but numerous
earthquakes occurring, turned back again
without the invasion taking place. About the
same time that these earthquakes were so com-
mon, the sea at Orobiae, in Euboea, retiring
from the then line of coast, returned in a huge
wave and invaded a great part of the town, and
retreated leaving some of it still under water;
so that what was once land is now sea; such of
the inhabitants perishing as could not run up
to the higher ground in time. A similar inun-
dation also occurred at Atalanta, the island off
the Opuntian Locnan coast, carrying away
part of the Athenian fort and wrecking one of
two ships which were drawn up on the beach.
At Peparethus also the sea retreated a little,
without however any inundation following;
and an earthquake threw down part of the
wall, the town hall, and a few other buildings.
The cause, in my opinion, of this phenomenon
must be sought in the earthquake. At the
point where its shock has been the most violent,
the sea is driven back and, suddenly recoiling
with redoubled force, causes the inundation.
Without an earthquake I do not see how such
an accident could happen.

[90] During the same summer different op-
erations were carried on by the different belig-
erents in Sicily; by the Sicehots themselves
against each other, and by the Athenians and
their allies: I shall however confine myself to*
the actions in which the Athenians took part,
choosing the most important. The death of the
Athenian general Charoeades, killed by the
Syracusans in battle, left Laches in the sole
command of the fleet, which he now directed
in concert with the allies against Mylae, a place
belonging to the Messincse. Two Messinese
battalions in garrison at Mylae laid an ambush
for the party landing from the ships, but were
routed with great slaughter by the Athenians
and their allies, who thereupon assaulted the
fortification and compelled them to surrender
the Acropolis and to march with them upon
Messina. This town afterwards also submitted
upon the approach of the Athenians and their

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

allies, and gave hostages and all other securities
reouired.

/ 9/7 The same summer the Athenians sent
thirty ships round Peloponnese under Demos-
thenes, son of Alcisthenes, and Procles, son of
Theodorus, and sixty others, with two thou-
sand heavy infantry, against Melos, under Ni-
cias, son of Niceratus; wishing to reduce the
Melians, who, although islanders, refused to
be subjects of Athens or even to join her con-
federacy. The devastation of their land not
procuring their submission, the fleet, weighing
from Mclos, sailed to Oropus in the territory
of Graea, and landing at nightfall, the heavy
infantry started at once from the ships by land
for Tanagra in Boeotia, where they were met
by the whole levy from Athens, agreeably to a
concerted signal, under the command of Hip-
ponicus, son of Calhas, and Eurymedon, son
of Thucles. They encamped, and passing that
day in ravaging the Tanagraean territory, re-
mained there for the night; and next day, after
defeating those of the Tanagraeans who sailed
out against them and some Thebans who had
come up to help the Tanagraeans, took some
arms, set up a trophy, and retired, the troops
to the city and the others to the ships. Nicias
with his sixty ships coasted alongshore and
ravaged the Locrian seaboard, and so returned
home.

^927 About this time the Lacedaemonians
founded their colony of Heraclea in Trachis,
their object being the following: the Malians
form in all three tribes, the Paralians, the
Hiereans, and the Trachinians. The last of
these having suffered severely in a war with
their neighbours the Oetaeans, at first intend-
ed to give themselves up to Athens; but after-
wards fearing not to find in her the security
that they sought, sent to Laccdaemon, having
chosen Tisamenus for their ambassador. In this
embassy joined also the Dorians from the
mother country of the Lacedaemonians, with
the same request, as they themselves also suf-
fered from the same enemy. After hearing
them, the Lacedaemonians determined to send
out the colony, wishing to assist the Trachini-
ans and Dorians, and also because they thought
that the proposed town would lie conveniently
for the purposes of the war against the Atheni-
ans. A fleet might be got ready there against
Euboea, with the advantage of a short passage
to the island; and the town would also be use-
ful as a station on the road to Thrace. In short,
everything made the Lacedaemonians eager
to found the place. After first consulting the

440

THUCYDIDES

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god at Delphi and receiving a favourable an-
swer, they sent off the colonists, Spartans, and
Penoeci, inviting also any of the rest of the
Hellenes who might wish to accompany them,
except lonians, Achaeans, and certain other na-
tionalities; three Lacedaemonians leading as
founders of the colony, Leon, Alcidas, and
Damagon. The settlement effected, they forti-
fied anew the city, now called Heraclea, distant
about four miles and a half from Thermopylae
and two miles and a quarter from the sea, and
commenced building docks, closing the side
towards Thermopylae just by the pass itself,
in order that they might be easily defended.

[93] The foundation of this town, evidently
meant to annoy Euboea (the passage across to
Cenaeum in that island being a short one), at
first caused some alarm at Athens, which the
event however did nothing to justify, the town
never giving them any trouble. The reason
of this was as follows. The Thessahans, who
were sovereign in those parts, and whose ter-
ritory was menaced by its toundation, were
afraid that it might prove a very powerful
neighbour, and accordingly continually ha-
rassed and made war upon the new settlers,
until they at last wore them out in spite of
their originally considerable numbers, people
flocking from all quarters to a place founded
by the Lacedaemonians, and thus thought se-
cure of prosperity. On the other hand the Lace-
daemonians themselves, in the persons of their
governors, did their full share towards ruining
its prosperity and reducing its population, as
they frightened away the greater part of the
inhabitants by governing harshly and in some
cases not fairly, and thus made it easier for
their neighbours to prevail against them.

/9^7 The same summer, about the same time
that the Athenians were detained at Mclos,
their fellow citizens in the thirty ships cruising
round Peloponnese, after cutting off some
guards in an ambush at Ellomenus in Leu-
cadia, subsequently went against Leucas itself
with a large armament, having been rein-
forced by the whole levy of the Acarnanians
except Oeniadae, and by the Zacynthians and
Cephallenians and fifteen ships from Corcyra.
While the Leucadians witnessed the devasta-
tion of their land, without and within the
isthmus upon which the town of Leucas and
the temple of Apollo stand, without making
any movement on account of the overwhelm-
ing numbers of the enemy, the Acarnanians
urged Demosthenes, the Athenian general, to
build a wall so as to cut off the town from the

continent, a measure which they were con-
vinced would secure its capture and rid them
once and for all of a most troublesome enemy.
Demosthenes however had in the mean-
while been persuaded by the Mcssenians that
it was a fine opportunity for him, having so
large an army assembled, to attack the Aetoli-
ans, who were not only the enemies of Nau-
pactus, but whose reduction would further
make it easy to gain the rest of that part of the
continent for the Athenians. The Aetolian na-
tion, although numerous and warlike, yet
dwelt in unwalled villages scattered far apart,
and had nothing but light armour, and might,
according to the Messenians, be subdued with-
out much difficulty before succours could ar-
rive. The plan which they recommended was
to attack first the Apodotians, next the Ophio-
nians, and after these the Eurytanians, who are
the largest tribe in Aetolia, and speak, as is
said, a language exceedingly difficult to under-
stand, and eat their flesh raw. These once sub-
dued, the rest would easily come in.

[95] To this plan Demosthenes consented,
not only to please the Messenians, but also in
the belief that by adding the Aetolia ns to his
other continental allies he would be able, with-
out aid from home, to march against the Boeo-
tians by way of Ozolian Locris to Kytimum in
Doris, keeping Parnassus on his right until he
descended to the Phocians, whom he could
force to join him if their ancient friendship for
Athens did not, as he anticipated, at once de-
cide them to do so. Arrived in Phocis he was
already upon the frontier of Boeotia. He ac-
cordingly weighed from Leucas, against the
wish of the Acarnanians, and with his whole
armament sailed along the coast to Sollium,
where he communicated to them his intention;
and upon their refusing to agree to it on ac-
count of the non-investment of Leucas, him-
self with the rest of the forces, the Cephalleni-
ans, the Messenians, and Zacynthians, and
three hundred Athenian marines from his own
ships (the fifteen Corey raean vessels having
departed), started on his expedition against
the Aetolians. His base he established at Oene-
on in Locris, as the Ozolian Locrians were al-
lies of Athens and were to meet him with all
their forces in the interior. Being neighbours
of the Aetolians and armed in the same way,
it was thought that they would be of great
service upon the expedition, from their ac-
quaintance with the localities and the warfare
of the inhabitants.

^967 After bivouacking with the army in the

93-TOi 1

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

441

precinct of Nemcan Zeus, in which the poet
Hesiocl is said to have been killed by the people
of the country, according to an oracle which
had foretold that he should die in Nemea, De-
mosthenes set out at daybreak to invade Aeto-
ha. The first day he took Potidania, the next
Krokyle, and the third Tichium, where he
halted and sent back the booty to Eupahum in
Locns, having determined to pursue his con-
quests as far as the Ophionians, and, in the
event of their refusing to submit, to return to
Naupactus and make them the objects of a sec-
ond expedition. Meanwhile the Aetolians had
been aware of his design from the moment of
its formation, and as soon as the army invaded
their country came up in great force with all
their tribes; even the most remote Ophionians,
the Bomiensians, and Calhensians, who extend
towards the Malian Gulf, being among the
number.

[97] The Messenians, however, adhered to
their original advice. Assuring Demosthenes
that the Aetolians were an easy conquest, they
urged him to push on as rapidly as possible,
and to try to take the villages as fast as he came
up to them, without waiting until the whole
nation should be in arms against him. Led on
by his advisers and trusting in his fortune, as
he had met with no opposition, without wait-
ing for his Locnan reinforcements, who were
to have supplied him with the light-armed
darters in which he was most deficient, he ad-
vanced and stormed Acgitium, the inhabitants
flying before him and posting themselves upon
the hills above the town, which stood on high
ground about nine miles from the sea. Mean-
while the Aetolians had gathered to the rescue,
and now attacked the Athenians and their al-
lies, running down from the hills on every side
and darting their javelins, falling back when
the Athenian army advanced, and coming on
as it retired; and for a long while the battle was
of this character, alternate advance and retreat,
in both which operations the Athenians had
the worst.

[98] Still as long as their archers had arrows
left and were able to use them, they held out,
the light-armed Aetolians retiring before the
arrows; but after the captain of the archers had
been killed and his men scattered, the soldiers,
wearied out with the constant repetition of the
same exertions and hard pressed by the Aeto-
lians with their javelins, at last turned and
fled, and falling into pathless gullies and places
that they were unacquainted with, thus per-
ished, the Messenian Chromon, their guide,

having also untoitunately been killed. A great
many were overtaken in the pursuit by the
swift-footed and light-armed Aetolians, and
fell beneath their javelins; the greater number
however missed their road and rushed into the
wood, which had no ways out, and which was
soon fired and burnt round them by the enemy.
Indeed the Athenian army fell victims to death
in every form, and suffered all the vicissitudes
of flight; the survivors escaped with difficulty
to the sea and Oeneon in Locris, whence they
had set out. Many of the allies were killed, and
about one hundred and twenty Athenian heavy
infantry, not a man less, and all in the prime
of life. These were by far the best men in the
city of Athens that fell during this war. Among
the slain was also Procles, the colleague of De-
mosthenes. Meanwhile the Athenians took up
their dead under truce from the Aetolians, and
retired to Naupactus, and from thence went in
their ships to Athens; Demosthenes staying
behind in Naupactus and in the neighbour-
hood, being afraid to face the Athenians after
the disaster.

[99] About the same time the Athenians on
the coast of Sicily sailed to Locris, and in a
descent which they made from the ships de-
feated the Locrians who came against them,
and took a fort upon the river Halex.

[100] The same summer the Aetolians, who
before the Athenian expedition had sent an
embassy to Corinth and Laccdaemon, com-
posed of Tolophus, an Ophioman, Bonades, an
Eurytaman, and Tisander, an Apodotian, ob-
tained that an army should be sent them
against Naupactus, which had invited the
Athenian invasion. The Lacedaemonians ac-
cordingly sent of! towards autumn three thou-
sand heavy infantry of the allies, five hundred
of whom were from Heraclca, the newly
founded city in Trachis, under the command
of Eurylochus, a Spartan, accompanied by
Macarius and Menedaius, also Spartans.

[101] The army having assembled at Del-
phi, Eurylochus sent a herald to the Ozolian
Locrians; the road to Naupactus lying through
their territory, and he having besides con-
ceived the idea of detaching them from Ath-
ens. His chief abettors in Locris were the Am-
phissians, who were alarmed at the hostility of
the Phocians. These first gave hostages them-
selves, and induced the rest to do the same for
fear of the invading army; first, their neigh-
bours the Myonians, who held the most diffi-
cult of the passes, and after them the Ipmans,
Messapians, Tritaeans, Chalaeans, Tolophoni-

442

THUCYDIDES

[BOOK in

ans, Hessians, and Oeanthians, all of whom
joined in the expedition; the Olpaeans con-
tenting themselves with giving hostages, with-
out accompanying the invasion; and the Hyae-
ans refusing to do either, until the capture of
Polis, one of their villages.

[102] His preparations completed, Eury-
lochus lodged the hostages in Kytinium, in
Doris, and advanced upon Naupactus through
the country of the Locrians, taking upon his
way Oeneon and Eupalium, two of their towns
that refused to join him. Arrived in the Nau-
pactian territory, and having been now joined
by the Aetolians, the army laid waste the land
and took the suburb of the town, which was
unfortified; and after this Molycrium also, a
Corinthian colony subject to Athens. Mean-
while the Athenian Demosthenes, who since
the affair in Aetolia had remained near Nau-
pactus, having had notice of the army and fear-
ing for the town, went and persuaded the
Acarnanians, although not without difficulty
because of his departure from Lcucas, to go to
the relief of Naupactus. They accordingly sent
with him on board his ships a thousand heavy
infantry, who threw themselves into the place
and saved it; the extent of its wall and the
small number of its defenders otherwise plac-
ing it in the greatest danger. Meanwhile Eury-
lochus and his companions, finding that this
force had entered and that it was impossible to
storm the town, withdrew, not to Peloponnese,
but to the country once called Aeolis, and now
Calydon and Pleuron, and to the places in that
neighbourhood, and Proschium in Aetolia; the
Ambraciots having come and urged them to
combine with them in attacking Amphilochi-
an Argos and the rest of Amphilochia and
Acarnania; affirming that the conquest of these
countries would bring all the continent into
alliance with Lacedaemon. To this Eurylochus
consented, and dismissing the Aetolians, now
remained quiet with his army in those parts,
until the time should come for the Ambraciots
to take the field, and for him to join them be-
fore Argos.

Summer was now over. [103] The winter
ensuing, the Athenians in Sicily with their
Hellenic allies, and such of the Sicel subjects
or allies of Syracuse as had revolted from her
and joined their army, marched against the
Sicel town Inessa, the acropolis of which was
held by the Syracusans, and after attacking it
without being able to take it, retired. In the
retreat, the allies retreating after the Atheni-
ans were attacked by the Syracusans from the

fort, and a large part of their army routed with
great slaughter. After this, Laches and the
Athenians from the ships made some descents
in Locris, and defeating the Locrians, who
came against them with Proxenus, son of Cap-
aton, upon the river Caicinus, took some arms
and departed.

[104] The same winter the Athenians puri-
fied Delos, in compliance, it appears, with a
certain oracle. It had been purified before by
Pisistratus the tyrant; not indeed the whole
island, but as much of it as could be seen from
the temple. All of it was, however, now puri-
fied in the following way. All the sepulchres
of those that had died in Delos were taken up,
and for the future it was commanded that no
one should be allowed either to die or to give
birth to a child in the island; but that they
should be carried over to Rhenea, which is so
near to Delos that Polycrates, tyrant of Samos,
having added Rhenea to his other island con-
quests during his period of naval ascendancy,
dedicated it to the Delian Apollo by binding it
to Delos with a chain.

The Athenians, after the purification, cele-
brated, for the first time, the quinquennial
festival of the Delian games. Once upon a
time, indeed, there was a great assemblage of
the lonians and the neighbouring islanders at
Delos, who used to come to the festival, as the
lonians now do to that of Ephesus, and ath-
letic and poetical contests took place there,
and the cities brought choirs of dancers. Noth-
ing can be clearer on this point than the fol-
lowing verses of Homer, taken from a hymn
to Apollo:

Phoebus, where'er thou stray est, far or near,
Delos was still of all thy haunts most dear.
Thither the robed lonians take their way
With wife and child to keep thy holiday,
Invoke thy favour on each manly game,
And dance and sing in honour of thy name.

That there was also a poetical contest in
which the lonians went to contend, again is
shown by the following, taken from the same
hymn. After celebrating the Delian dance of the
women, he ends his song of praise with these
verses, in which he also alludes to himself:

Well, may Apollo \eep you all! and so,
Sweethearts, good-bye — yet tell me not I go
Out from your hearts, and if in after hours
Some other wanderer in this world of ours
Touch at your shores, and as% your maidens here
Who sings the songs the sweetest to your ear,
Thinly of me then, and answer with a smile,
*A blind old man of Scio's rocky isle.'

102-108 ]

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

443

Homer thus attests that there was anciently
a great assembly and festival at Delos. In later
times, although the islanders and the Atheni-
ans continued to send the choirs of dancers
with sacrifices, the contests and most of the
ceremonies were abolished, probably through
adversity, until the Athenians celebrated the
games upon this occasion with the novelty of
horse-races.

[105] The same winter the Ambraciots, as
they had promised Eurylochus when they re-
tained his army, marched out against Amphi-
lochian Argos with three thousand heavy in-
fantry, and invading the Argive territory occu-
pied Olpae, a stronghold on a hill near the sea,
which had been formerly fortified by the Acar-
nanians and used as the place of assizes for
their nation, and which is about two miles and
three-quarters from the city of Argos upon the
sea-coast. Meanwhile the Acarnanians went
with a part of their forces to the relief of Ar-
gos, and with the rest encamped in Amphi-
lochia at the place called Crenac, or the Wells,
to watch for Eurylochus and his Peloponnesi-
ans, and to prevent their passing through and
effecting their junction with the Ambraciots;
while they also sent for Demosthenes, the com-
mander of the Aetolian expedition, to be their
leader, and for the twenty Athenian ships that
were cruising oft Peloponnese under the com-
mand of Aristotle, son of Timocrates, and
Hierophon, son of Antimncstus. On their part,
the Ambraciots at Olpae sent a messenger to
their own city, to beg them to come with their
whole levy to their assistance, fearing that the
army of Eurylochus might not be able to pass
through the Acarnanians, and that they might
themselves be obliged to fight single-handed,
or be unable to retreat, if they wished it, with-
out danger.

[106] Meanwhile Eurylochus and his Pelo-
ponnestans, learning that the Ambraciots at
Olpae had arrived, set out from Proschium
with all haste to join them, and crossing the
Achelous advanced through Acarnania, which
they found deserted by its population, who
had gone to the relief of Argos; keeping on
their right the city of the Stratians and its gar-
rison, and on their left the rest of Acarnania.
Traversing the territory of the Stratians, they
advanced through Phytia, next, skirting Mede-
on, through Limnaea; after which they left
Acarnania behind them and entered a friend-
ly country, that of the Agraeans. From thence
they reached and crossed Mount Thymaus,
which belongs to the Agraeans, and descended

into the Argive territory after nightfall, and
passing between the city of Argos and the
Acarnanian posts at Crenae, joined the Am-
braciots at Olpae.

[toy] Uniting here at daybreak, they sat
down at the place called Metropolis, and en-
camped. Not long afterwards the Athenians
in the twenty ships came into the Ambracian
Gulf to support the Argives, with Demos-
thenes and two hundred Messenian heavy in-
fantry, and sixty Athenian archers. While the
fleet off Olpae blockaded the hill from the sea,
the Acarnanians and a few of the Amphilochi-
ans, most of whom were kept back by force by
the Ambraciots, had already arrived at Argos,
and were preparing to give battle to the enemy,
having chosen Demosthenes to command the
whole of the allied army in concert with their
own generals. Demosthenes led them near to
Olpae and encamped, a great ravine separating
the two armies. During five days they re-
mained inactive; on the sixth both sides formed
in order of battle. The army of the Pelopon-
nesians was the largest and outflanked their
opponents; and Demosthenes fearing that his
right might be surrounded, placed in ambush
in a hollow way overgrown with bushes some
four hundred heavy infantry and light troops,
who were to rise up at the moment of the onset
behind the projecting left wing of the enemy,
and to take them in the rear. When both sides
were ready they joined battle; Demosthenes
being on the right wing with the Messemans
and a few Athenians, while the rest of the line
was made up of the different divisions of the
Acarnanians, and of the Amphilochian carters.
The Peloponnesians and Ambraciots were
drawn up pell-mell together, with the excep-
tion of the Mantineans, who were massed on
the left, without however reaching to the ex-
tremity of the wing, where Eurylochus and his
men confronted the Messenians and Demos-
thenes.

[fo8] The Peloponnesians were now well
engaged and with their outflanking wing were
upon the point of turning their enemy's right;
when the Acarnanians from the ambuscade set
upon them from behind, and broke them at
the first attack, without their staying to resist;
while the panic into which they fell caused the
flight of most of their army, terrified beyond
measure at seeing the division of Eurylochus
and their best troops cut to pieces. Most of the
work was done by Demosthenes and his Mes-
senians, who were posted in this part of the
field. Meanwhile the Ambraciots (who are the

444

THUCYDIDES

[BOOK in

best soldiers in those countries) and the troops
upon the right wing, defeated the division op-
posed to them and pursued it to Argos. Re-
turning from the pursuit, they found their
main body defeated; and hard pressed by the
Acarnanians, with difficulty made good their
passage to Olpae, suffering heavy loss on the
way, as they dashed on without discipline or
order, the Mantincans excepted, who kept their
ranks best of any in the army during the re-
treat.

The battle did not end until the evening.
[iog] The next day Menedaius, who on the
death of Eurylochus ami Macarms had suc-
ceeded to the sole command, being at a loss
after so signal a defeat how to stay and sustain
a siege, cut off as he was by land and by the
Athenian fleet by sea, and equally so how to
retreat in safety, opened a parley with Demos-
thenes and the Acarnaman generals for a
truce and permission to retreat, and at the same
time for the recovery of the dead. The dead
they gave back to him, and setting up a trophy
took up their own also to the number of about
three hundred. The retreat demanded they re-
fused publicly to the army; but permission to
depart without delay was secretly gi anted to
the Mantincans and to Menedaius and the oth-
er commanders and principal men of the Pelo-
ponncsians by Demosthenes and his Acarnani-
an colleagues; who desired to strip the Am-
braciots and the mercenary host of foreigners
of their supporters; and, above all, to discredit
the Lacedaemonians and Peloponnesians with
the Hellenes in those parts, as traitors and self-
seekers.

While the enemy was taking up his dead and
hastily burying them as he could, and those
who obtained permission were secretly plan-
ning their retreat, [no] word was brought to
Demosthenes and the Acarnanians that the
Ambraciots from the city, in compliance with
the first message from Olpae, were on the
march with their whole levy through Amphilo-
chia to join their countrymen at Olpae, know-
ing nothing of what had occurred. Demosthen-
es prepared to march with his army against
them, and meanwhile sent on at once a strong
division to beset the roads and occupy the strong
positions, [in] In the meantime the Manti-
neans and others included in the agreement
went out under the pretence of gathering herbs
and firewood, and stole off by twos and threes,
picking on the way the things which they pro-
fessed to have come out for, until they had
gone some distance from Olpae, when they

quickened their pace. The Ambraciots and
such of the rest as had accompanied them in
larger parties, seeing them going on, pushed
on in their turn, and began running in order
to catch them up. The Acarnanians at first
thought that all alike were departing without
permission, and began to pursue the Pelopon-
nesians; and believing that they were being be-
trayed, even threw a dart or two at some of
their generals who tried to stop them and told
them that leave had been given. Eventually,
however, they let pass the Mantmeans and
Peloponnesians, and slew only the Ambraciots,
there being much dispute and difficulty in dis-
tinguishing whether a man was an Ambraciot
or a Peloponnesian. The number thus slain
was about two hundred; the rest escaped into
the bordering territory of Agraea, and found
refuge with Salynthius, the friendly king of
the Agraeans.

[112] Meanwhile the Ambraciots from the
city arrived at Idomene. Idomene consists of
two lofty hills, the higher of which the troops
sent on by Demosthenes succeeded in occupy-
ing after nightfall, unobserved by the Ambra-
ciots, who had meanwhile ascended the smaller
and bivouacked under it. After supper De-
mosthenes set out with the rest of the army,
as soon as it was evening; himself with half his
force making Jor the pass, and the remainder
going by the Amphilochian hills. At dawn he
fell upon the Ambraciots while they were still
abed, ignorant of what had passed, and fully
thinking that it was their own countrymen —
Demosthenes having purposely put the Mes-
senians m front with orders to address them
in the Doric dialect, and thus to inspire confi-
dence in the sentinels, who would not be able
to see them as it was still night, in this way he
routed their army as soon as he attacked it,
slaying most of them where they were, the rest
breaking away in flight over the hills. The
roads, however, were already occupied, and
while the Amphilochians knew their own
country, the Ambraciots were ignorant of it
and could not tell which way to turn, and had
also heavy armour as against a light-armed en-
emy, and so fell into ravines and into the am-
bushes which had been set for them, and per-
ished there. In their manifold efforts to escape
some even turned to the sea, which was not far
off, and seeing the Athenian ships coasting
alongshore just while the action was going on,
swam off to them, thinking it better in the
panic they were in, to perish, if perish they
must, by the hands of the Athenians, than by

109-115]

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

445

those of the barbarous and detested Amphi-
lochians. Of the large Ambraciot force de-
stroyed in this manner, a few only reached
the city in safety; while the Acarnanians, after
stripping the dead and setting up a trophy, re-
turned to Argos.

[ 113] The next day arrived a herald from
the Ambraciots who had fled from Olpae to
the Agraeans, to ask leave to take up the dead
that had fallen after the first engagement,
when they left the camp with the Mantineans
and their companions, without, like them, hav-
ing had permission to do so. At the sight of
the arms of the Ambraciots from the city, the
herald was astonished at their number, know-
ing nothing of the disaster and fancying that
they were those of their own party. Some one
asked him what he was so astonished at, and
how many of them had been killed, fancying
in his turn that this was the herald from the
troops at Idomene. He replied: "About two
hundred"; upon which his interrogator took
him up, saying: "Why, the arms you see here
are of more than a thousand." The herald re-
plied: "Then they are not the arms of those
who fought with us?" The other answered:
"Yes, they are, if at least you fought at Ido-
mene yesterday." "But we fought with no one
yesterday; but the day before in the retreat."
"However that may be, we fought yesterday
with those who came to reinforce you from the
city of the Ambraciots." When the herald
heard this and knew that the reinforcement
from the city had been destroyed, he broke
into wailing and, stunned at the magnitude of
the present evils, went away at once without
having performed his errand, or again asking
for the dead bodies. Indeed, this was by far the
greatest disaster that befell any one Hellenic
city in an equal number of days during this
war; and I have not set down the number of
the dead, because the amount stated seems so
out of proportion to the size of the city as to
be incredible. In any case I know that if the
Acarnanians and Amphilochians had wished
to take Ambracia as the Athenians and Demos-
thenes advised, they would have done so with-
out striking a blow; as it was, they feared that
if the Athenians had it they would be worse
neighbours to them than the present.

[114] After this the Acarnanians allotted a
third of the spoils to the Athenians, and divid-
ed the rest among their own different towns.
The share of the Athenians was captured on
the voyage home; the arms now deposited in
the Attic temples are three hundred panoplies,

which the Acarnanians set apart for Demos-
thenes, and which he brought to Athens in per-
son, his return to his country after the Aetolian
disaster being rendered less hazardous by this
exploit. The Athenians in the twenty ships also
went off to Naupactus. The Acarnanians and
Amphilochians, after the departure of Demos-
thenes and the Athenians, granted the Ambra-
ciots and Peloponnesians who had taken ref-
uge with Salynthius and the Agraeans a free re-
treat from Oeniadae, to which place they had
removed from the country of Salynthius, and
for the future concluded with the Ambraciots
a treaty and alliance for one hundred years,
upon the terms following. It was to be a de-
fensive, not an offensive alliance; the Ambra-
ciots could not be required to march with the
Acarnanians against the Peloponnesians, nor
the Acarnanians with the Ambraciots against
the Athenians; for the rest the Ambraciots
were to give up the places and hostages that
they held of the Amphilochians, and not to give
help to Anactorium, which was at enmity with
the Acarnanians. With this arrangement they
put an end to the war. After this the Corinthi-
ans sent a garrison of their own citizens to Am-
bracia, composed of three hundred heavy in-
fantry, under the command of Xenocleides,
son of Euthycles, who reached their destination
after a difficult journey across the continent.
Such was the history of the affair of Ambracia.
[115] The same winter the Athenians in
Sicily made a descent from their ships upon
the territory of Himera, in concert with the
Sicels, who had invaded its borders from the
interior, and also sailed to the islands of Aeo-
lus. Upon their return to Rhegium they found
the Athenian general, Pythodorus, son of Iso-
lochus, come to supersede Laches in the com-
mand of the fleet. The allies in Sicily had sailed
to Athens and induced the Athenians to send
out more vessels to their assistance, pointing
out that the Syracusans who already command-
ed their land were making efforts to get to-
gether a navy, to avoid being any longer ex-
cluded from the sea by a few vessels. The
Athenians proceeded to man forty ships to
send to them, thinking that the war in Sicily
would thus be the sooner ended, and also wish-
ing to exercise their navy. One of the generals,
Pythodorus, was accordingly sent out with a
few ships; Sophocles, son of Sostratides, and
Eurymedon, son of Thuclcs, being destined to
follow with the main body. Meanwhile Pytho-
dorus had taken the command of Laches'
ships, and towards the end of winter sailed

446 THUCYDIDES

against the Locrian fort, which Laches had the largest mountain in Sicily. Fifty years, it

formerly taken, and returned after being de- is said, had elapsed since the last eruption,

feated in battle by the Locrians. there having been three in all since the Hel-

[116] In the first days of this spring, the lenes have inhabited Sicily. Such were the

stream of fire issued from Etna, as on former events of this winter; and with it ended the

occasions, and destroyed some land of the Ca- sixth year of this war, of which Thucydides

tanians, who live upon Mount Etna, which is was the historian.

The Fourth Book

CHAPTER XII

Seventh Year of the War — Occupation of Pylos —

Surrender of the Spartan Army in Sphactena
[i] NEXT summer, about the time of the corn's
coming into ear, ten Syracusan and as many
Locrian vessels sailed to Messina, in Sicily, and
occupied the town upon the invitation of the
inhabitants; and Messina revolted from the
Athenians. The Syracusans contrived this
chiefly because they saw that the place afforded
an approach to Sicily, and feared that the Athe-
nians might hereafter use it as a base for at-
tacking them with a larger force; the Locrians
because they wished to carry on hostilities
from both sides of the strait and to reduce their
enemies, the people of Rhcgium. Meanwhile,
the Locrians had invaded the Rhegian terri-
tory with all their forces, to prevent their suc-
couring Messina, and also at the instance of
some exiles from Rhegium who were with
them; the long factions by which that town
had been torn rendering it for the moment in-
capable of resistance, and thus furnishing an
additional temptation to the invaders. After
devastating the country the Locrian land for-
ces retired, their ships remaining to guard Mes-
sina, while others were being manned for the
same destination to carry on the war from
thence.

[2] About the same time in the spring, be-
fore the corn was ripe, the Peloponnesians and
their allies invaded Attica under Agis, the son
of Archidamus, king of the Lacedaemonians,
and sat down and laid waste the country.
Meanwhile the Athenians sent of! the forty
ships which they had been preparing to Sicily,
with the remaining generals Eurymedon and
Sophocles; their colleague Pythodorus having
already preceded them thither. These had also
instructions as they sailed by to look to the
Corcyraeans in the town, who were being

plundered by the exiles in the mountain. To
support these exiles sixty Peloponnesian ves-
sels had lately sailed, it being thought that the
famine raging in the city would make it easy
for them to reduce it. Demosthenes also, who
had remained without employment since his
return from Acarnania, applied and obtained
permission to use the fleet, if he wished it, upon
the coast of Peloponnese.

[3] OfT Laconia they heard that the Pelo-
ponnesian ships were already at Corcyra, upon
which Eurymedon and Sophocles wished to
hasten to the island, but Demosthenes required
them first to touch at Pylos and do what was
wanted there, before continuing their voyage.
While they were making objections, a squall
chanced to come on and carried the fleet into
Pylos. Demosthenes at once urged them to
fortify the place, it being for this that he had
come on the voyage, and made them observe
there was plenty of stone and timber on the
spot, and that the place was strong by nature,
and together with much of the country round
unoccupied; Pylos, or Coryphasium, as the
Lacedaemonians call it, being about forty-five
miles distant from Sparta, and situated in the
old country of the Messenians. The comman-
ders told him that there was no lack of desert
headlands in Peloponnese if he wished to put
the city to expense by occupying them. He,
however, thought that this place was distin-
guished from others of the kind by having a
harbour close by; while the Messenians, the old
natives of the country, speaking the same dia-
lect as the Lacedaemonians, could do them the
greatest mischief by their incursions from it,
and would at the same time be a trusty garri-
son.

[4] After speaking to the captains of com-
panies on the subject, and failing to persuade
either the generals or the soldiers, he remained
inactive with the rest from stress of weather;

447

448

THUCYDIDES

[BOOK iv

until the soldiers themselves wanting occupa-
tion were seized with a sudden impulse to go
round and fortify the place. Accordingly they
set to work in earnest, and having no iron
tools, picked up stones, and put them together
as they happened to fit, and where mortar was
needed, earned it on their backs for want of
hods, stooping down to make it stay on, and
clasping their hands together behind to prevent
it falling off; sparing no effort to be able to
complete the most vulnerable points before the
arrival of the Lacedaemonians, most of the
place being sufficiently strong by nature with-
out further fortifications.

[5] Meanwhile the Lacedaemonians were
celebrating a festival, and also at first made
light of the news, in the idea that whenever
they chose to take the field the place would be
immediately evacuated by the enemy or easily
taken by force; the absence of their army be-
fore Athens having also something to do with
their delay. The Athenians fortified the place
on the land side, and where it most required it,
in six days, and leaving Demosthenes with five
ships to garrison it, with the main body of the
fleet hastened on their voyage to Corcyra and
Sicily.

[6] As soon as the Peloponnesians in Attica
heard of the occupation of Pylos, they hurried
back home; the Lacedaemonians and their
king Agis thinking that the matter touched
them nearly. Besides having made their inva-
sion early in the season, and while the corn
was still green, most of their troops were short
of provisions: the weather also was unusually
bad for the time of year, and greatly distressed
their army. Many reasons thus combined to
hasten their departure and to make this inva-
sion a very short one; indeed they only stayed
fifteen days in Attica.

[j] About the same time the Athenian gen-
eral Simonidcs getting together a few Athe-
nians from the garrisons, and a number of the
allies in those parts, took Eion in Thrace, a
Mendaean colony and hostile to Athens, by
treachery, but had no sooner done so than the
Chalcidians and Bottiaeans came up and beat
him out of it, with the loss of many of his sol-
diers.

[8] On the return of the Peloponnesians
from Attica, the Spartans themselves and the
nearest of the Perioeci at once set out for Pylos,
the other Lacedaemonians following more
slowly, as they had just come in from another
campaign. Word was also sent round Pelopon-
nese to come up as quickly as possible to Pylos;

while the sixty Peloponnesian ships were sent
for from Corcyra, and being dragged by their
crews across the isthmus of Leucas, passed un-
perceived by the Athenian squadron at Zacyn-
thus, and reached Pylos, where the land forces
had arrived before them. Before the Pelopon-
nesian fleet sailed in, Demosthenes found time
to send out unobserved two ships to inform
Eurymedon and the Athenians on board the
fleet at Zacynthus of the danger of Pylos and to
summon them to his assistance. While the ships
hastened on their voyage in obedience to the
orders of Demosthenes, the Lacedaemonians
prepared to assault the fort by land and sea,
hoping to capture with ease a work constructed
in haste, and held by a feeble garrison. Mean-
while, as they expected the Athenian ships to
arrive from Zacynthus, they intended, if they
failed to take the place before, to block up the
entrances of the harbour to prevent their being
able to anchor inside it. For the island of
Sphacteria, stretching along in a line close in
front of the harbour, at once makes it s.ife and
narrows its entrances, leaving a passage for two
ships on the side nearest Pylos and the Athe-
nian fortifications, and for eight or nine on that
next the rest of the mainland: for the rest, the
island was entirely covered with wood, and
without paths through not being inhabited,
and about one mile and five furlongs in length.
The inlets the Lacedaemonians meant to close
with a line of ships placed close together, with
their prows turned towards the sea, and, mean-
while, fearing that the enemy might make use
of the island to operate against them, carried
over some heavy infantry thither, stationing
others along the coast. By this means the island
and the continent would be alike hostile to the
Athenians, as they would be unable to land on
either; and the shore of Pylos itself outside the
inlet towards the open sea having no harbour,
and, therefore, presenting no point which they
could use as a base to relieve their countrymen,
they, the Lacedaemonians, without sea-fight or
risk would in all probability become masters of
the place, occupied as it had been on the spur
of the moment, and unfurnished with pro-
visions. This being determined, they carried
over to the island the heavy infantry, drafted
by lot from all the companies. Some others had
crossed over before in relief parties, but these
last who were left there were four hundred and
twenty in number, with their Helot attendants,
commanded by Epitadas, son of Molobrus.

[g] Meanwhile Demosthenes, seeing the
Lacedaemonians about to attack him by sea

5-12]

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

440

and land at once, himself was not idle. He
drew up under the fortification and enclosed
in a stockade the galleys remaining to him of
those which had been left him, arming the
sailors taken out of them with poor shields
made most of them of osier, it being impossible
to procure arms in such a desert place, and even
these having been obtained from a thirty-oared
Messenian privateer and a boat belonging to
some Messenians who happened to have come
to them. Among these Messenians were forty
heavy infantry, whom he made use of with the
rest. Posting most of his men, unarmed and
armed, upon the best fortified and strong
points of the place towards the interior, with
orders to repel any attack of the land forces, he
picked sixty heavy infantry and a few archers
from his whole force, and with these went out-
side the wall down to the sea, where he thought
that the enemy would most likely attempt to
land. Although the ground was difficult and
rocky, looking towards the open sea, the fact
that this was the weakest part of the wall
would, he thought, encourage their ardour, as
the Athenians, confident in their naval superi-
ority, had here paid little attention to their de-
fences, and the enemy if he could force a land-
ing might feel secure of taking the place. At
this point, accordingly, going down to the wa-
ter's edge, he posted his heavy infantry to pre-
vent, if possible, a landing, and encouraged
them in the following terms:

[10] "Soldiers and comrades in this adven-
ture, I hope that none of you in our present
strait will think to show his wit by exactly cal-
culating all the perils that encompass us, but
that you will rather hasten to close with the
enemy, without staying to count the odds, see-
ing in this your best chance of safety. In emer-
gencies like ours calculation is out of place; the
sooner the danger is faced the better. To my
mind also most of the chances are for us, if we
will only stand fast and not throw away our
advantages, overawed by the numbers of the
enemy. One of the points in our favour is the
awkwardness of the landing. This, however,
only helps us if we stand our ground. If we
give way it will be practicable enough, in spite
of its natural difficulty, without a defender;
and the enemy will instantly become more
formidable from the difficulty he will have in
retreating, supposing that we succeed in re-
pulsing him, which we shall find it easier to do,
while he is on board his ships, than after he
has landed and meets us on equal terms. As to
his numbers, these need not too much alarm

you. Large as they may be he can only engage
in small detachments, from the impossibility
of bringing to. Besides, the numerical superior-
ity that we have to meet is not that of an army
on land with everything else equal, but of
troops on board ship, upon an element where
many favourable accidents are required to act
with effect. I therefore consider that his diffi-
culties may be fairly set against our numerical
deficiencies, and at the same time I charge you,
as Athenians who know by experience what
landing from ships on a hostile territory means,
and how impossible it is to drive back an en-
emy determined enough to stand his ground
and not to be frightened away by the surf and
the terrors of the ships sailing in, to stand fast
in the present emergency, beat back the enemy
at the water's edge, and save yourselves and
the place."

[u] Thus encouraged by Demosthenes, the
Athenians felt more confident, and went down
to meet the enemy, posting themselves along
the edge of the sea. The Lacedaemonians now
put themselves in movement and simultane-
ously assaulted the fortification with their land
forces and with their ships, forty-three in num-
ber, under their admiral, Thrasymelidas, son
of Cratcsicles, a Spartan, who made his attack
just where Demosthenes expected. The Athe-
nians had thus to defend themselves on both
sides, from the land and from the sea; the en-
emy rowing up in small detachments, the one
relieving the other — it being impossible for
many to bring to at once — and showing great
ardour and cheering each other on, in the en-
deavour to force a passage and to take the
fortification. He who most distinguished him-
self was Brasidas. Captain of a galley, and see-
ing that the captains and steersmen, impressed
by the difficulty of the position, hung back
even where a landing might have seemed pos-
sible, for fear of wrecking their vessels, he
shouted out to them, that they must never al-
low the enemy to fortify himself in their coun-
try for the sake of saving timber, but must
shiver their vessels and force a landing; and
bade the allies, instead of hesitating in such a
moment to sacrifice their ships for Lacedae-
mon in return for her many benefits, to run
them boldly aground, land in one way or an-
other, and make themselves masters of the
place and its garrison.

[12] Not content with this exhortation, he

forced his own steersman to run his ship

'ashore, and stepping on to the gangway, was

endeavouring to land, when he was cut down

450

THUCYDIDES

[BOOK iv

by the Athenians, and after receiving many
wounds fainted away. Falling into the bows,
his shield slipped off his arm into the sea, and
being thrown ashore was picked up by the
Athenians, and afterwards used for the trophy
which they set up for this attack. The rest also
did their best, but were not able to land, owing
to the difficulty of the ground and the unflinch-
ing tenacity of the Athenians. It was a strange
reversal of the order of things for Athenians to
be fighting from the land, and from Laconian
land too, against Lacedaemonians coming
from the sea; while Lacedaemonians were try-
ing to land from shipboard in their own coun-
try, now become hostile, to attack Athenians,
although the former were chiefly famous at the
time as an inland people and superior by land,
the latter as a maritime people with a navy
that had no equal.

[13] After continuing their attacks during
that day and most of the next, the Pelopon-
nesians desisted, and the day after sent some of
their ships to Asine for timber to make en-
gines, hoping to take by their aid, in spite of its
height, the wall opposite the harbour, where
the landing was easiest. At this moment the
Athenian fleet from Zacynthus arrived, now
numbering fifty sail, having been reinforced by
some of the ships on guard at Naupactus and
by four Chian vessels. Seeing the coast and the
island both crowded with heavy infantry, and
the hostile ships in harbour showing no signs
of sailing out, at a loss where to anchor, they
sailed for the moment to the desert island of
Prote, not far off, where they passed the night.
The next day they got under way in readiness
to engage in the open sea if the enemy chose to
put out to meet them, being determined in the
event of his not doing so to sail in and attack
him. The Lacedaemonians did not put out to
sea, and having omitted to close the inlets as
they had intended, remained quiet on shore,
engaged in manning their ships and getting
ready, in the case of any one sailing in, to fight
in the harbour, which is a fairly large one.

[14] Perceiving this, the Athenians ad-
vanced against them by each inlet, and falling
on the enemy's fleet, most of which was by this
time afloat and in line, at once put it to flight,
and giving chase as far as the short distance al-
lowed, disabled a good many vessels, and took
five, one with its crew on board; dashing in at
the rest that had taken refuge on shore, and
battering some that were still being manned,
before they could put out, and lashing on to
their own ships and towing off empty others

whose crews had fled. At this sight the Lace-
daemonians, maddened by a disaster which
cut off their men on the island, rushed to the
rescue, and going into the sea with their heavy
armour, laid hold of the ships and tried to drag
them back, each man thinking that success
depended on his individual exertions. Great
was the melee, and quite in contradiction to the
naval tactics usual to the two combatants; the
Lacedaemonians in their excitement and dis-
may being actually engaged in a sea-fight on
land, while the victorious Athenians, in their
eagerness to push their success as far as possi-
ble, were carrying on a land-fight from their
ships. After great exertions and numerous
wounds on both sides they separated, the Lace-
daemonians saving their empty ships, except
those first taken; and both parties returning to
their camp, the Athenians set up a trophy, gave
back the dead, secured the wrecks, and at once
began to cruise round and jealously watch the
island, with its intercepted garrison, while the
Peloponnesians on the mainland, whose con-
tingents had now all come up, stayed where
they were before Pylos.

/ 757 When the news of what had happened
at Pylos reached Sparta, the disaster was
thought so serious that the Lacedaemonians re-
solved that the authorities should go down to
the camp, and decide on the spot what was best
to be done. There, seeing that it was impossible
to help their men, and not wishing to risk their
being reduced by hunger or overpowered by
numbers, they determined, with the consent of
the Athenian generals, to conclude an armi-
stice at Pylos and send envoys to Athens to ob-
tain a convention, and to endeavour to get back
their men as quickly as possible.

[16] The generals accepting their offers, an
armistice was concluded upon the terms fol-
lowing:

That the Lacedaemonians should bring to
Pylos and deliver up to the Athenians the ships
that had fought in the late engagement, and
all in Laconia that were vessels of war, and
should ma\e no attac\ on the fortification
either by land or by sea.

That the Athenians should allow the Lace-
daemonians on the mainland to send to the
men in the island a certain fixed quantity of
corn ready \neaded, that is to say, two quarts
of barley meal, one pint of wine, and a piece of
meat for each man, and half the same quantity
for a servant.

That this allowance should be sent in under
the eyes of the Athenians, and that no boat

13-20]

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

451

should sail to the island except openly.

That the Athenians should continue to
guard the island the same as before, without
however landing upon it, and should refrain
from attaching the Peloponnesian troops either
by land or by sea.

That if either party should infringe any of
these terms in the slightest particular, the armi-
stice should be at once void.

That the armistice should hold good until
the return of the Lacedaemonian envoys from
Athens — the Athenians sending them thither
in a galley and bringing them bacl^ again —
and upon the arrival of the envoys should be at
an end, and the ships be restored by the Athe-
nians in the same state as they received them.

Such were the terms of the armistice, and
the ships were delivered over to the number of
sixty, and the envoys sent off accordingly. Ar-
rived at Athens they spoke as follows:

[ij] "Athenians, the Lacedaemonians sent
us to try to find some way of settling the affair
of our men on the island, that shall he at once
satisfactory to our interests, and as consistent
with our dignity in our misfortune as circum-
stances permit. We can venture to speak at
some length without any departure from the
habit of our country. Men of few words where
many are not wanted, we can be less brief
when there is a matter of importance to be il-
lustrated and an end to be served by its illus-
tration. Meanwhile we beg you to take what
we may say, not in a hostile spirit, nor as if we
thought you ignorant and wished to lecture
you, but rather as a suggestion on the best
course to be taken, addressed to intelligent
judges. You can now, if you choose, employ
your present success to advantage, so as to keep
what you have got and gain honour and repu-
tation besides, and you can avoid the mistake
of those who meet with an extraordinary piece
of good fortune, and are led on by hope to
grasp continually at something further,
through having already succeeded without ex-
pecting it. While those who have known most
vicissitudes of good and bad, have also justly
least faith in their prosperity; and to teach
your city and ours this lesson experience has
not been wanting.

[18] "To be convinced of this you have only
to look at our present misfortune. What power
in Hellas stood higher than we did? and yet we
are come to you, although we formerly thought
ourselves more able to grant what we are now
here to ask. Nevertheless, we have not been
brought to this by any decay in our power, or

through having our heads turned by aggran-
dizement; no, our resources are what they
have always been, and our error has been an
error of judgment, to which all are equally
liable. Accordingly, the prosperity which your
city now enjoys, and the accession that it has
lately received, must not make you fancy that
fortune will be always with you. Indeed sensi-
ble men are prudent enough to treat their gains
as precarious, just as they would also keep a
clear head in adversity, and think that war, so
far from staying within the limit to which a
combatant may wish to confine it, will run the
course that its chances prescribe; and thus, not
being puffed up by confidence in military suc-
cess, they are less likely to come to grief, and
most ready to make peace, if they can, while
their fortune lasts. This, Athenians, you have
a good opportunity to do now with us, and
thus to escape the possible disasters which may
follow upon your refusal, and the consequent
imputation of having owed to accident even
your present advantages, when you might have
left behind you a reputation for power and
wisdom which nothing could endanger.

[19] "The Lacedaemonians accordingly in-
vite you to make a treaty and to end the war,
and offer peace and alliance and the most
friendly and intimate relations in every way
and on every occasion between us; and in re-
turn ask for the men on the island, thinking it
better for both parties not to stand out to the
end, on the chance of some favourable accident
enabling the men to force their way out, or of
their being compelled to succumb under the
pressure ot blockade. Indeed il groat enmities
are ever to be really settled, we think it will be,
not by the system of revenge and military suc-
cess, and by forcing an opponent to swear to a
treaty to his disadvantage, but when the more
fortunate combatant waives these his privi-
leges, to be guided by gentler feelings, con-
quers his rival in generosity, and accords peace
on more moderate conditions than he expected.
From that moment, instead of the debt of re-
venge which violence must entail, his adver-
sary owes a debt of generosity to be paid in
kind, and is inclined by honour to stand to his
agreement. And men oftener act in this man-
ner towards their greatest enemies than where
the quarrel is of less importance; they are also
by nature as glad to give way to those who first
yield to them, as they are apt to be provoked by
arrogance to risks condemned by their own
judgment.

[20] "To apply this to ourselves: if peace

452

THUCYDIDES

was ever desirable for both parties, it is surely
so at the present moment, before anything ir-
remediable befall us and force us to hate you
eternally, personally as well as politically, and
you to miss the advantages that we now offer
you. While the issue is still in doubt, and you
have reputation and our friendship in prospect,
and we the compromise of our misfortune be-
fore anything fatal occur, let us be reconciled,
and for ourselves choose peace instead of war,
and grant to the rest of the Hellenes a remis-
sion from their sufferings, for which be sure
they will think they have chiefly you to thank.
The war that they labour under they know not
which began, but the peace that concludes it,
as it depends on your decision, will by their
gratitude be laid to your door. By such a deci-
sion you can become firm friends with the
Lacedaemonians at their own invitation, which
you do not force from them, but oblige them
by accepting. And from this friendship con-
sider the advantages that are likely to follow:
when Attica and Sparta are at one, the rest of
Hellas, be sure, will remain in respectful in-
feriority before its heads."

[21] Such were the words of the Lacedae-
monians, their idea being that the Athenians,
already desirous of a truce and only kept back
by their opposition, would joyfully accept a
peace freely offered, arid give back the men.
The Athenians, however, having the men on
the island, thought that the treaty would be
ready for them whenever they chose to make
it, and grasped at something further. Fore-
most to encourage them in this policy was
Cleon, son of Cleaenetus, a popular leader of
the time and very powerful with the multi-
tude, who persuaded them to answer as fol-
lows: First, the men in the island must sur-
render themselves and their arms and be
brought to Athens. Next, the Lacedaemonians
must restore Nisaea, Pegae, Troczen, and
Achaia, all places acquired not by arms, but by
the previous convention, under which they had
been ceded by Athens herself at a moment of
disaster, when a truce was more necessary to
her than at present. This done they might take
back their men, and make a truce for as long
as both parties might agree.

[22] To this answer the envoys made no
reply, but asked that commissioners might be
chosen with whom they might conier on each
point, and quietly talk the matter over and try
to come to some agreement. Hereupon Cleon
violently assailed them, saying that he knew
from the first that they had no right inten-

[BooK iv

tions, and that it was clear enough now by
their refusing to speak before the people, and
wanting to confer in secret with a committee
of two or three. No, if they meant anything
honest let them say it out before all. The Lace-
daemonians, however, seeing that whatever
concessions they might be prepared to make in
their misfortune, it was impossible for them to
speak before the multitude and lose credit with
their allies for a negotiation which might after
all miscarry, and on the other hand, that the
Athenians would never grant what they asked
upon moderate terms, returned from Athens
without having effected anything.

[23] Their arrival at once put an end to the
armistice at Pylos, and the Lacedaemonians
asked back their ships according to the conven-
tion. The Athenians, however, alleged an at-
tack on the fort in contravention of the truce,
and other grievances seemingly not worth men-
tioning, and refused to give them back, insist-
ing upon the clause by which the slightest in-
fringement made the armistice void. The Lace-
daemonians, after denying the contravention
and protesting against their bad faith in the
matter of the ships, went away and earnestly
addressed themselves to the war. Hostilities
were now carried on at Pylos upon both sides
with vigour. The Athenians cruised round the
island all day with two ships going different
ways; and by night, except on the seaward side
in windy weather, anchored round it with
their whole fleet, which, having been rein-
forced by twenty ships from Athens come to
aid in the blockade, now numbered seventy
sail; while the Peloponnesians remained en-
camped on the continent, making attacks on
the fort, and on the look-out for any opportu-
nity which might offer itself for the deliverance
of their men.

[24] Meanwhile the Syracusans and their
allies in Sicily had brought up to the squadron
guarding Messina the reinforcement which we
left them preparing, and carried on the war
from thence, incited chiefly by the Locrians
from hatred of the Rhegians, whose territory
they had invaded with all their forces. The
Syracusans also wished to try their fortune at
sea, seeing that the Athenians had only a few
ships actually at Rhegium, and hearing that
the main fleet destined to join them was en-
gaged in blockading the island. A naval vic-
tory, they thought, would enable them to
blockade Rhegium by sea and land, and easily
to reduce it; a success which would at once
place their affairs upon a solid basis, the prom-

21-26]

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

453

ontory of Rhcgium in Italy and Messina in
Sicily being so near each other that it would
be impossible for the Athenians to cruise
against them and command the strait. The
strait in question consists of the sea between
Rhegium and Messina, at the point where
Sicily approaches nearest to the continent, and
is the Charybdis through which the story
makes Ulysses sail; and the narrowness of the
passage and the strength of the current that
pours in from the vast Tyrrhenian and Sicilian
mains, have rightly given it a bad reputation.

[25] In this strait the Syracusans and their
allies were compelled to fight, late in the day,
about the passage of a boat, putting out with
rather more than thirty ships against sixteen
Athenian and eight Rhegian vessels. Defeated
by the Athenians they hastily set off, each for
himself, to their own stations at Messina and
Rhegium, with the loss of one ship; night com-
ing on before the battle was finished. After
this the Locnans retired from the Rhegian ter-
ritory, and the ships of the Syracusans and
their allies united and came to anchor at Cape
Pelorus, in the territory of Messina, where
their land forces joined them. Here the Athe-
nians and Rhegians sailed up, and seeing the
ships unmanned, made an attack, in which
they in their turn lost one vessel, which was
caught by a grappling iron, the crew saving
themselves by swimming. After this the Syra-
cusans got on board their ships, and while they
were being towed alongshore to Messina, were
again attacked by the Athenians, but suddenly
got out to sea and became the assailants, and
caused them to lose another vessel. After thus
holding their own in the voyage alongshore
and in the engagement as above described, the
Syracusans sailed on into the harbour of Mes-

sina.

Meanwhile the Athenians, having received
warning that Camarma was about to be be-
trayed to the Syracusans by Archias and his
party, sailed thither; and the Messinese took
this opportunity to attack by sea and land with
all their forces their Chalcidian neighbour,
Naxos. The first day they forced the Naxians
to keep their walls, and laid waste their coun-
try; the next they sailed round with their ships,
and laid waste their land on the river Akesines,
while their land forces menaced the city.
Meanwhile the Sicels came down from the
high country in great numbers, to aid against
the Messinese; and the Naxians, elated at the
sight, and animated by a belief that the Leon-
tines and their other Hellenic allies were com-

ing to their support, suddenly sallied out from
the town, and attacked and routed the Mes-
sinese, killing more than a thousand of them;
while the remainder suffered severely in their
retreat home, being attacked by the barbarians
on the road, and most of them cut off. The
ships put in to Messina, and afterwards dis-
persed for their different homes. The Leontines
and their allies, with the Athenians, upon this
at once turned their arms against the now
weakened Messina, and attacked, the Athe-
nians with their ships on the side of the har-
bour, and the land forces on that of the town.
The Messinese, however, sallying out with
Demoteles and some Locrians who had been
left to garrison the city after the disaster, sud-
denly attacked and routed most of the Leon-
tine army, killing a great number; upon seeing
which the Athenians landed from their ships,
and falling on the Messinese in disorder chased
them back into the town, and setting up a
trophy retired to Rhegium. After this the Hel-
lenes in Sicily continued to make war on each
other by land, without the Athenians.

[26] Meanwhile the Athenians at Pylos were
still besieging the Lacedaemonians in the is-
land, the Peloponnesian forces on the continent
remaining where they were. The blockade was
very laborious for the Athenians from want of
food and water; there was no spring except one
in the citadel of Pylos itself, and that not a
large one, and most of them were obliged to
grub up the shingle on the sea beach and drink
such water as they could find. They also suf-
fered from want of room, being encamped in
a narrow space; and as there was no anchor-
age for the ships, some took their meals on
shore in their turn, while the others were an-
chored out at sea. But their greatest discourage-
ment arose from the unexpectedly long time
which it took to reduce a body of men shut up
in a desert island, with only brackish water to
drink, a matter which they had imagined
would take them only a few days. The fact
was that the Lacedaemonians had made ad-
vertisement for volunteers to carry into the
island ground corn, wine, cheese, and any
other food useful in a siege; high prices being
offered, and freedom promised to any of the
Helots who should succeed in doing so. The
Helots accordingly were most forward to en-
gage in this risky traffic, putting off from this
or that part of Peloponnese, and running in by
night on the seaward side of the island. They
were best pleased, however, when they could
catch a wind to carry them in. It was more

454

THUCYDIDES

[BOOK iv

easy to elude the look-out of the galleys, when
it blew from the seaward, as it became impossi-
ble for them to anchor round the island; while
the Helots had their boats rated at their value
in money, and ran them ashore, without caring
how they landed, being sure to find the sol-
diers waiting for them at the landing-places.
But all who risked it in fair weather were tak-
en. Divers also swam in under water from the
harbour, dragging by a cord in skins poppy-
seed mixed with honey, and bruised linseed;
these at first escaped notice, but afterwards a
look-out was kept for them. In short, both
sides tried every possible contrivance, the one
to throw in provisions, and the other to pre-
vent their introduction.

^277 At Athens, meanwhile, the news that
the army was in great distress, and that corn
found its way in to the men in the island,
caused no small perplexity; and the Athenians
began to fear that winter might come on and
find them still engaged in the blockade. They
saw that the convoying of provisions round
Peloponnese would be then impossible. The
country offered no resources in itself, and even
in summer they could not send round enough.
The blockade of a place without harbours
could no longer be kept up; and the men
would either escape by the siege being aban-
doned, or would watch for bad weather and
sail out in the boats that brought in their corn.
What caused still more alarm was the attitude
of the Lacedaemonians, who must, it was
thought by the Athenians, feel themselves on
strong ground not to send them any more en-
voys; and they began to repent having rejected
the treaty. Cleon, perceiving the disfavour with
which he was regarded for having stood in the
way of the convention, now said that their in-
formants did not speak the truth; and upon
the messengers recommending them, if they
did not believe them, to send some commis-
sioners to see, Cleon himself and Theagenes
were chosen by the Athenians as commission-
ers. Aware that he would now be obliged either
to say what had been already said by the men
whom he was slandering, or be proved a liar if
he said the contrary, he told the Athenians,
whom he saw to be not altogether disinclined
for a fresh expedition, that instead of sending
commissioners and wasting their time and op-
portunities, if they believed what was told
them, they ought to sail against the men. And
pointing at Nicias, son of Niceratus, then
general, whom he hated, he tauntingly said
that it would be easy, if they had men for gen-

erals, to sail with a force and take those in the
island, and that if he had himself been in com-
mand, he would have done it.

[28] Nicias, seeing the Athenians murmur-
ing against Cleon for not sailing now if it
seemed to him so easy, and further seeing him-
self the object of attack, told him that for all
that the generals cared, he might take what
force he chose and make the attempt. At first
Cleon fancied that this resignation was merely
a figure of speech, and was ready to go, but
finding that it was seriously meant, he drew
back, and said that Nicias, not he, was general,
being now frightened, and having never sup-
posed that Nicias would go so far as to retire
in his favour. Nicias, however, repeated his
offer, and resigned the command against Pylos,
and called the Athenians to witness that he
did so. And as the multitude is wont to do,
the more Cleon shrank from the expedition
and tried to back out of what he had said, the
more they encouraged Nicias to hand over his
command, and clamoured at Cleon to go. At
last, not knowing how to get out of his words,
he undertook the expedition, and came for-
ward and said that he was not afraid of the
Lacedaemonians, but would sail without tak-
ing any one from the city with him, except the
Lemnians and Imbrians that were at Athens,
with some targeteers that had come up from
Aenus, and four hundred archers from other
quarters. With these and the soldiers at Pylos,
he would within twenty days either bring the
Lacedaemonians alive, or kill them on the spot.
The Athenians could not help laughing at his
fatuity, while sensible men comforted them-
selves with the reflection that they must gain
in either circumstance; either they would be
rid of Cleon, which they rather hoped, or if
disappointed in this expectation, would reduce
the Lacedaemonians.

[29] After he had settled everything in the
assembly, and the Athenians had voted him
the command of the expedition, he chose as his
colleague Demosthenes, one of the generals at
Pylos, and pushed forward the preparations for
his voyage. His choice fell upon Demosthenes
because he heard that he was contemplating a
descent on the island; the soldiers distressed by
the difficulties of the position, and rather be-
sieged than besiegers, being eager to fight it
out, while the firing of the island had increased
the confidence of the general. He had been at
first afraid, because the island having never
been inhabited was almost entirely covered
with wood and without paths, thinking this

27-33]

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

455

to be in the enemy's favour, as he might land
with a large force, and yet might suffer loss by
an attack from an unseen position. The mis-
takes and forces of the enemy the wood would
in a great measure conceal from him, while
every blunder of his own troops would be at
once detected, and they would be thus able to
fall upon him unexpectedly just where they
pleased, the attack being always in their power.
If, on the other hand, he should force them to
engage in the thicket, the smaller number who
knew the country would, he thought, have the
advantage over the larger who were ignorant
of it, while his own army might be cut off im-
perceptibly, in spite of its numbers, as the men
would not be able to see where to succour each
other.

[30] The Aetolian disaster, which had been
mainly caused by the wood, had not a little to
do with these reflections. Meanwhile, one of
the soldiers who were compelled by want of
room to land on the extremities of the island
and take their dinners, with outposts fixed
to prevent a surprise, set fire to a little of the
wood without meaning to do so; and as it came
on to blow soon afterwards, almost the whole
was consumed before they were aware of it.
Demosthenes was now able for the first time
to see how numerous the Lacedaemonians real-
ly were, having up to this moment been under
the impression that they took in provisions for
a smaller number; he also saw that the Athe-
nians thought success important and were anx-
ious about it, and that it was now easier to
land on the island, and accordingly got ready
for the attempt, sent for troops from the allies
in the neighbourhood, and pushed forward his
other preparations. At this moment Cleon ar-
rived at Pylos with the troops which he had
asked for, having sent on word to say that he
was coming. The first step taken by the two
generals after their meeting was to send a
herald to the camp on the mainland, to ask
if they were disposed to avoid all risk and to
order the men on the island to surrender them-
selves and their arms, to be kept in gentle cus-
tody until some general convention should be
concluded.

[31] On the rejection of this proposition the .
generals let one day pass, and the next, em-
barking all their heavy infantry on board a few
ships, put out by night, and a little before
dawn landed on both sides of the island from
the open sea and from the harbour, being
about eight hundred strong, and advanced
with a run against the first post in the island.

The enemy had distributed his force as fol-
lows: In this first post there were about thirty
heavy infantry; the centre and most level part,
where the water was, was held by the main
body, and by Epitadas their commander; while
a small party guarded the very end of the
island, towards Pylos, which was precipitous
on the sea-side and very difficult to attack from
the land, and where there was also a sort of
old fort of stones rudely put together, which
they thought might be useful to them, in case
they should be forced to retreat. Such was their
disposition.

/ 32] The advanced post thus attacked by the
Athenians was at once put to the sword, the
men being scarcely out of bed and still arming,
the landing having taken them by surprise, as
they fancied the ships were only sailing as
usual to their stations for the night. As soon as
day broke, the rest of the army landed, that is
to say, all the crews of rather more than sev-
enty ships, except the lowest rank of oars, with
the arms they carried, eight hundred archers,
and as many targeteers, the Messeman rein-
forcements, and ail the other troops on duty
round Pylos, except the garrison on the fort.
The tactics of Demosthenes had divided them
into companies of two hundred, more or less,
and made them occupy the highest points in
order to paralyse the enemy by surrounding
him on every side and thus leaving him with-
out any tangible adversary, exposed to the
cross-fire of their host; plied by those in his
rear if he attacked in front, and by those on
one flank if he moved against those on the
other. In short, wherever he went he would
have the assailants behind him, and these light-
armed assailants, the most awkward of all; ar-
rows, darts, stones, and slings making them
formidable at a distance, and there being no
means of getting at them at close quarters, as
they could conquer flying, and the moment
their pursuer turned they were upon him. Such
was the idea that inspired Demosthenes in his
conception of the descent, and presided over
its execution.

[33] Meanwhile the main body of the troops
in the island (that under Epitadas), seeing
their outpost cut off and an army advancing
against them, serried their ranks and pressed
forward to close with the Athenian heavy in-
fantry in front of them, the light troops being
upon their flanks and rear. However, they
were not able to engage or to profit by their
superior skill, the light troops keeping them
in check on either side with their missiles, and

456

THUCYDIDES

the heavy infantry remaining stationary in-
stead of advancing to meet them; and although
they routed the light troops wherever they ran
up and approached too closely, yet they retreat-
ed fighting, being lightly equipped, and easily
getting the start in their flight, from the diffi-
cult and rugged nature of the ground, in an
island hitherto desert, over which the Lacedae-
monians could not pursue them with their
heavy armour.

[ 34] After this skirmishing had lasted some
littk while, the Lacedaemonians became un-
able to dash out with the same rapidity as be-
fore upon the points attacked, and the light
troops, finding that they now fought with less
vigour, became more confident. They could
see with their own eyes that they were many
times more numerous than the enemy; they
were now more familiar with his aspect and
found him less terrible, the result not having
justified the apprehensions which they had
suffered, when they first landed in slavish dis-
may at the idea of attacking Lacedaemonians;
and accordingly their fear changing to disdain,
they now rushed all together with loud shouts
upon them, and pelted them with stones, darts,
and arrows, whichever came first to hand.
The shouting accompanying their onset con-
founded the Lacedaemonians, unaccustomed
to this mode of fighting; dust rose from the
newly burnt wood, and it was impossible to
see in front of one with the arrows and stones
flying through clouds of dust from the hands
of numerous assailants. The Lacedaemonians
had now to sustain a rude conflict; their caps
would not keep out the arrows, darts had
broken off in the armour of the wounded,
while they themselves were helpless for of-
fence, being prevented from using their eyes to
see what was before them, and unable to hear
the words of command for the hubbub raised
by the enemy; danger encompassed them on
every side, and there was no hope of any means
of defence or safety.

[35] At last, after many had been already
wounded in the confined space in which they
were fighting, they formed in close order and
retired on the fort at the end of the island,
which was not far off, and to their friends who
held it. The moment they gave way, the light
troops became bolder and pressed upon them,
shouting louder than ever, and killed as many
as they came up with in their retreat, but most
of the Lacedaemonians made good their escape
to the fort, and with the garrison in it ranged
themselves all along its whole extent to repulse

[BOOK iv

the enemy wherever it was assailable. The
Athenians pursuing, unable to surround and
hem them in, owing to the strength of the
ground, attacked them in front and tried to
storm the position. For a long time, indeed for
most of the day, both sides held out against all
the torments of the battle, thirst, and sun, the
one endeavouring to drive the enemy from the
high ground, the other to maintain himself
upon it, it being now more easy for the Lace-
daemonians to defend themselves than before,
as they could not be surrounded on the flanks.

[36] The struggle began to seem endless,
when the commander of the Messenians came
to Cleon and Demosthenes, and told them that
they were losing their labour: but if they would
give him some archers and light troops to go
round on the enemy's rear by a way he would
undertake to find, he thought he could force
the approach. Upon receiving what he asked
for, he started from a point out of sight in or-
der not to be seen by the enemy, and creeping
on wherever the precipices of the island per-
mitted, and where the Lacedaemonians, trust-
ing to the strength of the ground, kept no
guard, succeeded after the greatest difficulty in
getting round without their seeing him, and
suddenly appeared on the high ground in their
rear, to the dismay of the surprised enemy and
the still greater joy of his expectant friends.
The Lacedaemonians thus placed between two
fires, and in the same dilemma, to compare
small things with great, as at Thermopylae,
where the defenders were cut off through the
Persians getting round by the path, being now
attacked in front and behind, began to give
way, and overcome by the odds against them
and exhausted from want of food, retreated.

The Athenians were already masters of the
approaches [37] when Cleon and Demos-
thenes perceiving that, if the enemy gave way
a single step further, they would be destroyed
by their soldiery, put a stop to the battle and
held their men back; wishing to take the Lace-
daemonians alive to Athens, and hoping that
their stubbornness might relax on hearing the
offer of terms, and that they might surrender
and yield to the present overwhelming danger.
Proclamation was accordingly made, to know
if they would surrender themselves and their
arms to the Athenians to be dealt with at their
discretion.

[38] The Lacedaemonians hearing this of-
fer, most of them lowered their shields and
waved their hands to show that they accepted
it. Hostilities now ceased, and a parley was

34-42]

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

457

held between Cleon and Demosthenes and
Styphon, son of Pharax, on the other side;
since Epitadas, the first of the previous com-
manders, had been killed, and Hippagretas,
the next in command, left for dead among the
slain, though still alive, and thus the command
had devolved upon Styphon according to the
law, in case of anything happening to his su-
periors. Styphon and his companions said they
wished to send a herald to the Lacedaemoni-
ans on the mainland, to know what they were
to do. The Athenians would not let any of
them go, but themselves called for heralds
from the mainland, and after questions had
been carried backwards and forwards two or
three times, the last man that passed over from
the Lacedaemonians on the continent brought
this message: "The Lacedaemonians bid you
to decide for yourselves so long as you do noth-
ing dishonourable"; upon which after consult-
ing together they surrendered themselves and
their arms. The Athenians, after guarding
them that day and night, the next morning set
up a trophy in the island, and got ready to sail,
giving their prisoners in batches to be guarded
by the captains of the galleys; and the Lacedae-
monians sent a herald and took up their dead.
The number of the killed and prisoners taken
in the island was as follows: four hundred and
twenty heavy infantry had passed over; three
hundred all but eight were taken alive to Ath-
ens; the rest were killed. About a hundred and
twenty of the prisoners were Spartans. The
Athenian loss was small, the battle not having
been fought at close quarters.

[39] The blockade in all, counting from the
fight at sea to the battle in the island, had
lasted seventy-two days. For twenty of these,
during the absence of the envoys sent to treat
for peace, the men had provisions given them,
for the rest they were fed by the smugglers.
Corn and other victual was found in the is-
land; the commander Epitadas having kept
the men upon half rations. The Athenians and
Peloponnesians now each withdrew their for-
ces from Pylos, and went home, and crazy as
Cleon 's promise was, he fulfilled it, by bringing
the men to Athens within the twenty days as
he had pledged himself to do.

[40] Nothing that happened in the war sur-
prised the Hellenes so much as this. It was the
opinion that no force or famine could make
the Lacedaemonians give up their arms, but
that they would fight on as they could, and die
with them in their hands: indeed people could
scarcely believe that those who had surren-

dered were of the same stuff as the fallen; and
an Athenian ally, who some time after insult-
ingly asked one of the prisoners from the is-
land if those that had fallen were men of hon-
our, received for answer that the atratyos —
that is, the arrow — would be worth a great
deal if it could tell men of honour from the
rest; in allusion to the fact that the killed were
those whom the stones and the arrows hap-
pened to hit.

[41] Upon the arrival of the men the Athe-
nians determined to keep them in prison until
the peace, and if the Peloponnesians invaded
their country in the interval, to bring them
out and put them to death. Meanwhile the de-
fence of Pylos was not forgotten; the Messeni-
ans from Naupactus sent to their old country,
to which Pylos formerly belonged, some of the
likeliest of their number, and began a series of
incursions into Laconia, which their common
dialect rendered most destructive. The Lace-
daemonians, hitherto without experience of in-
cursions or a warfare of the kind, finding the
Helots deserting, and fearing the march of
revolution in their country, began to be seri-
ously uneasy, and in spite of their unwilling-
ness to betray this to the Athenians began to
send envoys to Athens, and tried to recover
Pylos and the prisoners. The Athenians, how-
ever, kept grasping at more, and dismissed en-
voy after envoy without their having effected
anything. Such was the history of the affair of
Pylos.

CHAPTER XIII

Seventh and Eighth Years of the War — End of

Corcyraean Revolution — Peace of Gela — Capture

of Nisaea

[42] THE same summer, directly after these
events, the Athenians made an expedition
against the territory of Corinth with eighty
ships and two thousand Athenian heavy in-
fantry, and two hundred cavalry on board
horse transports, accompanied by the Milesi-
ans, Andrians, and Carystians from the allies,
under the command of Nicias, son of Nicera-
tus, with two colleagues. Putting out to sea
they made land at daybreak between Cher-
sonese and Rheitus, at the beach of the coun-
try underneath the Solygian hill, upon which
the Dorians in old times established themselves
and carried on war against the Aeolian in-
habitants of Corinth, and where a village now
stands called Solygia. The beach where the
fleet came to is about a mile and a half from the

458

THUCYDIDES

[BooK iv

village, seven miles from Corinth, and two and
a quarter from the Isthmus. The Corinthians
had heard from Argos of the coming of the
Athenian armament, and had all come up to
the Isthmus long before, with the exception of
those who lived beyond it, and also of five hun-
dred who were away in garrison in Ambracia
and Leucadia; and they were there in full force
watching for the Athenians to land. These
last, however, gave them the slip by coming
in the dark; and being informed by signals of
the fact, the Corinthians left half their number
at Cenchreae, in case the Athenians should go
against Crommyon, and marched in all haste
to the rescue.

[43] Battus, one of the two generals present
at the action, went with a company to defend
the village of Solygia, which was unfortified;
Lycophron remaining to give battle with the
rest. The Corinthians first attacked the right
wing of the Athenians, which had just landed
in front of Chersonese, and afterwards the rest
of the army. The battle was an obstinate one,
and fought throughout hand to hand. The
right wing of the Athenians and Carystians,
who had been placed at the end of the line, re-
ceived and with some difficulty repulsed the
Corinthians, who thereupon retreated to a wall
upon the rising ground behind, and throwing
down the stones upon them, came on again
singing the paean, and being received by the
Athenians, were again engaged at close quar-
ters. At this moment a Corinthian company
having come to the relief of the left wing, rout-
ed and pursued the Athenian right to the
sea, whence they were in their turn driven
back by the Athenians and Carystians from the
ships. Meanwhile the rest of the army on either
side fought on tenaciously, especially the right
wing of the Corinthians, where Lycophron
sustained the attack of the Athenian left,
which it was feared might attempt the village
of Solygia.

[44] After holding on for a long while with-
out either giving way, the Athenians aided by
their horse, of which the enemy had none, at
length routed the Corinthians, who retired to
the hill and, halting, remained quiet there,
without coming down again. It was in this
rout of the right wing that they had the most
killed, Lycophron their general being among
the number. The rest of the army, broken and
put to flight in this way without being seri-
ously pursued or hurried, retired to the high
ground and there took up its position. The
Athenians, finding that the enemy no longer

offered to engage them, stripped his dead and
took up their own and immediately set up a
trophy. Meanwhile, the half of the Corinthians
left at Cenchreae to guard against the Atheni-
ans sailing on Crommyon, although unable to
see the battle for Mount Oneion, found out
what was going on by the dust, and hurried up
to the rescue; as did also the older Corinthi-
ans from the town, upon discovering what had
occurred. The Athenians seeing them all com-
ing against them, and thinking that they were
reinforcements arriving from the neighbour-
ing Peloponnesians, withdrew in haste to their
ships with their spoils and their own dead, ex-
cept two that they left behind, not being able
to find them, and going on board crossed over
to the islands opposite, and from thence sent a
herald, and took up under truce the bodies
which they had left behind. Two hundred and
twelve Corinthians fell in the battle, and rather
less than fifty Athenians.

[45] Weighing from the islands, the Athe-
nians sailed the same day to Crommyon in the
Corinthian territory, about thirteen miles from
the city, and coming to anchor laid waste the
country, and passed the night there. The next
day, after first coasting along to the territory of
Epidaurus and making a descent there, they
came to Methana between Epidaurus and
Troezen, and drew a wall across and fortified
the isthmus of the peninsula, and left a post
there from which incursions were henceforth
made upon the country of Troezen, Haliae,
and Epidaurus. After walling off this spot, the
fleet sailed off home.

[46] While these events were going on, Eu-
rymedon and Sophocles had put to sea with the
Athenian fleet from Pylos on their way to
Sicily and, arriving at Corcyra, joined the
townsmen in an expedition against the party
established on Mount Istone, who had crossed
over, as I have mentioned, after the revolution,
and become masters of the country, to the
great hurt of the inhabitants. Their stronghold
having been taken by an attack, the garrison
took refuge in a body upon some high ground
and there capitulated, agreeing to give up their
mercenary auxiliaries, lay down their arms,
and commit themselves to the discretion of the
Athenian people. The generals carried them
across under truce to the island of Ptychia, to
be kept in custody until they could be sent to
Athens, upon the understanding that, if any
were caught running away, all would lose the
benefit of the treaty. Meanwhile the leaders of
the Corcyraean commons, afraid that the Athe-

43-5^]

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

459

nians might spare the lives of the prisoners,
had recourse to the following stratagem. They
gained over some few men on the island by se-
cretly sending friends with instructions to pro-
vide them with a boat, and to tell them, as ii
for their own sakes, that they had best escape
as quickly as possible, as the Athenian generals
were going to give them up to the Corcyraean
people.

[47] These representations succeeding, it
was so arranged that the men were caught sail-
ing out in the boat that was provided, and the
treaty became void accordingly, and the whole
body were given up to the Corcyraeans. For
this result the Athenian generals were in a
great measure responsible; their evident disin-
clination to sail for Sicily, and thus to leave
to others the honour of conducting the men to
Athens, encouraged the intriguers in their de-
sign and seemed to affirm the truth of their
representations. The prisoners thus handed
over were shut up by the Corcyraeans in a
large building, and afterwards taken out by
twenties and led past two lines of heavy infan-
try, one on each side, being bound together,
and beaten and stabbed by the men in the lines
whenever any saw pass a personal enemy;
while men carrying whips went by their side
and hastened on the road those that walked too
slowly.

[48] As many as sixty men were taken out
and killed in this way without the knowledge
of their friends in the building, who fancied
they were merely being moved from one pris-
on to another. At last, however, someone
opened their eyes to the truth, upon which they
called upon the Athenians to kill them them-
selves, if such was their pleasure, and refused
any longer to go out of the building, and said
they would do all they could to prevent any
one coming in. The Corcyraeans, not liking
themselves to force a passage by the doors, got
up on the top of the building, and breaking
through the roof, threw down the tiles and let
fly arrows at them, from which the prisoners
sheltered themselves as well as they could.
Most of their number, meanwhile, were en-
gaged in dispatching themselves by thrusting
into their throats the arrows shot by the enemy,
and hanging themselves with the cords taken
from some beds that happened to be there, and
with strips made from their clothing; adopt-
ing, in short, every possible means of self-de-
struction, and also falling victims to the mis-
siles of their enemies on the roof. Night came
on while these horrors were enacting, and

most of it had passed before they were conclud-
ed. When it was day the Corcyraeans threw
them in layers upon wagons and carried them
out of the city. All the women taken in the
stronghold were sold as slaves. In this way the
Corcyraeans of the mountain were destroyed
by the commons; and so after terrible excesses
the party strife came to an end, at least as far
as the period of this war is concerned, for of
one party there was practically nothing left.
Meanwhile the Athenians sailed off to Sicily,
their primary destination, and carried on the
war with their allies there.

[49] At the close of the summer, the Athe-
nians at Naupactus and the Acarnanians made
an expedition against Anactorium, the Corin-
thian town lying at the mouth of the Ambra-
cian Gulf, and took it by treachery; and the
Acarnanians themselves, sending settlers from
all parts of Acarnania, occupied the place.

Summer was now over. [50] During the
winter ensuing, Aristides, son of Archippus,
one of the commanders of the Athenian ships
sent to collect money from the allies, arrested at
Eion, on the Strymon, Artaphernes, a Persian,
on his way from the King to Lacedaemon.
He was conducted to Athens, where the Athe-
nians got his dispatches translated from the
Assyrian character and read them. With nu-
merous references to other subjects, they in
substance told the Lacedaemonians that the
King did not know what they wanted, as of
the many ambassadors they had sent him no
two ever told the same story; if however they
were prepared to speak plainly they might
send him some envoys with this Persian. The
Athenians afterwards sent back Artaphernes
in a galley to Ephesus, and ambassadors with
him, who heard there of the death of King
Artaxerxes, son of Xerxes, which took place
about that time, and so returned home.

[51] The same winter the Chians pulled
down their new wall at the command of the
Athenians, who suspected them of meditating
an insurrection, after first however obtaining
pledges from the Athenians, and security as
far as this was possible for their continuing to
treat them as before. Thus the winter ended,
and with it ended the seventh year of this war
of which Thucydides is the historian.

[52] In the first days of the next summer
there was an eclipse of the sun at the time of
new moon, and in the early part of the same
month an earthquake. Meanwhile, the Mity-
lenian and other Lesbian exiles set out, for the
most part from the continent, with mcrcen-

460

THUCYDIDES

[BOOK iv

arics hired in Peloponnese, and others levied
on the spot, and took Rhoeteum, but restored
it without injury on the receipt of two thou-
sand Phocaean staters. After this they marched
against Antandrus and took the town by
treachery, their plan being to free Antandrus
and the rest of the Actaean towns, formerly
owned by Mitylene but now held by the Athe-
nians. Once fortified there, they would have
every facility for ship-building from the vicin-
ity of Ida and the consequent abundance of
timber, and plenty of other supplies, and
might from this base easily ravage Lesbos,
which was not far of!, and make themselves
masters of the Aeolian towns on the continent.

While these were the schemes of the exiles,
[53] tnc Athenians in the same summer made
an expedition with sixty ships, two thousand
heavy infantry, a few cavalry, and some allied
troops from Miletus and other parts, against
Cythera, under the command of Nicias, son of
Niceratus, Nicostratus, son of Diotrephes, and
Autocles, son of Tolmaeus. Cythera is an is-
land lying of! Laconia, opposite Malea; the in-
habitants are Lacedaemonians of the class of
the Perioeci; and an officer called the Judge of
Cythera went over to the place annually from
Sparta. A garrison of heavy infantry was also
regularly sent there, and great attention paid
to the island, as it was the landing-place for
the merchantmen from Egypt and Libya, and
at the same time secured Laconia from the at-
tacks of privateers from the sea, at the only
point where it is assailable, as the whole coast
rises abruptly towards the Sicilian and Cretan
seas.

[54] Coming to land here with their arma-
ment, the Athenians with ten ships and two
thousand Milesian heavy infantry took the
town of Scandea, on the sea; and with the rest
of their forces landing on the side of the island
looking towards Malea, went against the low-
er town of Cythera, where they found all the
inhabitants encamped. A battle ensuing, the
Cytherians held their ground for some little
while, and then turned and fled into the upper
town, where they soon afterwards capitulated
to Nicias and his colleagues, agreeing to leave
their fate to the decision of the Athenians,
their lives only being safe. A correspondence
had previously been going on between Nicias
and certain of the inhabitants, which caused
the surrender to be effected more speedily, and
upon terms more advantageous, present and
future, for the Cytherians; who would other-
wise have been expelled by the Athenians on

account of their being Lacedaemonians and
their island being so near to Laconia. After the
capitulation, the Athenians occupied the town
of Scandea near the harbour, and appointing
a garrison for Cythera, sailed to Asine, Helus,
and most of the places on the sea, and making
descents and passing the night on shore at such
spots as were convenient, continued ravaging
the country for about seven days.

/5?7 The Lacedaemonians seeing the Athe-
nians masters of Cythera, and expecting de-
scents of the kind upon their coasts, nowhere
opposed them in force, but sent garrisons here
and there through the country, consisting of
as many heavy infantry as the points menaced
seemed to require, and generally stood very
much upon the defensive. After the severe and
unexpected blow that had befallen them in the
island, the occupation of Pylos and Cythera,
and the apparition on every side of a war
whose rapidity defied precaution, they lived in
constant fear of internal revolution, and now
took the unusual step of raising four hundred
horse and a force of archers, and became more
timid than ever in military matters, finding
themselves involved in a maritime struggle,
which their organization had never contem-
plated, and that against Athenians, with whom
an enterprise unattempted was always looked
upon as a success sacrificed. Besides this, their
late numerous reverses of fortune, coming
close one upon another without any reason,
had thoroughly unnerved them, and they were
always afraid of a second disaster like that on
the island, and thus scarcely dared to take the
field, but fancied that they could not stir with-
out a blunder, for being new to the experience
of adversity they had lost all confidence in
themselves.

/^67 Accordingly they now allowed the
Athenians to ravage their seaboard, without
making any movement, the garrisons in whose
neighbourhood the descents were made always
thinking their numbers insufficient, and shar-
ing the general feeling. A single garrison
which ventured to resist, near Cotyrta and
Aphrodisia, struck terror by its charge into the
scattered mob of light troops, but retreated,
upon being received by the heavy infantry,
with the loss of a few men and some arms, for
which the Athenians set up a trophy, and then
sailed off to Cythera. From thence they sailed
round to Epidaurus Limera, ravaged part of
the country, and so came to Thyrea in the Cy-
nurian territory, upon the Argive and Laconi-
an border. This district had been given by its

53-61]

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

461

Lacedaemonian owners to the expelled Aegine-
tans to inhabit, in return for their good offices
at the time of the earthquake and the rising of
the Helots; and also because, although subjects
of Athens, they had always sided with Lace-
daemon.

[57] While the Athenians were still at sea,
the Aeginetans evacuated a fort which they
were building upon the coast, and retreated
into the upper town where they lived, rather
more than a mile from the sea. One of the
Lacedaemonian district garrisons which was
helping them in the work, refused to enter
here with them at their entreaty, thinking it
dangerous to shut themselves up within the
wall, and retiring to the high ground remained
quiet, not considering themselves a match for
the enemy. Meanwhile the Athenians landed,
and instantly advanced with all their forces
and took Thyrea. The town they burnt, pillag-
ing what was in it; the Aeginetans who were
not slain in action they took with them to Ath-
ens, with Tantalus, son of Patrocles, their
Lacedaemonian commander, \vho had been
wounded and taken prisoner. They also took
with them a few men from Cythera whom they
thought it safest to remove. These the Athe-
nians determined to lodge in the islands: the
rest of the Cytherians were to retain their lands
and pay four talents tribute; the Aeginetans
captured to be all put to death, on account of
the old inveterate feud; and Tantalus to share
the imprisonment of the Lacedaemonians tak-
en on the island.

[58] The same summer, the inhabitants ot
Camarina and Gela in Sicily first made an
armistice with each other, after which embas-
sies from all the other Sicilian cities assembled
at Gela to try to bring about a pacification. Af-
ter many expressions of opinion on one side
and the other, according to the griefs and pre-
tensions of the different parties complaining,
Hermocrates, son of Hermon, a Syracusan, the
most influential man among them, addressed
the following words to the assembly:

[59] "If I now address you, Sicilians, it is
not because my city is the least in Sicily or the
greatest sufferer by the war, but in order to
state publicly what appears to me to be the best
policy for the whole island. That war is an
evil is a proposition so familiar to every one
that it would be tedious to develop it. No one
is forced to engage in it by ignorance, or kept
out of it by fear, if he fancies there is anything
to be gained by it. To the former the gain ap-
pears greater than the danger, while the latter

would rather stand the risk than put up with
any immediate sacrifice. But if both should
happen to have chosen the wrong moment for
acting in this way, advice to make peace would
not be unserviceable; and this, if we did but
see it, is just what we stand most in need of at
the present juncture.

"I suppose that no one will dispute that we
went to war at first in order to serve our own
several interests, that we are now, in view of
the same interests, debating how we can make
peace; and that if we separate without having
as we think our rights, we shall go to war
again. [60] And yet, as men of sense, we ought
to see that our separate interests are not alone
at stake in the present congress: there is also
the question whether we have still time to save
Sicily, the whole of which in my opinion is
menaced by Athenian ambition; and we ought
to find in the name of that people more im-
perious arguments for peace than any which I
can advance, when we see the first power in
Hellas watching our mistakes with the few
ships that she has at present in our waters, and
under the fair name of alliance speciously seek-
ing to turn to account the natural hostility that
exists between us. If we go to war, and call in
to help us a people that are ready enough to
carry their arms even where they are not invit-
ed; and if we injure ourselves at our own ex-
pense, and at the same time serve as the pio-
neers of their dominion, we may expect, when
they see us worn out, that they will one day
come with a larger armament, and seek to
bring all of us into subjection.

[61] "And yet as sensible men, if we call in
allies and court danger, it should be in order
to enrich our different countries with new ac-
quisitions, and not to ruin what they possess
already; and we should understand that the
intestine discords which are so fatal to com-
munities generally, will be equally so to Sicily,
if we, its inhabitants, absorbed in our local
quarrels, neglect the common enemy. These
considerations should reconcile individual
with individual, and city with city, and unite
us in a common effort to save the whole of
Sicily. Nor should any one imagine that the
Dorians only are enemies of Athens, while the
Chalcidian race is secured by its Ionian blood;
the attack in question is not inspired by hatred
of one of two nationalities, but by a desire for
the good things in Sicily, the common prop-
erty of us all. This is proved by the Athenian
reception of the Chalcidian invitation: an ally
who has never given them any assistance what-

462

THUCYDIDES

ever, at once receives from them almost more
than the treaty entitles him to. That the Athe-
nians should cherish this ambition and practise
this policy is very excusable; and I do not
blame those who wish to rule, but those who
are over-ready to serve. It is just as much in
men's nature to rule those who submit to them,
as it is to resist those who molest them; one is
not less invariable than the other. Meanwhile
ail who see these dangers and refuse to pro-
vide for them properly, or who have come here
without having made up their minds that our
first duty is to unite to get rid of the common
peril, are mistaken. The quickest way to be
rid of it is to make peace with each other; since
the Athenians menace us not from their own
country, but from that of those who invited
them here. In this way instead of war issuing
in war, peace quietly ends our quarrels; and
the guests who come hither under fair pre-
tences for bad ends, will have good reason for
going away without having attained them.

[62] "So far as regards the Athenians, such
are the great advantages proved inherent in a
wise policy. Independently of this, in the face
of the universal consent that peace is the first
of blessings, how can we refuse to make it
amongst ourselves; or do you not think that
the good which you have, and the ills that you
complain of, would be better preserved and
cured by quiet than by war; that peace has its
honours and splendours of a less perilous kind,
not to mention the numerous other blessings
that one might dilate on, with the not less nu-
merous miseries of war? These considerations
should teach you not to disregard my words,
but rather to look in them every one for his
own safety. If there be any here who feels cer-
tain either by right or might to effect his object,
let not this surprise be to him too severe a dis-
appointment. Let him remember that many be-
fore now have tried to chastise a wrongdoer,
and failing to punish their enemy have not
even saved themselves; while many who have
trusted in force to gain an advantage, instead
of gaining anything more, have been doomed
to lose what they had. Vengeance is not neces-
sarily successful because wrong has been done,
or strength sure because it is confident; but
the incalculable element in the future exercises
the widest influence, and is the most treacher-
ous, and yet in fact the most useful of all
things, as it frightens us all equally, and thus
makes us consider before attacking each other.
[63] "Let us therefore now allow the unde-
fined fear of this unknown future, and the

[BooK iv

immediate terror of the Athenians' presence,
to produce their natural impression, and let us
consider any failure to carry out the pro-
grammes that we may each have sketched out
for ourselves as sufficiently accounted for by
these obstacles, and send away the intruder
from the country; and if everlasting peace be
impossible between us, let us at all events make
a treaty for as long a term as possible, and put
off our private differences to another day. In
fine, let us recognize that the adoption of my
advice will leave us each citizens of a free state,
and as such arbiters of our own destiny, able
to return good or bad offices with equal effect;
while its rejection will make us dependent on
others, and thus not only impotent to repel an
insult, but on the most favourable supposition,
friends to our direst enemies, and at feud with
our natural friends.

[64] "For myself, though, as I said at first,
the representative of a great city, and able to
think less of defending myself than of attack-
ing others, I am prepared to concede some-
thing in prevision of these dangers. I am not
inclined to ruin myself for the sake of hurting
my enemies, or so blinded by animosity as to
think myself equally master of my own plans
and of fortune which I cannot command; but
I am ready to give up anything in reason. I call
upon the rest of you to imitate my conduct of
your own free will, without being forced to
do so by the enemy. There is no disgrace in
connections giving way to one another, a Dori-
an to a Dorian, or a Chalcidian to his brethren;
above and beyond this we are neighbours, live
in the same country, are girt by the same sea,
and go by the same name of Sicilians. We shall
go to war again, I suppose, when the time
comes, and again make peace among ourselves
by means of future congresses; but the foreign
invader, if we are wise, will always find us
united against him, since the hurt of one is
the danger of all; and we shall never, in future,
invite into the island either allies or mediators.
By so acting we shall at the present moment
do for Sicily a double service, ridding her at
once of the Athenians, and of civil war, and
in future shall live in freedom at home, and
be less menaced from abroad."

[65] Such were the words of Hermocrates.
The Sicilians took his advice, and came to an
understanding among themselves to end the
war, each keeping what they had — the Cama-
rinaeans taking Morgantina at a price fixed to
be paid to the Syracusans — and the allies of the
Athenians called the officers in command, and

62-68]

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

463

told them that they were going to make peace
and that they would be included in the treaty.
The generals assenting, the peace was con-
cluded, and the Athenian fleet afterwards
sailed away from Sicily. Upon their arrival at
Athens, the Athenians banished Pythodorus
and Sophocles, and fined Eurymedon for hav-
ing taken bribes to depart when they might
have subdued Sicily. So thoroughly had the
present prosperity persuaded the citizens that
nothing could withstand them, and that they
could achieve what was possible and imprac-
ticable alike, with means ample or inadequate
it mattered not. The secret of this was their
general extraordinary success, which made
them confuse their strength with their hopes.

/66j The same summer the Megarians in
the city, pressed by the hostilities of the Athe-
nians, who invaded their country twice every
year with all their forces, and harassed by the
incursions of their own exiles at Pegae, who
had been expelled in a revolution by the popu-
lar party, began to ask each other whether it
would not be better to receive back their exiles,
and free the town from one of its two scourges.
The friends of the emigrants, perceiving the
agitation, now more openly than before de-
manded the adoption of this proposition; and
the leaders of the commons, seeing that the ,
sufferings of the times had tired out the con-
stancy of their supporters, entered in their
alarm into correspondence with the Athenian
generals, Hippocrates, son of Ariphron, and
Demosthenes, son of Akisthenes, and resolved
to betray the town, thinking this less danger-
ous to themselves than the return of the party
which they had banished. It was accordingly
arranged that the Athenians should first take
the long walls extending for nearly a mile
from the city to the port of Nisaea, to prevent
the Peloponnesians coming to the rescue from
that place, where they formed the sole garrison
to secure the fidelity of Megara; and that after
this the attempt should be made to put into
their hands the upper town, which it was
thought would then come over with less diffi-
culty.

[6j] The Athenians, after plans had been ar-
ranged between themselves and their corre-
spondents both as to words and actions, sailed
by night to Minoa, the island off Megara, with
six hundred heavy infantry under the com-
mand of Hippocrates, and took post in a quar-
ry not far off, out of which bricks used to be
taken for the walls; while Demosthenes, the
other commander, with a detachment of Pla-

taean light troops and another of Peripoli,
placed himself in ambush in the precinct of
Enyalius, which was still nearer. No one knew
of it, except those whose business it was to
know that night. A little before daybreak, the
traitors in Megara began to act. Every night
for a long time back, under pretence of ma-
rauding, in order to have a means of opening
the gates, they had been used, with the consent
of the officer in command, to carry by night a
sculling boat upon a cart along the ditch to the
sea, and so to sail out, bringing it back again
before day upon the cart, and taking it within
the wall through the gates, in order, as they
pretended, to baffle the Athenian blockade at
Minoa, there being no boat to be seen in the
harbour. On the present occasion the cart was
already at the gates, which had been opened
in the usual way for the boat, when the Athe-
nians, with whom this had been concerted, saw
it, and ran at the top of their speed from the
ambush in order to reach the gates before they
were shut again, and while the cart was still
there to prevent their being closed; their Me-
garian accomplices at the same moment killing
the guard at the gates. The first to run in was
Demosthenes with his Plataeans and Peripoli,
just where the trophy now stands; and he was
no sooner within the gates than the Plataeans
engaged and defeated the nearest party of Pel-
oponnesians who had taken the alarm and
come to the rescue, and secured the gates for
the approaching Athenian heavy infantry.

[68] After this, each of the Athenians as
fast as they entered went against the wall. A
few of the Peloponnesian garrison stood their
ground at first, and tried to repel the assault,
and some of them were killed; but the main
body took fright and fled; the night attack
and the sight of the Megarian traitors in arms
against them making them think that all Me-
gara had gone over to the enemy. It so hap-
pened also that the Athenian herald of his own
idea called out and invited any of the Megari-
ans that wished, to join the Athenian ranks;
and this was no sooner heard by the garrison
than they gave way, and, convinced that they
were the victims of a concerted attack, took
refuge in Nisaea. By daybreak, the walls being
now taken and the Megarians in the city in
great agitation, the persons who had nego-
tiated with the Athenians, supported by the
rest of the popular party which was privy to
the plot, said that they ought to open the gates
and march out to battle. It had been concerted
between them that the Athenians should rush

464

THUCYDIDES

[BOOK iv

in, the moment that the gates were opened,
while the conspirators were to be distinguished
from the rest by being anointed with oil, and so
to avoid being hurt. They could open the gates
with more security, as four thousand Athenian
heavy infantry from Eleusis, and six hundred
horse, had marched all night, according to
agreement, and were now close at hand. The
conspirators were all ready anointed and at
their posts by the gates, when one of their ac-
complices denounced the plot to the opposite
party, who gathered together and came in a
body, anc) roundly said that they must not
march out — a thing they had never yet ven-
tured on even when in greater force than at
present — or wantonly compromise the safety
of the town, and that if what they said was not
attended to, the battle would have to be fought
in Megara. For the rest, they gave no signs of
their knowledge of the intrigue, but stoutly
maintained that their advice was the best, and
meanwhile kept close by and watched the
gates, making it impossible for the conspirators
to effect their purpose.

^697 The Athenian generals seeing that
some obstacle had arisen, and that the capture
of the town by force was no longer practicable,
at once proceeded to invest Nisaea, thinking
that, if they could take it before relief arrived,
the surrender of Megara would soon follow.
Iron, stone-masons, and everything else re-
quired quickly coming up from Athens, the
Athenians started from the wall which they oc-
cupied, and from this point built a cross wall
looking towards Megara down to the sea on
either side of Nisaea; the ditch and the walls
being divided among the army, stones and
bricks taken from the suburb, and the fruit-
trees and timber cut down to make a palisade
wherever this seemed necessary; the houses
also in the suburb with the addition of battle-
ments sometimes entering into the fortifica-
tion. The whole of this day the work contin-
ued, and by the afternoon of the next the wall
was all but completed, when the garrison in
Nisaea, alarmed by the absolute want of pro-
visions, which they used to take in for the day
from the upper town, not anticipating any
speedy relief from the Peloponnesians, and
supposing Megara to be hostile, capitulated to
the Athenians on condition that they should
give up their arms, and should each be ran-
somed for a stipulated sum; their Lacedaemo-
nian commander, and any others of his coun-
trymen in the place, being left to the discretion
of the Athenians. On these conditions they sur-

rendered and came out, and the Athenians
broke down the long walls at their point of
junction with Megara, took possession of Ni-
saea, and went on with their other prepara-
tions.

[?°] fust at this time the Lacedaemonian
Brasidas, son of Tellis, happened to be in the
neighbourhood of Sicyon and Corinth, getting
ready an army for Thrace. As soon as he heard
of the capture of the walls, fearing for the Pel-
oponnesians in Nisaea and the safety of Me-
gara, he sent to the Boeotians to meet him as
quickly as possible at Tripodiscus, a village so
called of the Megarid, under Mount Geraneia,
and went himself, with two thousand seven
hundred Corinthian heavy infantry, four hun-
dred Phliasians, six hundred Sicyonians, and
such troops of his own as he had already levied,
expecting to find Nisaea not yet taken. Hear-
ing of its fall (he had marched out by night to
Tripodiscus), he took three hundred picked
men from the army, without waiting till his
coming should be known, and came up to Me-
gara unobserved by the Athenians, who were
down by the sea, ostensibly, and really if possi-
ble, to attempt Nisaea, but above all to get into
Megara and secure the town. He accordingly
invited the townspeople to admit his party, say-
ing that he had hopes of recovering Nisaea.

/ 7/7 However, one of the Megarian factions
feared that he might expel them and restore
the exiles; the other that the commons, appre-
hensive of this very danger, might set upon
them, and the city be thus destroyed by a bat-
tle within its gates under the eyes of the am-
bushed Athenians. He was accordingly refused
admittance, both parties electing to remain
quiet and await the event; each expecting a
battle between the Athenians and the relieving
army, and thinking it safer to see their friends
victorious before declaring in their favour.

Unable to carry his point, Brasidas went
back to the rest of the army. ^727 At daybreak
the Boeotians joined him. Having determined
to relieve Megara, whose danger they consid-
ered their own, even before hearing from Bra-
sidas, they were already in full force at Pla-
taea, when his messenger arrived to add spurs
to their resolution; and they at once sent on
to him two thousand two hundred heavy in-
fantry, and six hundred horse, returning home
with the main body. The whole army thus as-
sembled numbered six thousand heavy infan-
try. The Athenian heavy infantry were drawn
up by Nisaea and the sea; but the light troops
being scattered over the plain were attacked by

69-75]

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

465

the Boeotian horse and driven to the sea, being
taken entirely by surprise, as on previous oc-
casions no relief had ever come to the Megari-
ans from any quarter. Here the Boeotians were
in their turn charged and engaged by the
Athenian horse, and a cavalry action ensued
which lasted a long time, and in which both
parties claimed the victory. The Athenians
killed and stripped the leader of the Boeotian
horse and some few of his comrades who had
charged right up to Nisaea, and remaining
masters of the bodies gave them back under
truce, and set up a trophy; but regarding the
action as a whole the forces separated without
either side having gained a decisive advantage,
the Boeotians returning to their army and the
Athenians to Nisaea.

[73] After this Brasidas and the army came
nearer to the sea and to Megara, and taking up
a convenient position, remained quiet in order
of battle, expecting to be attacked by the Athe-
nians and knowing that the Megarians were
waiting to see which would be the victor. This
attitude seemed to present two advantages.
Without taking the offensive or willingly pro-
voking the hazards of a battle, they openly
showed their readiness to fight, and thus with-
out bearing the burden of the day would fairly
reap its honours; while at the same time they
effectually served their interests at Megara.
For if they had failed to show themselves they
would not have had a chance, but would have
certainly been considered vanquished, and
have lost the town. As it was, the Athenians
might possibly not be inclined to accept their
challenge, and their object would be attained
without fighting. And so it turned out. The
Athenians formed outside the long walls and,
the enemy not attacking, there remained mo-
tionless; their generals having decided that
the risk was too unequal. In fact most of their
objects had been already attained; and they
would have to begin a battle against superior
numbers, and if victorious could only gain
Megara, while a defeat would destroy the flow-
er of their heavy soldiery. For the enemy it was
different; as even the states actually represent-
ed in his army risked each only a part of its
entire force, he might well be more audacious.
Accordingly, after waiting for some time with-
out either side attacking, the Athenians with-
drew to Nisaea, and the Peloponnesians after
them to the point from which they had set out.
The friends of the Megarian exiles now threw
aside their hesitation, and opened the gates to
Brasidas and the commanders from the differ-

ent states — looking upon him as the victor and
upon the Athenians as having declined the
battle — and receiving them into the town pro-
ceeded to discuss matters with them; the party
in correspondence with the Athenians being
paralysed by the turn things had taken.

[74] Afterwards Brasidas let the allies go
home, and himself went back to Corinth, to
prepare for his expedition to Thrace, his orig-
inal destination. The Athenians also return-
ing home, the Megarians in the city most im-
plicated in the Athenian negotiation, knowing
that they had been detected, presently disap-
peared; while the rest conferred with the
friends of the exiles, and restored the party at
Pegae, after binding them under solemn oaths
to take no vengeance for the past, and only to
consult the real interests of the town. However,
as soon as they were in office, they held a re-
view of the heavy infantry, and separating the
battalions, picked out about a hundred of their
enemies, and of those who were thought to be
most involved in the correspondence with the
Athenians, brought them before the people,
and compelling the vote to be given openly,
had them condemned and executed, and estab-
lished a close oligarchy in the town — a revolu-
tion which lasted a very long while, although
effected by a very few partisans.

CHAPTER XIV

Eighth and Ninth Years of the War — Invasion of

Boeotia — Fall of Amphipolis — Brilliant Successes

of Brasidas

[75] THE same summer the Mitylenians were
about to fortify Antandrus, as they had in-
tended, when Demodocus and Aristides, the
commanders of the Athenian squadron en-
gaged in levying subsidies, heard on the Hel-
lespont of what was being done to the place
(Lamachus their colleague having sailed with
ten ships into the Pontus) and conceived fears
of its becoming a second Anaia — the place in
which the Samian exiles had established them-
selves to annoy Samos, helping the Pelopon-
nesians by sending pilots to their navy, and
keeping the city in agitation and receiving all
its outlaws. They accordingly got together a
force from the allies and set sail, defeated in
battle the troops that met them from Antan-
drus, and retook the place. Not long after, La-
machus, who had sailed into the Pontus, lost
his ships at anchor in the river Calex, in the
territory of Heraclea, rain having fallen in the
interior and the flood coming suddenly down

466

THUCYDIDES

upon them; and himself and his troops passed
by land through the Bithynian Thracians on
the Asiatic side, and arrived at Chalcedon, the
Megarian colony at the mouth of the Pontus.

[76] The same summer the Athenian gen-
eral, Demosthenes, arrived at Naupactus with
forty ships immediately after the return from
the Megarid. Hippocrates and himself had had
overtures made to them by certain men in the
cities in Boeotia, who wished to change the
constitution and introduce a democracy as at
Athens; Ptoeodorus, a Theban exile, being the
chief mover in this intrigue. The seaport town
of Siphae, in the bay of Crisae, in the Thespi-
an territory, was to be betrayed to them by one
party; Chaeronea (a dependency of what was
formerly called the Minyan, now the Boeotian,
Orchomenus) to be put into their hands by
another from that town, whose exiles were
very active in the business, hiring men in Pelo-
ponnese. Some Phocians also were in the plot,
Chaeronea being the frontier town of Boeotia
and close to Phanotis in Phocia. Meanwhile the
Athenians were to seize Delium, the sanctuary
of Apollo, in the territory of Tanagra looking
towards Euboea; and all these events were to
take place simultaneously upon a day appoint-
ed, in order that the Boeotians might be unable
to unite to oppose them at Delium, being ev-
erywhere detained by disturbances at home.
Should the enterprise succeed, and Delium be
fortified, its authors confidently expected that
even if no revolution should immediately fol-
low in Boeotia, yet with these places in their
hands, and the country being harassed by in-
cursions, and a refuge in each instance near
for the partisans engaged in them, things
would not remain as they were, but that the
rebels being supported by the Athenians and
the forces of the oligarchs divided, it would be
possible after a while to settle matters accord-
ing to their wishes.

u?] Such was the plot in contemplation.
Hippocrates with a force raised at home await-
ed the proper moment to take the field against
the Boeotians; while he sent on Demosthenes
with the forty ships above mentioned to Nau-
pactus, to raise in those parts an army of Acar-
nanians and of the other allies, and sail and
receive Siphae from the conspirators; a day
having been agreed on for the simultaneous ex-
ecution of both these operations. Demosthenes
on his arrival found Oeniadae already com-
pelled by the united Acarnanians to join the
Athenian confederacy, and himself raising all
the allies in those countries marched against

[BooK iv

and subdued Salynthius and the Agraeans; af-
ter which he devoted himself to the prepara-
tions necessary to enable him to be at Siphae by
the time appointed.

[j8] About the same time in the summer,
Brasidas set out on his march for the Thracian
places with seventeen hundred heavy infantry,
and arriving at Heraclea in Trachis, from
thence sent on a messenger to his friends at
Pharsalus, to ask them to conduct himself and
his army through the country. Accordingly
there came to Melitia in Achaia Panaerus, Dor-
us, Hippolochidas, Torylaus, and Strophacus,
the Chalcidian proxenus, under whose escort
he resumed his march, being accompanied also
by other Thessalians, among whom was Nico-
nidas from Larissa, a friend of Perdiccas. It
was never very easy to traverse Thessaly with-
out an escort; and throughout all Hellas for
an armed force to pass without leave through
a neighbour's country was a delicate step to
take. Besides this the Thessalian people had al-
ways sympathized with the Athenians. Indeed
if instead of the customary close oligarchy
there had been a constitutional government in
Thessaly, he would never have been able to
proceed; since even as it was, he was met on his
march at the river Enipeus by certain of the
opposite party who forbade his further prog-
ress, and complained of his making the at-
tempt without the consent of the nation. To
this his escort answered that they had no in-
tention of taking him through against their
will; they were only friends in attendance on
an unexpected visitor. Brasidas himself added
that he came as a friend to Thessaly and its in-
habitants, his arms not being directed against
them but against the Athenians, with whom
he was at war, and that although he knew of
no quarrel between the Thessalians and Lace-
daemonians to prevent the two nations having
access to each other's territory, he neither
would nor could proceed against their wishes;
he could only beg them not to stop him. With
this answer they went away, and he took the
advice of his escort, and pushed on without
halting, before a greater force might gather to
prevent him. Thus in the day that he set out
from Melitia he performed the whole distance
to Pharsalus, and encamped on the river Api-
danus; and so to Phacium, and from thence to
Perrhaebia. Here his Thessalian escort went
back, and the Perrhaebians, who are subjects of
Thessaly, set him down at Dium in the domin-
ions of Perdiccas, a Macedonian town under
Mount Olympus, looking towards Thessaly.

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

467

[79] I*1 this way Brasidas hurried through
Thessaly before any one could be got ready to
stop him, and reached Perdiccas and Chalci-
dice. The departure of the army from Pelo-
ponnese had been procured by the Thracian
towns in revolt against Athens and by Perdic-
cas, alarmed at the successes of the Athenians.
The Chalcidians thought that they would be
the first objects of an Athenian expedition, not
that the neighbouring towns which had not
yet revolted did not also secretly join in the in-
vitation; and Perdiccas also had his apprehen-
sions on account of his old quarrels with the
Athenians, although not openly at war with
them, and above all wished to reduce Arrha-
baeus, king of the Lyncestians. It had been less
difficult for them to get an army to leave Pelo-
ponnese, because of the ill fortune of the Lace-
daemonians at the present moment. [80] The
attacks of the Athenians upon Peloponnese,
and in particular upon Laconia, might, it was
hoped, be diverted most effectually by annoy-
ing them in return, and by sending an army to
their allies, especially as they were willing to
maintain it and asked for it to aid them in re-
volting. The Lacedaemonians were also glad
to have an excuse for sending some of the Hel-
ots out of the country, for fear that the present
aspect of affairs and the occupation of Pylos
might encourage them to move. Indeed fear
of their numbers and obstinacy even persuaded
the Lacedaemonians to the action which I shall
now relate, their policy at all times having
been governed by the necessity of taking pre-
cautions against them. The Helots were in-
vited by a proclamation to pick out those of
their number who claimed to have most dis-
tinguished themselves against the enemy, in
order that they might receive their freedom;
the object being to test them, as it was thought
that the first to claim their freedom would be
the most high-spirited and the most apt to re-
bel. As many as two thousand were selected ac-
cordingly, who crowned themselves and went
round the temples, rejoicing in their new free-
dom. The Spartans, however, soon afterwards
did away with them, and no one ever knew
how each of them perished. The Spartans now
therefore gladly sent seven hundred as heavy
infantry with Brasidas, who recruited the rest
of his force by means of money in Peloponnese.

[81] Brasidas himself was sent out by the
Lacedaemonians mainly at his own desire, al-
though the Chalcidians also were eager to
have a man so thorough as he had shown him-
self whenever there was anything to be done

at Sparta, and whose after-service abroad
proved of the utmost use to his country. At the
present moment his just and moderate conduct
towards the towns generally succeeded in pro-
curing their revolt, besides the places which he
managed to take by treachery; and thus when
the Lacedaemonians desired to treat, as they
ultimately did, they had places to offer in ex-
change, and the burden of war meanwhile
shifted from Peloponnese. Later on in the war,
after the events in Sicily, the present valour
and conduct of Brasidas, known by experience
to some, by hearsay to others, was what mainly
created in the allies of Athens a feeling for the
Lacedaemonians. He was the first who went
out and showed himself so good a man at all
points as to leave behind him the conviction
, that the rest were like him.

[82] Meanwhile his arrival in the Thracian
country no sooner became known to the Athe-
nians than they declared war against Perdic-
cas, whom they regarded as the author of the
expedition, and kept a closer watch on their
allies in that quarter.

[83] Upon the arrival of Brasidas and his
army, Perdiccas immediately started with them
and with his own forces against Arrhabaeus,
son of Bromcrus, king of the Lyncestian Mace-
donians, his neighbour, with whom he had a
quarrel and whom he wished to subdue. How-
ever, when he arrived with his army and Bra-
sidas at the pass leading into Lyncus, Brasidas
told him that before commencing hostilities he
wished to go and try to persuade Arrhabaeus
to become the ally of Lacedaemon, this latter
having already made overtures intimating his
willingness to make Brasidas arbitrator be-
tween them, and the Chalcidian envoys ac-
companying him having warned him not to
remove the apprehensions of Perdiccas, in or-
der to ensure his greater zeal in their cause.
Besides, the envoys of Perdiccas had talked at
Lacedaemon about his bringing many of the
places round him into alliance with them; and
thus Brasidas thought he might take a larger
view of the question of Arrhabaeus. Perdiccas
however retorted that he had not brought him
with him to arbitrate in their quarrel, but to
put down the enemies whom he might point
out to him; and that while he, Perdiccas, main-
tained half his army it was a breach of faith
for Brasidas to parley with Arrhabaeus. Never-
theless Brasidas disregarded the wishes of Per-
diccas and held the parley in spite of him, and
suffered himself to be persuaded to lead off the
army without invading the country of A^rha-

468

THUCYDIDES

[BOOK iv

baeus; after which Perdiccas, holding that
faith had not been kept with him, contributed
only a third instead of half of the support of
the army.

[84] The same summer, without loss of
time, Brasidas marched with the Chalcidians
against Acanthus, a colony of the Andrians, a
little before vintage. The inhabitants were di-
vided into two parties on the question of re-
ceiving him; those who had joined the Chal-
cidians in inviting him, and the popular party.
However, fear for their fruit, which was still
out, enabled Brasidas to persuade the multi-
tude to admit him alone, and to hear what he
had to say before making a decision; and he
was admitted accordingly and appeared before
the people, and not being a bad speaker for a
Lacedaemonian, addressed them as follows:

[85] "Acanthians, the Lacedaemonians have
sent out me and my army to make good the
reason that we gave for the war when we be-
gan it, viz., that we were going to war with
the Athenians in order to free Hellas. Our de-
lay in coming has been caused by mistaken ex-
pectations as to the war at home, which led us
to hope, by our own unassisted efforts and
without your risking anything, to effect the
speedy downfall of the Athenians; and you
must not blame us for this, as we are now
come the moment that we were able, prepared
with your aid to do our best to subdue them.
Meanwhile I am astonished at finding your
gates shut against me, and at not meeting
with a better welcome. We Lacedaemonians
thought of you as allies eager to have us, to
whom we should come in spirit even before we
were with you in body; and in this expectation
undertook all the risks of a march of many
days through a strange country, so far did our
zeal carry us. It will be a terrible thing if after
this you have other intentions, and mean to
stand in the way of your own and Hellenic
freedom. It is not merely that you oppose me
yourselves; but wherever I may go people will
be less inclined to join me, on the score that
you, to whom I first came — an important town
like Acanthus, and prudent men like the Acan-
thians— refused to admit me. I shall have noth-
ing to prove that the reason which I advance
is the true one; it will be said either that there
is something unfair in the freedom which I
offer, or that I am here in insufficient force
and unable to protect you against an attack
from Athens. Yet when I went with the army
which I now have to the relief of Nisaea, the
Athenians did not venture to engage me al-

though in greater force than I; and it is not
likely they will ever send across sea against
you an army as numerous as they had at Ni-
saea. [86] And for myself, I have come here
not to hurt but to free the Hellenes, witness
the solemn oaths by which I have bound my
government that the allies that I may bring
over shall be independent; and besides my ob-
ject in coming is not by force or fraud to ob-
tain your alliance, but to offer you mine to help
you against your Athenian masters. I protest,
therefore, against any suspicions of my inten-
tions after the guarantees which I offer, and
equally so against doubts of my ability to pro-
tect you, and I invite you to join me without
hesitation.

"Some of you may hang back because they
have private enemies, and fear that I may put
the city into the hands of a party: none need
be more tranquil than they. I am not come here
to help this party or that; and I do not con-
sider that I should be bringing you freedom in
any real sense, if I should disregard your con-
stitution, and enslave the many to the few or
the few to the many. This would be heavier
than a foreign yoke; and we Lacedaemonians,
instead of being thanked for our pains, should
get neither honour nor glory, but, contrariwise,
reproaches. The charges which strengthen our
hands in the war against the Athenians would
on our own showing be merited by ourselves,
and more hateful in us than in those who make
no pretensions to honesty; as it is more dis-
graceful for persons of character to take what
they covet by fair-seeming fraud than by open
force; the one aggression having for its justifi-
cation the might which fortune gives, the other
being simply a piece of clever roguery. [8j] A
matter which concerns us thus nearly we nat-
urally look to most jealously; and over and
above the oaths that I have mentioned, what
stronger assurance can you have, when you see
that our words, compared with the actual facts,
produce the necessary conviction that it is our
interest to act as we say?

"If to these considerations of mine you put
in the plea of inability, and claim that your
friendly feeling should save you from being
hurt by your refusal; if you say that freedom,
in your opinion, is not without its dangers,
and that it is right to offer it to those who can
accept it, but not to force it on any against their
will, then I shall take the gods and heroes of
your country to witness that I came for your
good and was rejected, and shall do my best
to compel you by laying waste your land. I

84-92]

shall do so without scruple, being justified by
the necessity which constrains me, first, to pre-
vent the Lacedaemonians from being damaged
by you, their friends, in the event of your non-
adhesion, through the moneys that you pay to
the Athenians; and secondly, to prevent the
Hellenes from being hindered by you in shak-
ing off their servitude. Otherwise indeed we
should have no right to act as we propose; ex-
cept in the name of some public interest, what
call should we Lacedaemonians have to free
those who do not wish it? Empire we do not
aspire to: it is what we are labouring to put
down; and we should wrong the greater num-
ber if we allowed you to stand in the way of
the independence that we offer to all. Endeav-
our, therefore, to decide wisely, and strive to
begin the work of liberation for the Hellenes,
and lay up for yourselves endless renown,
while you escape private loss, and cover your
commonwealth with glory."

[88] Such were the words of Brasidas. The
Acanthians, after much had been said on both
sides of the question, gave their votes in secret,
and the majority, influenced by the seductive
arguments of Brasidas and by fear for their
fruit, decided to revolt from Athens; not how-
ever admitting the army until they had taken
his personal security for the oaths sworn by his
government before they sent him out, assur-
ing the independence of the allies whom he
might bring over. Not long after, Stagirus, a
colony of the Andrians, followed their example
and revolted.

Such were the events of this summer. [89]
It was in the first days of the winter follow-
ing that the places in Boeotia were to be put
into the hands of the Athenian generals, Hip-
pocrates and Demosthenes, the latter of whom
was to go with his ships to Siphae, the former
to Delium. A mistake, however, was made in
the days on which they were each to start; and
Demosthenes, sailing first to Siphae, with the
Acarnanians and many of the allies from those
parts on board, failed to effect anything,
through the plot having been betrayed by Ni-
comachus, a Phocian from Phanotis, who told
the Lacedaemonians, and they the Boeotians.
Succours accordingly flocked in from all parts
of Boeotia, Hippocrates not being yet there to
make his diversion, and Siphae and Chae-
ronea were promptly secured, and the conspir-
ators, informed of the mistake, did not ven-
ture on any movement in the towns.

[go] Meanwhile Hippocrates made a levy
in mass of the citizens, resident aliens, and for-

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

469

eigners in Athens, and arrived at his destina-
tion after the Boeotians had already come back
from Siphae, and encamping his army began
to fortify Delium, the sanctuary of Apollo, in
the following manner. A trench was dug all
round the temple and the consecrated ground,
and the earth thrown up from the excavation
was made to do duty as a wall, in which stakes
were also planted, the vines round the sanctu-
ary being cut down and thrown in, together
with stones and bricks pulled down from the
houses near; every means, in short, being used
to run up the rampart. Wooden towers were
also erected where they were wanted, and
where there was no part of the temple build-
ings left standing, as on the side where the gal-
lery once existing had fallen in. The work was
begun on the third day after leaving home, arid
continued during the fourth, and till dinner-
time on the fifth, when most of it being now
finished the army removed from Delium about
a mile and a quarter on its way home. From
this point most of the light troops went straight
on, while the heavy infantry halted and re-
mained where they were; Hippocrates having
stayed behind at Delium to arrange the posts,
and to give directions for the completion of
such part of the outworks as had been left un-
finished.

[91] During the days thus employed the
Boeotians were mustering at Tanagra, and by
the time that they had come in from all the
towns, found the Athenians already on their
way home. The rest of the eleven Boeotarchs
were against giving battle, as the enemy was
no longer in Boeotia, the Athenians being just
over the Oropian border, when they halted;
but Pagondas, son of Aeolidas, one of the Boeo-
tarchs of Thebes (Arianthides, son of Lysi-
machidas, being the other), and then comman-
der-in-chief, thought it best to hazard a battle.
He accordingly called the men to him, com-
pany after company, to prevent their all leav-
ing their arms at once, and urged them to at-
tack the Athenians, and stand the issue of a
battle, speaking as follows:

[92] "Boeotians, the idea that we ought not
to give battle to the Athenians, unless we came
up with them in Boeotia, is one which should
never have entered into the head of any of us,
your generals. It was to annoy Boeotia that they
crossed the frontier and built a fort in our
country; and they are therefore, I imagine, our
enemies wherever we may come up with them,
and from wheresoever they may have come to
act as enemies do. And if any one has taken up

470

THUCYDIDES

[BOOK iv

with the idea in question for reasons of safety,
it is high time for him to change his mind. The
party attacked, whose own country is in dan-
ger, can scarcely discuss what is prudent with
the calmness of men who are in full enjoy-
ment of what they have got, and are thinking
of attacking a neighbour in order to get more.
It is your national habit, in your country or out
of it, to oppose the same resistance to a foreign
invader; and when that invader is Athenian,
and lives upon your frontier besides, it is dou-
bly imperative to do so. As between neighbours
generally, freedom means simply a determina-
tion to hold one's own; and with neighbours
like these, who are trying to enslave near and
far alike, there is nothing for it but to fight it
out to the last. Look at the condition of the
Euboeans and of most of the rest of Hellas, and
be convinced that others have to fight with
their neighbours for this frontier or that, but
that for us conquest means one frontier for the
whole country, about which no dispute can be
made, for they will simply come and take by
force what we have. So much more have we
to fear from this neighbour than from another.
Besides, people who, like the Athenians in the
present instance, are tempted by pride of
strength to attack their neighbours, usually
march most confidently against those who keep
still, and only defend themselves in their own
country, but think twice before they grapple
with those who meet them outside their fron-
tier and strike the first blow if opportunity of-
fers. The Athenians have shown us this them-
selves; the defeat which we inflicted upon them
at Coronea, at the time when our quarrels had
allowed them to occupy the country, has given
great security to Boeotia until the present day.
Remembering this, the old must equal their
ancient exploits, and the young, the sons of the
heroes of that time, must endeavour not to dis-
grace their native valour; and trusting in the
help of the god whose temple has been sacri-
legiously fortified, and in the victims which in
our sacrifices have proved propitious, we must
march against the enemy, and teach him that
he must go and get what he wants by attacking
someone who will not resist him, but that men
whose glory it is to be always ready to give bat-
tle for the liberty of their own country, and
never unjustly to enslave that of others, will
not let him go without a struggle."

[93] % these arguments Pagondas per-
suaded the Boeotians to attack the Athenians,
and quickly breaking up his camp led his army
forward, it being now late in the day. On near-

ing the enemy, he halted in a position where a
hill intervening prevented the two armies from
seeing each other, and then formed and pre-
pared for action. Meanwhile Hippocrates at
Delium, informed of the approach of the Boeo-
tians, sent orders to his troops to throw them-
selves into line, and himself joined them not
long afterwards, leaving about three hundred
horse behind him at Delium, at once to guard
the place in case of attack, and to watch their
opportunity and fall upon the Boeotians dur-
ing the battle. The Boeotians placed a detach-
ment to deal with these, and when everything
was arranged to their satisfaction appeared
over the hill, and halted in the order which
they had determined on, to the number of
seven thousand heavy infantry, more than ten
thousand light troops, one thousand horse, and
five hundred targeteers. On their right were
the Thebans and those of their province, in the
centre the Haliartians, Coronaeans, Copaeans,
and the other people around the lake, and on
the left the Thespians, Tanagraeans, and Or-
chomenians, the cavalry and the light troops
being at the extremity of each wing. The The-
bans formed twenty-five shields deep, the rest
as they pleased. Such was the strength and dis-
position of the Boeotian army.

[94] On the side of the Athenians, the heavy
infantry throughout the whole army formed
eight deep, being in numbers equal to the en-
emy, with the cavalry upon the two wings.
Light troops regularly armed there were none
in the army, nor had there ever been any at
Athens. Those who had joined in the invasion,
though many times more numerous than those
of the enemy, had mostly followed unarmed,
as part of the levy in mass of the citizens and
foreigners at Athens, and having started first
on their way home were not present in any
number. The armies being now in line and
upon the point of engaging, Hippocrates, the
general, passed along the Athenian ranks, and
encouraged them as follows:

[95] "Athenians, I shall only say a few
words to you, but brave men require no more,
and they are addressed more to your under-
standing than to your courage. None of you
must fancy that we are going out of our way
to run this risk in the country of another.
Fought in their territory the battle will be for
ours: if we conquer, the Peloponnesians will
never invade your country without the Boeo-
tian horse, and in one battle you will win
Boeotia and in a manner free Attica. Advance
to meet them then like citizens of a country in

93-98]

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

471

which you all glory as the first in Hellas, and
like sons of the fathers who beat them at Oeno-
phyta with Myronides and thus gained posses-
sion of Boeotia."

[96] Hippocrates had got half through the
army with his exhortation, when the Boeotians,
after a few more hasty words from Pagondas,
struck up the paean, and came against them
from the hill; the Athenians advancing to meet
them, and closing at a run. The extreme wing
of neither army came into action, one like the
other being stopped by the water-courses in the
way; the rest engaged with the utmost obsti-
nacy, shield against shield. The Boeotian left,
as far as the centre, was worsted by the Athe-
nians. The Thespians in that part of the field
suffered most severely. The troops alongside
them having given way, they were surrounded
in a narrow space and cut down fighting hand
to hand; some of the Athenians also fell into
confusion in surrounding the enemy and mis-
took and so killed each other. In this part of
the field the Boeotians were beaten, and re-
treated upon the troops still fighting; but the
right, where the Thcbans were, got the better
of the Athenians and shoved them further and
further back, though gradually at first. It so
happened also that Pagondas, seeing the dis-
tress of his left, had sent two squadrons of
horse, where they could not be seen, round the
hill, and their sudden appearance struck a
panic into the. victorious wing of the Athe-
nians, who thought that it was another army
coming against them. At length in both parts
of the field, disturbed by this panic, and with
their line broken by the advancing Thebans,
the whole Athenian army took to flight. Some
made for Delium and the sea, some for Oropus,
others for Mount Panics, or wherever they had
hopes of safety, pursued and cut down by the
Boeotians, and in particular by the cavalry,
composed partly of Boeotians and partly of
Locrians, who had come up just as the rout be-
gan. Night however coming on to interrupt
the pursuit, the mass of the 'fugitives escaped
more easily than they would otherwise have
done. The next day the troops at Oropus and
Delium returned home by sea, after leaving a
garrison in the latter place, which they con-
tinued to hold notwithstanding the defeat.

[97] The Boeotians set up a trophy, took up
their own dead, and stripped those of the en-
emy, and leaving a guard over them retired to
Tanagra, there to take measures for attacking
Delium. Meanwhile a herald came from the
Athenians to ask for the dead, but was met

and turned back by a Boeotian herald, who told
him that he would effect nothing until the re-
turn of himself the Boeotian herald, and who
then went on to the Athenians, and told them
on the part of the Boeotians that they had done
wrong in transgressing the law of the Hellenes.
Of what use was the universal custom protect-
ing the temples in an invaded country, if the
Athenians were to fortify Delium and live
there, acting exactly as if they were on uncon-
secrated ground, and drawing and using for
their purposes the water which they, the Boeo-
tians, never touched except for sacred uses?
Accordingly for the god as well as for them-
selves, in the name of the deities concerned,
and of Apollo, the Boeotians invited them first
to evacuate the temple, if they wished to take
up the dead that belonged to them.

[98] After these words from the herald, the
Athenians sent their own herald to the Boeo-
tians to say that they had not done any wrong
to the temple, and for the future would do it no
more harm than they could help; not having
occupied it originally in any such design, but
to defend themselves from it against those who
were really wronging them. The law of the
Hellenes was that conquest of a country,
whether more or less extensive, carried with it
possession of the temples in that country, with
the obligation to keep up the usual ceremonies,
at least as far as possible. The Boeotians and
most other people who had turned out the
owners of a country, and put themselves in
their places by force, now held as of right the
temples which they originally entered as usurp-
ers. If the Athenians could have conquered
more of Boeotia this would have been the case
with them: as things stood, the piece of it
which they had got they should treat as their
own, and not quit unless obliged. The water
they had disturbed under the impulsion of a
necessity which they had not wantonly in-
curred, having been forced to use it in defend-
ing themselves against the Boeotians who had
first invaded Attica. Besides, anything done
under the pressure of war and danger might
reasonably claim indulgence even in the eye of
the god; or why, pray, were the altars the
asylum for involuntary offences? Transgres-
sion also was a term applied to presumptuous
offenders, not to the victims of adverse circum-
stances. In short, which were most impious —
the Boeotians who wished to barter dead bodies
for holy places, or the Athenians who refused
to give up holy places to obtain what was theirs
by right? The condition of evacuating Boeotia

472

THUCYDIDES

must therefore be withdrawn. They were no
longer in Boeotia. They stood where they stood
by the right of the sword. All that the Boeo-
tians had to do was to tell them to take up their
dead under a truce according to the national
custom.

/997 The Boeotians replied that if they were
in Boeotia, they must evacuate that country be-
fore taking up their dead; if they were in their
own territory, they could do as they pleased:
for they knew that, although the Oropid where
the bodies as it chanced were lying (the battle
having been fought on the borders) was sub-
ject to Athens, yet the Athenians could not get
them without their leave. Besides, why should
they grant a truce for Athenian ground ? And
what could be fairer than to tell them to evacu-
ate Boeotia if they wished to get what they
asked? The Athenian herald accordingly re-
turned with this answer, without having ac-
complished his object.

[100] Meanwhile the Boeotians at once sent
for darters and slingers from the Malian Gulf,
and with two thousand Corinthian heavy in-
fantry who had joined them after the battle,
the Peloponnesian garrison which had evacu-
ated Nisaea, and some Megarians with them,
marched against Delium, and attacked the
fort, and after divers efforts finally succeeded
in taking it by an engine of the following de-
scription. They sawed in two and scooped out
a great beam from end to end, and fitting it
nicely together again like a pipe, hung by
chains a cauldron at one extremity, with which
communicated an iron tube projecting from
the beam, which was itself in great part plated
with iron. This they brought up from a dis-
tance upon carts to the part of the wall princi-
pally composed of vines and timber, and when
it was near, inserted huge bellows into their
end of the beam and blew with them. The blast
passing closely confined into the cauldron,
which was filled with lighted coals, sulphur
and pitch, made a great blaze, and set fire to
the wall, which soon became untenable for its
defenders, who left it and fled; and in this way
the fort was taken. Of the garrison some were
killed and two hundred made prisoners; most
of the rest got on board their ships and re-
turned home.

[101] Soon after the fall of Delium, which
took place seventeen days after the battle, the
Athenian herald, without knowing what had
happened, came again for the dead, which
were now restored by the Boeotians, who no
longer answered as at first. Not quite five hun-

[BooK iv

dred Boeotians fell in the battle, and nearly one
thousand Athenians, including Hippocrates
the general, besides a great number of light
troops and camp followers.

Soon after this battle Demosthenes, after the
failure of his voyage to Siphae and of the plot
on the town, availed himself of the Acarnanian
and Agraean troops and of the four hundred
Athenian heavy infantry which he had on
board, to make a descent on the Sicyonian
coast. Before however all his ships had come to
shore, the Sicyonians came up and routed and
chased to their ships those that had landed,
killing some and taking others prisoners; after
which they set up a trophy, and gave back the
dead under truce.

About the same time with the affair of De-
lium took place the death of Shakes, king of
the Odrysians, who was defeated in battle, in a
campaign against the Triballi; Seuthes, son of
Sparadocus, his nephew, succeeding to the
kingdom of the Odrysians, and of the rest of
Thrace ruled by Sitalces.

[102] The same winter Brasidas, with his
allies in the Thracian places, marched against
Amphipolis, the Athenian colony on the river
Strymon. A settlement upon the spot on which
the city now stands was before attempted by
Aristagoras, the Milesian (when he fled from
King Darius), who was however dislodged by
the Edonians; and thirty-two years later by the
Athenians, who sent thither ten thousand set-
tlers of their own citizens, and whoever else
chose to go. These were cut off at Drabescus by
the Thracians. Twenty-nine years after, the
Athenians returned (Hagnon, son of Nicias,
being sent out as leader of the colony) and
drove out the Edonians, and founded a town
on the spot, formerly called Ennea Hodoi or
Nine Ways. The base from which they started
was Eion, their commercial seaport at the
mouth of the river, not more than three miles
from the present town, which Hagnon named
Amphipolis, because the Strymon flows round
it on two sides, and he built it so as to be con-
spicuous from the sea and land alike, running
a long wall across from river to river, to com-
plete the circumference.

[103] Brasidas now marched against this
town, starting from Arne in Chalcidice. Arriv-
ing about dusk at Aulon and Bromiscus, where
the lake of Bolbe runs into the sea, he supped
there, and went on during the night. The
weather was stormy and it was snowing a lit-
tle, which encouraged him to hurry on, in or-
der, if possible, to take every one at Amphipolis

99-107]

by surprise, except the party who were to be-
tray it. The plot was carried on by some natives
of Argil us, an Andrian colony, residing in Am-
phipolis, where they had also other accomplices
gained over by Perdiccas or the Chalcidians.
But the most active in the matter were the in-
habitants of Argilus itself, which is close by,
who had always been suspected by the Athe-
nians, and had had designs on the place. These
men now saw their opportunity arrive with
Brasidas, and having for some time been in
correspondence with their countrymen in Am-
phipolis for the betrayal of the town, at once
received him into Argilus, and revolted from
the Athenians, and that same night took him
on to the bridge over the river; where he found
only a small guard to oppose him, the town be-
ing at some distance from the passage, and the
walls not reaching down to it as at present.
This guard he easily drove in, partly through
there being treason in their ranks, partly from
the stormy state of the weather and the sud-
denness of his attack, and so got across the
bridge, and immediately became master of all
the property outside; the Amphipolitans hav-
ing houses all over the quarter.

[104] The passage of Brasidas was a com-
plete surprise to the people in the town; and the
capture of many of those outside, and the
flight of the rest within the wall, combined to
produce great confusion among the citizens;
especially as they did not trust one another. It
is even said that if Brasidas, instead of stop-
ping to pillage, had advanced straight against
the town, he would probably have taken it. In
fact, however, he established himself where he
was and overran the country outside, and for
the present remained inactive, vainly awaiting
a demonstration on the part of his friends
within. Meanwhile the party opposed to the
traitors proved numerous enough to prevent
the gates being immediately thrown open, and
in concert with Eucles, the general, who had
come from Athens to defend the place, sent to
the other commander in Thrace, Thucydides,
son of Olorus, the author of this history, who
was at the isle of Thasos, a Parian colony, half
a day's sail from Amphipolis, to tell him to
come to their relief. On receipt of this message
he at once set sail with seven ships which he
had with him, in order, if possible, to reach
Amphipolis in time to prevent its capitulation,
or in any case to save Eion.

[105] Meanwhile Brasidas, afraid of suc-
cours arriving by sea from Thasos, and learn-
ing that Thucydides possessed the right of

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

473

working the gold mines in that part of Thrace,
and had thus great influence with the inhabi-
tants of the continent, hastened to gain the
town, if possible, before the people of Amphi-
polis should be encouraged by his arrival to
hope that he could save them by getting to-
gether a force of allies from the sea and from
Thrace, and so refuse to surrender. He accord-
ingly offered moderate terms, proclaiming that
any of the Amphipolitans and Athenians who
chose, might continue to enjoy their property
with full rights of citizenship; while those who
did not wish to stay had five days to depart,
taking their property with them.

[106] The bulk of the inhabitants, upon
hearing this, began to change their minds,
especially as only a small number of the citi-
zens were Athenians, the majority having
come from different quarters, and many of the
prisoners outside had relations within the
walls. They found the proclamation a fair one
in comparison of what their fear had sug-
gested; the Athenians being glad to go out, as
they thought they ran more risk than the rest,
and further, did not expect any speedy relief,
and the multitude generally being content at
being left in possession of their civic rights,
and at such an unexpected reprieve from dan-
ger. The partisans of Brasidas now openly ad-
vocated this course, seeing that the feeling of
the people had changed, and that they no
longer gave ear to the Athenian general pres-
ent; and thus the surrender was made and
Brasidas was admitted by them on the terms of
his proclamation. In this way they gave up the
city, and late in the same day Thucydides and
his ships entered the harbour of Eion, Brasi-
das having just got hold of Amphipolis, and
having been within a night of taking Eion:
had the ships been less prompt in relieving it,
in the morning it would have been his.

[toj] After this Thucydides put all in order
at Eion to secure it against any present or fu-
ture attack of Brasidas, and received such as
had elected to come there from the interior ac-
cording to the terms agreed on. Meanwhile
Brasidas suddenly sailed with a number of
boats down the river to Eion to see if he could
not seize the point running out from the wall,
and so command the entrance; at the same
time he attempted it by land, but was beaten
off on both sides and had to content himself
with arranging matters at Amphipolis and in
the neighbourhood. Myrcinus, an Edonian
town, also came over to him; the Edonian king
Pittacus having been killed by the sons jDf Go-

474

THUCYDIDES

[BooK iv

axis and his own wife Brauro; and Galepsus
and Oesimc, which arc Thasian colonies, not
long after followed its example. Perdiccas too
came up immediately after the capture and
joined in these arrangements.

[108] The news that Amphipolis was in the
hands of the enemy caused great alarm at Ath-
ens. Not only was the town valuable for the
timber it afforded for shipbuilding, and the
money that it brought in; but also, although
the escort of the Thessalians gave the Lacedae-
monians a means of reaching the allies of Ath-
ens as far as the Strymon, yet as long as they
were not masters of the bridge but were
watched on the side of Eion by the Athenian
galleys, and on the land side impeded by a
large and extensive lake formed by the waters
of the river, it was impossible for them to go
any further. Now, on the contrary, the path
seemed open. There was also the fear of the
allies revolting, owing to the moderation dis-
played by Brasidas in all his conduct, and to
the declarations which he was everywhere
making that he was sent out to free Hellas. The
towns subject to the Athenians, hearing of the
capture of Amphipolis and of the terms ac-
corded to it, and of the gentleness of Brasidas,
felt most strongly encouraged to change their
condition, and sent secret messages to him,
begging him to come on to them; each wishing
to be the first to revolt. Indeed there seemed to
be no danger in so doing; their mistake in their
estimate of the Athenian power was as great
as that power afterwards turned out to be, and
their judgment was based more upon blind
wishing than upon any sound prevision; for it
is a habit of mankind to entrust to careless
hope what they long for, and to use sovereign
reason to thrust aside what they do not fancy.
Besides the late severe blow which the Athe-
nians had met with in Boeotia, joined to the
seductive, though untrue, statements of Brasi-
das, about the Athenians not having ventured
to engage his single army at Nisaea, made the
allies confident, and caused them to believe
that no Athenian force would be sent against
them. Above all the wish to do what was agree-
able at the moment, and the likelihood that
they should find the Lacedaemonians full of
zeal at starting, made them eager to venture.
Observing this, the Athenians sent garrisons to
the different towns, as far as was possible at
such short notice and in winter; while Brasidas
sent dispatches to Lacedaemon asking for rein-
forcements, and himself made preparations for
building galleys in the Strymon, The Lacedae-

monians however did not send him any, partly
through envy on the part of their chief men,
partly because they were more bent on recover-
ing the prisoners of the island and ending the
war.

[log] The same winter the Megarians took
ancl razed to the foundations the long walls
which had been occupied by the Athenians;
and Brasidas after the capture of Amphipolis
marched with his allies against Acte, a prom-
ontory running out from the King's dike with
an inward curve, and ending in Athos, a lofty
mountain looking towards the Aegean Sea. In
it are various towns, Sane, an Andrian col-
ony, close to the canal, and facing the sea in the
direction of Euboea; the others being Thyssus,
Cleone, Acrothoi, Olophyxus, and Dium, in-
habited by mixed barbarian races speaking the
two languages. There is also a small Chalci-
dian element; but the greater number are Tyr-
rheno-Pelasgians once settled in Lemnos and
Athens, and Bisaltians, Crestonians, and Edo-
nians; the towns being all small ones. Most of
these came over to Brasidas; but Sane and
Dium held out and saw their land ravaged by
him and his army.

[no] Upon their not submitting, he at once
marched against Torone in Chalcidice, which
was held by an Athenian garrison, having
been invited by a few persons who were pre-
pared to hand over the town. Arriving in the
dark a little before daybreak, he sat down with
his army near the temple of the Dioscuri,
rather more than a quarter of a mile from the
city. The rest of the town of Torone and the
Athenians in garris/ (riid,not perceive his ap-
proach; but his par/leader of trie -\ that he was
coming (a few of taians, and foumjrgone out
to meet him) were on \lVe' \vatch for his ar-
rival, and were no sooner aware of it than they
took it to them seven light-armed men with
daggers, who alone of twenty men ordered on
this service dared to enter, commanded by Ly-
sistratus an Olynthian. These passed through
the sea wall, and without being seen went up
and put to the sword the garrison of the high*
est post in the town, which stands on a hill,
and broke open the postern on the side of Can-
astraeum.

[in] Brasidas meanwhile came a little
nearer and then halted with his main body,
sending on one hundred targeteers to be ready
to rush in first, the moment that a gate should
be thrown open and the beacon lighted as
agreed. After some time passed in waiting and
wondering at the delay, the targeteers by de-

io8-n6]

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

475

grccs got up close to the town. The Toronacans
inside at work with the party that had entered
had by this time broken down the postern and
opened the gates leading to the market-place by
cutting through the bar, and first brought some
men round and let them in by the postern, in
order to strike a panic into the surprised towns-
men by suddenly attacking them from behind
and on both sides at once; after which they
raised the fire-signal as had been agreed, and
took in by the market gates the rest of the tar-
geteers.

[112] Brasidas seeing the signal told the
troops to rise, and dashed forward amid the
loud hurrahs of his men, which carried dismay
among the astonished townspeople. Some
burst in straight by the gate, others over some
square pieces of timber placed against the wall
(which has fallen down and was being re-
built) to draw up stones; Brasidas and the
greater number making straight uphill for the
higher part of the town, in order to take it
from top to bottom, and once for all, while the
rest of the multitude spread in all directions.

[u$] The capture of the town was effected
before the great body of the Toronaeans had
recovered from their surprise and confusion;
but the conspirators and the citizens of their
party at once joined the invaders. About fifty
of the Athenian heavy infantry happened to be
sleeping in the market-place when the alarm
reached them. A few of these were killed fight-
ing; the rest escaped, some by land, others to
the two ships on the station, and took refuge
in Lecythus, a fort garrisoned by their own
men in the corner of the town running out
into the sea and cut off by a narrow isthmus;
where they were joined by the Toronaeans of
their party.

[114] Day now arrived, and the town being
secured, Brasidas made a proclamation to the
Toronacans who had taken refuge with the
Athenians, to come out, as many as chose, to
their homes without fearing for their rights or
persons, and sent a herald to invite the Athe-
nians to accept a truce, and to evacuate Lecy-
thus with their property, as being Chalcidian
ground. The Athenians refused this offer, but
asked for a truce for a day to take up their
dead. Brasidas granted it for two days, which
he employed in fortifying the houses near, and
the Athenians in doing the same to their posi-
tions. Meanwhile he called a meeting of the
Toronaeans, and said very much what he had
said at Acanthus, namely, that they must not
look upon those who had negotiated with him

for the capture of the town as bad men or as
traitors, as they had not acted as they had done
from corrupt motives or in order to enslave the
city, but for the good and freedom of Torone;
nor again must those who had not shared in
the enterprise fancy that they would not
equally reap its fruits, as he had not come to
destroy either city or individual. This was the
reason of his proclamation to those that had
fled for refuge to the Athenians: he thought
none the worse of them for their friendship for
the Athenians; he believed that they had only
to make trial of the Lacedaemonians to like
them as well, or even much better, as acting
much more justly: it was for want of such a
trial that they were now afraid of them. Mean-
while he warned all of them to prepare to be
staunch allies, and for being held responsible
for all faults in future: for the past, they had
not wronged the Lacedaemonians but had
been wronged by others who were too strong
for them, and any opposition that they might
have offered him could be excused,

[115] Having encouraged them with this
address, as soon as the truce expired he made
his attack upon Lecythus; the Athenians de-
fending themselves from a poor wall and from
some houses with parapets. One day they beat
him off; the next the enemy were preparing to
bring up an engine against them from which
they meant to throw fire upon the wooden de-
fences, and the troops were already coming up
to the point where they fancied they could best
bring up the engine, and where place was most
assailable; meanwhile the Athenians put a
wooden tower upon a house opposite, and car-
ried up a quantity of jars and casks of water
and big stones, and a large number of men
also climbed up. The house thus laden too
heavily suddenly broke down with a loud
crash; at which the men who were near and
saw it were more vexed than frightened; but
those not so near, and still more those furthest
off, thought that the place was already taken
at that point, and fled in haste to the sea and
the ships.

[116] Brasidas, perceiving that they were
deserting the parapet, and seeing what was go-
ing on, dashed forward with his troops, and
immediately took the fort, and put to the sword
all whom he found in it. In this way the place
was evacuated by the Athenians, who went
across in their boats and ships to Pallene. Now
there is a temple of Athene in Lecythus, and
Brasidas had proclaimed in the moment of
making the assault that he would give thirty

476

THUCYDIDES

[BooK iv

silver minac to the man first on the wall. Be-
ing now of opinion that the capture was scarce-
ly due to human means, he gave the thirty
minae to the goddess for her temple, and razed
and cleared Lecythus, and made the whole of
it consecrated ground. The rest of the winter
he spent in settling the places in his hands, and
in making designs upon the rest; and with the
expiration of the winter the eighth year of this
war ended.

[nj] In the spring of the summer follow-
ing, the Lacedaemonians and Athenians made
an armistice for a year; the Athenians thinking
that they would thus have full leisure to take
their precautions before Brasidas could pro-
cure the revolt of any more of their towns, and
might also, if it suited them, conclude a gen-
eral peace; the Lacedaemonians divining the
actual fears of the Athenians, and thinking
that after once tasting a respite from trouble
and misery they would be more disposed to
consent to a reconciliation, and to give back
the prisoners, and make a treaty for the longer
period. The great idea of the Lacedaemonians
was to get back their men while Brasidas's
good fortune lasted: further successes might
make the struggle a less unequal one in Chalci-
dice, but would leave them still deprived of
their men, and even in Chalcidice not more
than a match for the Athenians and by no
means certain of victory. An armistice was ac-
cordingly concluded by Lacedaemon and her
allies upon the terms following:
[118] i. As to the temple and oracle of the
Pythian Apollo, we are agreed that whosoever
will shall have access to it, without fraud or
fear, according to the usages of his forefathers.
The Lacedaemonians and the allies present
agree to this, and promise to send heralds to
the Boeotians and Phocians, and to do their
best to persuade them to agree likewise.

2. As to the treasure of the god, we agree to
exert ourselves to detect all malversators, truly
and honestly following the customs of our fore-
fathers, we and you and all others willing to
do so, all following the customs of our fore-
fathers. As to these points the Lacedaemonians
and the other allies are agreed as has been said.

3. As to what follows, the Lacedaemonians
and the other allies agree, if the Athenians con-
clude a treaty, to remain, each of us in our own
territory, retaining our respective acquisitions:
the garrison in Coryphasium peeping within
Buphras and Tomeus: that in Cythera attempt-
ing no communication with the Peloponnesian
confederacy, neither we with them, nor they

with us: that in Nisaea and Minoa not crossing
the road leading from the gates of the temple
of Nisus to that of Poseidon and from thence
straight to the bridge at Minoa: the Megarians
and the allies being equally bound not to cross
this road, and the Athenians retaining the is-
land they have tafen, without any communi-
cation on either side: as to Troezen, each side
retaining what it has, and as was arranged
with the Athenians.

4. As to the use of the sea, so far as refers to
their own coast and to that of their confederacy,
that the Lacedaemonians and their allies may
voyage upon it in any vessel rowed by oars
and of not more than five hundred talents ton-
nage, not a vessel of war.

5. That all heralds and embassies, with as
many attendants as they please, for conclud-
ing the war and adjusting claims, shall have
free passage, going and coming, to Pelopon-
nese or Athens by land and by sea.

6. That during the truce, deserters whether
bond or free shall be received neither by you,
nor by us.

7. Further, that satisfaction shall be given
by you to us and by us to you according to the
public law of our several countries, all disputes
being settled by law without recourse to hos-
tilities.

The Lacedaemonians and allies agree to
these articles; but if you have anything fairer
or juster to suggest, come to Lacedaemon and
let us J(now: whatever shall be just will meet
with no objection either from the Lacedaemo-
nians or from the allies. Only let those who
come come with full powers, as you desire us.
The truce shall be for one year.

Approved by the people.

The tribe of Acamantis had the prytany,
Phoenippus was secretary, Niciades chairman.
Laches moved, in the name of the good luc\
of the Athenians, that they should conclude
the armistice upon the terms agreed upon by
the Lacedaemonians and the allies. It was
agreed accordingly in the popular assembly
that the armistice should be for one year, be-
ginning that very day, the fourteenth of the
month of Elaphebolion; during which time
ambassadors and heralds should go and come
between the two countries to discuss the bases
of a pacification. That the generals and pry-
tanes should call an assembly of the people, in
which the Athenians should first consult on
the peace, and on the mode in which the em-
bassy for putting an end to the war should be
admitted. That the embassy now present

117-123]

should at once ta1(e the engagement before the
people to l(eep wett and truly this truce for one
year.

[119] On these terms the Lacedaemonians
concluded with the Athenians and their allies
on the twelfth day of the Spartan month Ger-
astius; the allies also taking the oaths. Those
who concluded and poured the libation were
Taurus, son of Echetimides, Athenaeus, son
of Pericleidas, and Philocharidas, son of Eryxi-
daidas, Lacedaemonians; Aeneas, son of Ocy-
tus, and Euphamidas, son of Aristonymus,
Corinthians; Damotimus, son of Naucrates,
and Onasimus, son of Megacles, Sicyonians;
Nicasus, son of Cecalus, and Menecrates, son
of Amphidorus, Megarians; and Amphias, son
of Eupaidas, an Epidaurian; and the Athenian
generals Nicostratus, son of Diitrephes, Nicias,
son of Niceratus, and Autocles, son of Tol-
maeus. Such was the armistice, and during the
whole of it conferences went on on the subject
of a pacification.

[120] In the days in which they were going
backwards and forwards to these conferences,
Scione, a town in Pallene, revolted from Ath-
ens, and went over to Brasidas. The Scionaeans
say that they are Pallenians from Peloponnese,
and that their first founders on their voyage
from Troy were carried in to this spot by the
storm which the Achaeans were caught in, and
there settled. The Scionaeans had no sooner re-
volted than Brasidas crossed over by night to
Scione, with a friendly galley ahead and him-
self in a small boat some way behind; his idea
being that if he fell in with a vessel larger than
the boat he would have the galley to defend
him, while a ship that was a match for the gal-
ley would probably neglect the small vessel to
attack the large one, and thus leave him time
to escape. His passage effected, he called a
meeting of the Scionaeans and spoke to the
same effect as at Acanthus and Torone, adding
that they merited the utmost commendation,
in that, in spite of Pallene within the isthmus
being cut off by the Athenian occupation of
Potidaea and of their own practically insular
position, they had of their own free will gone
forward to meet their liberty instead of timor-
ously waiting until they had been by force
compelled to their own manifest good. This
was a sign that they would valiantly undergo
any trial, however great; and if he should or-
der affairs as he intended, he should count
them among the truest and sincerest friends
of the Lacedaemonians, and would in every
other way honour them.

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR 477

[121] The Scionaeans were elated by his
language, and even those who had at first dis-
approved of what was being done catching the
general confidence, they determined on a vig-
orous conduct of the war, and welcomed Brasi-
das with all possible honours, publicly crown-
ing him with a crown of gold as the liberator
of Hellas; while private persons crowded
round him and decked him with garlands as
though he had been an athlete. Meanwhile
Brasidas left them a small garrison for the
present and crossed back again, and not long
afterwards sent over a larger force, intending
with the help of the Scionaeans to attempt
Mende and Potidaea before the Athenians
should arrive; Scione, he felt, being too like an
island for them not to relieve it. He had be-
sides intelligence in the above towns about
their betrayal.

[122] In the midst of his designs upon the
towns in question, a galley arrived with the
commissioners carrying round the news of the
armistice, Aristonymus for the Athenians and
Athenaeus for the Lacedaemonians. The
troops now crossed back to Torone, and the
commissioners gave Brasidas notice of the con-
vention. All the Lacedaemonian allies in
Thrace accepted what had been done; and
Aristonymus made no difficulty about the rest,
but finding, on counting the days, that the
Scionaeans had revolted after the date of the
convention, refused to include them in it. To
this Brasidas earnestly objected, asserting that
the revolt took place before, and would not
give up the town. Upon Aristonymus report-
ing the case to Athens, the people at once pre-
pared to send an expedition to Scione. Upon
this, envoys arrived from Lacedaemon, alleg-
ing that this would be a breach of the truce,
and laying claim to the town upon the faith
of the assertion of Brasidas, and meanwhile
offering to submit the question to arbitration.
Arbitration, however, was what the Atheni-
ans did not choose to risk; being determined
to send troops at once to the place, and furious
at the idea of even the islanders now daring to
revolt, in a vain reliance upon the power of the
Lacedaemonians by land. Besides the facts of
the revolt were rather as the Athenians con-
tended, the Scionaeans having revolted two
days after the convention. Cleon accordingly
succeeded in carrying a decree to reduce and
put to death the Scionaeans; and the Athenians
employed the leisure which they now enjoyed
in preparing for the expedition.

/ /2j7 Meanwhile Mende revolted, a town

478

THUCYDIDES

[BOOK iv

in Pallcne and a colony of the Eretrians, and
was received without scruple by Brasidas, in
spite of its having evidently come over during
the armistice, on account of certain infringe-
ments of the truce alleged by him against the
Athenians. This audacity of Mende was partly
caused by seeing Brasidas forward in the mat-
ter and by the conclusions drawn from his re-
fusal to betray Scione; and besides, the con-
spirators in Mende were few, and, as I have al-
ready intimated, had carried on their practices
too long not to fear detection for themselves,
and not to wish to force the inclination of the
multitude. This news made the Athenians
more furious than ever, and they at once pre-
pared against both towns. Brasidas, expecting
their arrival, conveyed away to Olynthus in
Chalcidice the women and children of the Sci-
onaeans and Mendaeans, and sent over to them
five hundred Peloponnesian heavy infantry
and three hundred Chalcidian targeteers, all
under the command of Polydamidas.

Leaving these two towns to prepare together
against the speedy arrival of the Athenians,
[124] Brasidas and Perdiccas started on a sec-
ond joint expedition into Lyncus against Ar-
rhabaeus; the latter with the forces of his Mace-
donian subjects, and a corps of heavy infantry
composed of Hellenes domiciled in the coun-
try; the former with the Peloponnesians whom
he still had with him and the Chalcidians,
Acanthians, and the rest in such force as they
were able. In all there were about three thou-
sand Hellenic heavy infantry, accompanied
by all the Macedonian cavalry with the Chalci-
dians, near one thousand strong, besides an
immense crowd of barbarians. On entering the
country of Arrhabaeus, they found the Lynces-
tians encamped awaiting them, and themselves
took up a position opposite. The infantry on
either side were upon a hill, with a plain be-
tween them, into which the horse of both ar-
mies first galloped down and engaged a cav-
alry action. After this the Lyncestian heavy
infantry advanced from their hill to join their
cavalry and offered battle; upon which Brasi-
das and Perdiccas also came down to meet
them, and engaged and routed them with
heavy loss; the survivors taking refuge upon
the heights and there remaining inactive. The
victors now set up a trophy and waited two or
three days for the Illyrian mercenaries who
were to join Perdiccas. Perdiccas then wished
to go on and attack the villages of Arrhabaeus,
and to sit still no longer; but Brasidas, afraid
that the Athenians might sail up during his ab-

sence, and of something happening to Mende,
and seeing besides that the Illyrians did not
appear, far from seconding this wish was anx-
ious to return.

^7257 While they were thus disputing, the
news arrived that the Illyrians had actually
betrayed Perdiccas and had joined Arrhabae-
us; and the fear inspired by their warlike char-
acter made both parties now think it best to
retreat. However, owing to the dispute, noth-
ing had been settled as to when they should
start; and night coming on, the Macedonians
and the barbarian crowd took fright in a mo-
ment in one of those mysterious panics to
which great armies are liable; and persuaded
that an army many times more numerous than
that which had really arrived was advancing
and all but upon them, suddenly broke and
fled in the direction of home, and thus com-
pelled Perdiccas, who at first did not perceive
what had occurred, to depart without seeing
Brasidas, the two armies being encamped at a
considerable distance from each other. At day-
break Brasidas, perceiving that the Macedoni-
ans had gone on, and that the Illyrians and Ar-
rhabaeus were on the point of attacking him,
formed his heavy infantry into a square, with
the light troops in the centre, and himself also
prepared to retreat. Posting his youngest sol-
diers to dash out wherever the enemy should
attack them, he himself with three hundred
picked men in the rear intended to face about
during the retreat and beat off the most for-
ward of their assailants. Meanwhile, before the
enemy approached, he sought to sustain the
courage of his soldiers with the following has-
ty exhortation:

[126] "Peloponnesians, if I did not suspect
you of being dismayed at being left alone to
sustain the attack of a numerous and barbarian
enemy, I should just have said a few words to
you as usual without further explanation. As
it is, in the face of the desertion of our friends
and the numbers of the enemy, I have some ad-
vice and information to offer, which, brief as
they must be, will, I hope, suffice for the more
important points. The bravery that you ha-
bitually display in war does not depend on
your having allies at your side in this or that
encounter, but on your native courage; nor
have numbers any terrors for citizens of states
like yours, in which the many do not rule the
few, but rather the few the many, owing their
position to nothing else than to superiority in
the field. Inexperience now makes you afraid
of barbarians; and yet the trial of strength

124-129 1

which you had with the Macedonians among
them, and my own judgment, confirmed by
what I hear from others, should be enough to
satisfy you that they will not prove formidable.
Where an enemy seems strong but is really
weak, a true knowledge of the facts makes his
adversary the bolder, just as a serious antago-
nist is encountered most confidently by those
who do not know him. Thus the present en-
emy might terrify an inexperienced imagina-
tion; they are formidable in outward bulk,
their loud yelling is unbearable, and the bran-
dishing of their weapons in the air has a threat-
ening appearance. But when it comes to real
fighting with an opponent who stands his
ground, they are not what they seemed; they
have no regular order that they should be
ashamed of deserting their positions when
hard pressed; flight and attack are with them
equally honourable, and afford no test of cour-
age; their independent mode of fighting never
leaving any one who wants to run away with-
out a fair excuse for so doing. In short, they
think frightening you at a secure distance a
surer game than meeting you hand to hand;
otherwise they would have done the one and
not the other. You can thus plainly see that the
terrors with which they were at first invested
are in fact trifling enough, though to the eye
and ear very prominent. Stand your ground
therefore when they advance, and again wait
your opportunity to retire in good order, and
you will reach a place of safety all the sooner,
and will know for ever afterwards that rabble
such as these, to those who sustain their first
attack, do but show off their courage by threats
of the terrible things that they are going to do,
at a distance, but with those who give way to
them are quick enough to display their hero-
ism in pursuit when they can do so without
danger."

[ I2j] With this brief address Brasidas be-
gan to lead off his army. Seeing this, the bar-
barians came on with much shouting and hub-
bub, thinking that he was flying and that they
would overtake him and cut him off. But
wherever they charged they found the young
men ready to dash out against them, while
Brasidas with his picked company sustained
their onset. Thus the Peloponnesians with-
stood the first attack, to the surprise of the en-
emy, and afterwards received and repulsed
them as fast as they came on, retiring as soon
as their opponents became quiet. The main
body of the barbarians ceased therefore to mo-
lest the Hellenes with Brasidas in the open

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

479

country, and leaving behind a certain number
to harass their march, the rest went on after
the flying Macedonians, slaying those with
whom they came up, and so arrived in time
to occupy the narrow pass between two hills
that leads into the country of Arrhabaeus.
They knew that this was the only way by
which Brasidas could retreat, and now pro-
ceeded to surround him just as he entered the
most impracticable part of the road, in order
to cut him off.

[128] Brasidas, perceiving their intention,
told his three hundred to run on without order,
each as quickly as he could, to the hill which
seemed easiest to take, and to try to dislodge
the barbarians already there, before they
should be joined by the main body closing
round him. These attacked and overpowered
the party upon the hill, and the main army of
the Hellenes now advanced with less difficulty
towards it — the barbarians being terrified at
seeing their men on that side driven from the
height and no longer following the main body,
who, they considered, had gained the frontier
and made good their escape. The heights once
gained, Brasidas now proceeded more securely,
and the same day arrived at Arnisa, the first
town in the dominions of Perdiccas. The sol-
diers, enraged at the desertion of the Mace-
donians, vented their rage on all their yokes of
oxen which they found on the road, and on any
baggage which had tumbled off (as might
easily happen in the panic of a night retreat),
by unyoking and cutting down the cattle and
taking the baggage for themselves. From this
moment Perdiccas began to regard Brasidas as
an enemy and to feel against the Peloponnesi-
ans a hatred which could not be congenial to
the adversary of the Athenians. However, he
departed from his natural interests and made it
his endeavour to come to terms with the latter
and to get rid of the former.

[129] On his return from Macedonia to To-
rone, Brasidas found the Athenians already
masters of Mende, and remained quiet where
he was, thinking it now out of his power to
cross over into Pallene and assist the Mendae-
ans, but he kept good watch over Torone. For
about the same time as the campaign in Lyn-
cus, the Athenians sailed upon the expedition
which we left them preparing against Mende
and Scione, with fifty ships, ten of which were
Chians, one thousand Athenian heavy infantry
and six hundred archers, one hundred Thra-
cian mercenaries and some targeteers drawn
from their allies in the neighbourhood, under

480

THUCYDIDES

[BOOK iv

the command of Nicias, son of Niccratus, and
Nicostratus, son of Diitrephes, Weighing from
Potidaea, the fleet came to land opposite the
temple of Poseidon, and proceeded against
Mende; the men of which town, reinforced by
three hundred Scionaeans, with their Pelo-
ponnesian auxiliaries, seven hundred heavy in-
fantry in all, under Polydamidas, they found
encamped upon a strong hill outside the city.
These Nicias, with one hundred and twenty
» light-armed Methonaeans, sixty picked men
from the Athenian heavy infantry, and all the
archers, tried to reach by a path running up the
hill, but received a wound and found himself
unable to force the position; while Nicostratus,
with all the rest of the army, advancing upon
the hill, which was naturally difficult, by a dif-
ferent approach further oft, was thrown into
utter disorder; and the whole Athenian army
narrowly escaped being defeated. For that day,
as the Mendaeans and their allies showed no
signs of yielding, the Athenians retreated and
encamped, and the Mendaeans at nightfall re-
turned into the town.

[130] The next day the Athenians sailed
round to the Scione side, and took the suburb,
and all day plundered the country, without any
one coming out against them, partly because of
intestine disturbances in the town; and the
following night the three hundred Scionaeans
returned home. On the morrow Nicias ad-
vanced with half the army to the frontier of
Scione and laid waste the country; while Nic-
ostratus with the remainder sat down before
the town near the upper gate on the road to
Potidaea. The arms of the Mendaeans and of
their Peloponnesian auxiliaries within the wall
happened to be piled in that quarter, where
Polydamidas accordingly began to draw them
up for battle, encouraging the Mendaeans to
make a sortie. At this moment one of the pop-
ular party answered him factiously that they
would not go out and did not want a war, and
for thus answering was dragged by the arm
and knocked about by Polydamidas. Hereupon ,
the infuriated commons at once seized their
arms and rushed at the Peloponnesians and at
their allies of the opposite faction. The troops
thus assaulted were at once routed, partly from
the suddenness of the conflict and partly
through fear of the gates being opened to the
Athenians, with whom they imagined that the
attack had been concerted. As many as were
not killed on the spot took refuge in the cita-
del, which they had held from the first; and
the whole Athenian army, Nicias having by

this time returned and being close to the city,
now burst into Mende, which had opened its
gates without any convention, and sacked it
just as if they had taken it by storm, the gen-
erals even finding some difficulty in restraining
them from also massacring the inhabitants.
After this the Athenians told the Mendaeans
that they might retain their civil rights, and
themselves judge the supposed authors of the
revolt; and cut off the party in the citadel by
a wall built down to the sea on either side, ap-
pointing troops to maintain the blockade. Hav-
ing thus secured Mende, they proceeded
against Scione.

[131] The Scionaeans and Peloponnesians
marched out against them, occupying a strong
hill in front of the town, which had to be cap-
tured by the enemy before they could invest
the place. The Athenians stormed the hill, de-
feated and dislodged its occupants, and, having
encamped and set up a trophy, prepared for
the work of circumvallation. Not long after
they had begun their operations, the auxiliaries
besieged in the citadel of Mende forced the
guard by the sea-side and arrived by night at
Scione, into which most of them succeeded in
entering, passing through the besieging army.

[132] While the investment of Scione was
in progress, Perdiccas sent a herald to the Athe-
nian generals and made peace with the Athe-
nians, through spite against Brasidas for the
retreat from Lyncus, from which moment in-
deed he had begun to negotiate. The Lacedae-
monian Ischagoras was just then upon the
point of starting with an army overland to join
Brasidas; and Perdiccas, being now required
by Nicias to give some proof of the sincerity of
his reconciliation to the Athenians, and being
himself no longer disposed to let the Pelopon-
nesians into his country, put in motion his
friends in Thessaly, with whose chief men he
always took care to have relations, and so effec-
tually stopped the army and its preparation
that they did not even try the Thessaiians. Is-
chagoras himself, however, with Ameinias and
Aristeus, succeeded in reaching Brasidas; they
had been commissioned by the Lacedaemo-
nians to inspect the state of affairs, and brought
out from Sparta (in violation of all precedent)
some of their young men to put in command
of the towns, to guard against their being en-
trusted to the persons upon the spot. Brasidas
accordingly placed Clearidas, son of Cleony-
mus, in Amphipolis, and Pasitelidas, son of
Hegesander, in Torone.

The same summer the Thebans dis-

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

481

mantled the wall of the Thespians on the
charge of Atticism, having always wished to
do so, and now finding it an easy matter, as
the flower of the Thespian youth had perished
in the battle with the Athenians. The same
summer also the temple of Hera at Argos was
burnt down, through Chrysis, the priestess,
placing a lighted torch near the garlands and
then falling asleep, so that they all caught fire
and were in a blaze before she observed it.
Chrysis that very night fled to Phlius for fear
of the Argives, who, agreeably to the law in
such a case, appointed another priestess named
Phaeinis. Chrysis at the time of her flight had
been priestess for eight years of the present war
and half the ninth. At the close of the summer
the investment of Scione was completed, and
the Athenians, leaving a detachment to main-
tain the blockade, returned with the rest of
their army.

[134] During the winter following, the
Athenians and Lacedaemonians were kept qui-
et by the armistice; but the Mantineans and

Tegeans, and their respective allies, fought a
battle at Laodicium, in the Oresthid. The vic-
tory remained doubtful, as each side routed one
of the wings opposed to them, and both set up
trophies and sent spoils to Delphi. After heavy
loss on both sides the battle was undecided,
and night interrupted the action; yet the Tege-
ans passed the night on the field and set up a
trophy at once, while the Mantineans with-
drew to Bucolion and set up theirs afterwards.
[135] At the close of the same winter, in
fact almost in spring, Brasidas made an at-
tempt upon Potidaea. He arrived by night, and
succeeded in planting a ladder against the wall
without being discovered, the ladder being
planted just in the interval between the pass-
ing round of the bell and the return of the man
who brought it back. Upon the garrison, how-
ever, taking the alarm immediately afterwards,
before his men came up, he quickly led oft his
troops, without waiting until it was day. So
ended the winter and the ninth year of this
war oi which Thucydides is the historian.

The Fifth Book

CHAPTER XV

Tenth Year oj the War — Death oj Cleon and
Brasidaf — Peace oj Nicias

[i] THE next summer the truce for a year end-
ed, after lasting until the Pythian games. Dur-
ing the armistice the Athenians expelled the
Delians from Delos, concluding that they must
have been polluted by some old offence at the
time of their consecration, and that this had
been the omission in the previous purification
of the island, which, as I have related, had been
thought to have been duly accomplished by the
removal of the graves of the dead. The Delians
had Atramyttium in Asia given them by Phar-
naces, and settled there as they removed from
Delos.

[2] Meanwhile Cleon prevailed on the
Athenians to let him set sail at the expiration
of the armistice for the towns in the direction
of Thrace with twelve hundred heavy infantry
and three hundred horse from Athens, a large
force of the allies, and thirty ships. First touch-
ing at the still besieged Scione, and taking
some heavy infantry from the army there, he
next sailed into Cophos, a harbour in the ter-
ritory of Torone, which is not far from the
town. From thence, having learnt from de-
serters that Brasidas was not in Torone, and
that its garrison was not strong enough to give
him battle, he advanced with his army against
the town, sending ten ships to sail round into
the harbour. He first came to the fortification
lately thrown up in front of the town by Brasi-
das in order to take in the suburb, to do which
he had pulled down part of the original wall
and made it all one city. [3] To this point Pas-
itelidas, the Lacedaemonian commander, with
such garrison as there was in the place, hurried
to repel the Athenian assault; but finding him-
self hard pressed, and seeing the ships that
had been sent round sailing into the harbour,

Pasitelidas began to be afraid that they might
get up to the city before its defenders were
there and, the fortification being also carried,
he might be taken prisoner, and so abandoned
the outwork and ran into the town. But the
Athenians from the ships had already taken
Torone, and their land forces following at his
heels burst in with him with a rush over the
part of the old wall that had been pulled down,
killing some of the Peloponnesians and Toro-
naeans in the mMee, and making prisoners of
the rest, and Pasitelidas their commander
amongst them. Brasidas meanwhile had ad-
vanced to relieve Torone, and had only about
four miles more to go when he heard of its fall
on the road, and turned back again. Cleon
and the Athenians set up two trophies, one by
the harbour, the other by the fortification and,
making slaves of the wives and children of the
Toronaeans, sent the men with the Pelopon-
nesians and any Chalcidians that were there,
to the number of seven hundred, to Athens;
whence, however, they all came home after-
wards, the Peloponnesians on the conclusion of
peace, and the rest by being exchanged against
other prisoners with the Olynthians. About
the same time Panactum, a fortress on the
Athenian border, was taken by treachery by
the Boeotians. Meanwhile Cleon, after placing
a garrison in Torone, weighed anchor and
sailed around Athos on his way to Amphipolis.
[4] About the same time Phaeax, son of
Erasistratus, set sail with two colleagues as am-
bassador from Athens to Italy and Sicily. The
Leontines, upon the departure of the Atheni-
ans from Sicily after the pacification, had
placed a number of new citizens upon the roll,
and the commons had a design for redividing
the land; but the upper classes, aware of their
intention, called in the Syracusans and expelled
the commons. These last were scattered in vari-
ous directions; but the upper classes came to an

482

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

483

agreement with the Syracusans, abandoned
and laid waste their city, and went and lived
at Syracuse, where they were made citizens.
Afterwards some of them were dissatisfied,
and leaving Syracuse occupied Phocaeae, a
quarter of the town of Leontini, and Bricin-
niae, a strong place in the Leontine country,
and being there joined by most of the exiled
commons carried on war from the fortifica-
tions. The Athenians hearing this, sent Phaeax
to see if they could not by some means so con-
vince their allies there and the rest of the Sicili-
ans of the ambitious designs of Syracuse as to
induce them to form a general coalition
against her, and thus save the commons of
Leontini. Arrived in Sicily, Phaeax succeeded
at Camarina and Agrigentum, but meeting
with a repulse at Gela did not go on to the rest,
as he saw that he should not succeed with
them, but returned through the country of the
Sicels to Catana, and after visiting Bricinniae
as he passed, and encouraging its inhabitants,
sailed back to Athens.

[5] During his voyage along the coast to and
from Sicily, he treated with some cities in Italy
on the subject of friendship with Athens, and
also fell in with some Locrian settlers exiled
from Messina, who had been sent thither when
the Locrians were called in by one of the fac-
tions that divided Messina after the pacifica-
tion of Sicily, and Messina came for a time into
the hands of the Locrians. These being met by
Phaeax on their return home received no in-
jury at his hands, as the Locrians had agreed
with him for a treaty with Athens. They were
the only people of the allies who, when the rec-
onciliation between the Sicilians took place,
had not made peace with her; nor indeed
would they have done so now, if they had not
been pressed by a war with the Hipponians and
Medmaeans who lived on their border, and
were colonists of theirs. Phaeax meanwhile
proceeded on his voyage, and at length arrived
at Athens.

[6] Cleon, whom we left on his voyage
from Torone to Amphipolis, made Eion his
base, and after an unsuccessful assault upon
the Andrian colony of Stagirus, took Galepsus,
a colony of Thasos, by storm. He now sent en-
voys to Perdiccas to command his attendance
with an army, as provided by the alliance; and
others to Thrace, to Polles, king of the Odo-
mantians, who was to bring as many Thra-
cian mercenaries as possible; and himself re-
mained inactive in Eion, awaiting their arrival.
Informed of this, Brasidas on his part took up

a position of observation upon Cerdylium, a
place situated in the Argilian country on high
ground across the river, not far from Amphi-
polis, and commanding a view on all sides, and
thus made it impossible for Cleon's army to
move without his seeing it; for he fully ex-
pected that Cleon, despising the scanty num-
bers of his opponent, would march against Am-
phipolis with the force that he had got with
him. At the same time Brasidas made his prep-
arations, calling to his standard fifteen hundred
Thracian mercenaries and all the Edonians,
horse and targeteers; he also had a thou-
sand Myrcinian and Chalcidian targeteers, be-
sides those in Amphipolis, and a force of heavy
infantry numbering altogether about two thou-
sand, and three hundred Hellenic horse. Fif-
teen hundred of these he had with him upon
Cerdylium; the rest were stationed with Clean-
das in Amphipolis.

[y] After remaining quiet for some time,
Cleon was at length obliged to do as Brasidas
expected. His soldiers, tired of their inactivity,
began also seriously to reflect on the weakness
and incompetence of their commander, and the
skill and valour that would be opposed to him,
and on their own original unwillingness to ac-
company him. These murmurs coming to the
ears of Cleon, he resolved not to disgust the
army by keeping it in the same place, and
broke up his camp and advanced. The tem-
per of the general was what it had been at
Pylos, his success on that occasion having giv-
en him confidence in his capacity. He never
dreamed of any one coming out to fight him,
but said that he was rather going up to view
the place; and if he waited for his reinforce-
ments, it was not in order to make victory se-
cure in case he should be compelled to engage,
but to be enabled to surround and storm the
city. He accordingly came and posted his army
upon a strong hill in front of Amphipolis, and
proceeded to examine the lake formed by the
Strymon, and how the town lay on the side of
Thrace. He thought to retire at pleasure with-
out fighting, as there was no one to be seen
upon the wall or coming out of the gates, all
of which were shut. Indeed, it seemed a mis-
take not to have brought down engines with
him; he could then have taken the town, there
being no one to defend it.

[8] As soon as Brasidas saw the Athenians
in motion he descended himself from Cerdy-
lium and entered Amphipolis. He did not ven-
ture to go out in regular order against the
Athenians: he mistrusted his strength, and

484

THUCYDIDES

thought it inadequate to the attempt; not in
numbers — these were not so" unequal — but in
quality, the flower of the Athenian army being
in the field, with the best of the Lemnians and
Imbrians. He therefore prepared to assail them
by stratagem. By showing the enemy the num-
ber of his troops, and the shifts which he had
been put to to arm them, he thought that he
should have less chance of beating him than
by not letting him have a sight of them, and
thus learn how good a right he had to despise
them. He accordingly picked out a hundred
and fifty heavy infantry and, putting the rest
under Clearidas, determined to attack sudden-
ly before the Athenians retired; thinking that
he should not have again such a chance of
catching them alone, if their reinforcements
were once allowed to come up; and so calling
all his soldiers together in order to encourage
them and explain his intention, spoke as fol-
lows:

[g] "Peloponnesians, the character of the
country from which we have come, one which
has always owed its freedom to valour, and
the fact that you are Dorians and the enemy
you are about to fight lonians, whom you are
accustomed to beat, are things that do not need
further comment. But the plan of attack that I
propose to pursue, this it is as well to explain,
in order that the fact of our adventuring with
a part instead of with the whole of our forces
may not damp your courage by the apparent
disadvantage at which it places you. I imagine
it is the poor opinion that he has of us, and the
fact that he has no idea of any one coming out
to engage him, that has made the enemy
march up to the place and carelessly look about
him as he is doing, without noticing us. But
the most successful soldier will always be the
man who most happily detects a blunder like
this, and who carefully consulting his own
means makes his attack not so much by open
and regular approaches, as by seizing the op-
portunity of the moment; and these strata-
gems, which do the greatest service to our
friends by most completely deceiving our en-
emies, have the most brilliant name in war.
Therefore, while their careless confidence con-
tinues, and they are still thinking, as in my
judgment they are now doing, more of retreat
than of maintaining their position, while their
spirit is slack and not high-strung with expec-
tation, I with the men under my command
will, if possible, take them by surprise and fall
with a run upon their centre; and do you,
Clearidas, afterwards, when you sec me al-

[BooK v

ready upon them, and, as is likely, dealing ter-
ror among them, take with you the Amphi-
• pohtans, and the rest of the allies, and sudden-
ly open the gates and dash at them, and hasten
to engage as quickly as you can. That is our
best chance of establishing a panic among
them, as a fresh assailant has always more ter-
rors for an enemy than the one he is immedi-
ately engaged with. Show yourself a brave
man, as a Spartan should; and do you, allies,
follow him like men, and remember that zeal,
honour, and obedience mark the good soldier,
and that this day will make you either free
men and allies of Lacedaemon, or slaves of
Athens; even if you escape without personal
loss of liberty or life, your bondage will be on
harsher terms than before, and you will also
hinder the liberation of the rest of the Hellenes.
No cowardice then on your part, seeing the
greatness of the issues at stake, and I will show
that what I preach to others I can practise my-
self."

[10] After this brief speech Brasidas him-
self prepared for the sally, and placed the rest
with Clearidas at the Thracian gates to sup-
port him as had been agreed. Meanwhile he
had been seen coming down from Cerdylium
and then in the city, which is overlooked from
the outside, sacrificing near the temple of
Athene; in short, all his movements had been
observed, and word was brought to Cleon,
who had at the moment gone on to look about
him, that the whole of the enemy's force
could be seen in the town, and that the feet of
horses and men in great numbers were visible
under the gates, as if a sally were intended.
Upon hearing this he went up to look, and
having done so, being unwilling to venture
upon the decisive step of a battle before his re-
inforcements came up, and fancying that he
would have time to retire, bid the retreat be
sounded and sent orders to the men to effect it
by moving on the left wing in the direction of
Eion, which was indeed the only way practica-
ble. This however not being quick enough for
him, he joined the retreat in person and made
the right wing wheel round, thus turning its
unarmed side to the enemy. It was then that
Brasidas, seeing the Athenian force in motion
and his opportunity come, said to the men
with him and the rest: "Those fellows will
never stand before us, one can see that by the
way their spears and heads are going. Troops
which do as they do seldom stand a charge.
Quick, someone, and open the gates I spoke
of, and let us be out and at them with no fears

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

485

for the result." Accordingly issuing out by the
palisade gate and by the first in the long wall
then existing, he ran at the top of his speed
along the straight road, where the trophy now
stands as you go by the steepest part of the
hill, and fell upon and routed the centre of the
Athenians, panic-stricken by their own dis-
order and astounded at his audacity. At the
same moment Clearidas in execution of his or-
ders issued out from the Thracian gates to sup-
port him, and also attacked the enemy. The re-
sult was that the Athenians, suddenly and un-
expectedly attacked on both sides, fell into con-
fusion; and their left towards Eion, which had
already got on some distance, at once broke and
fled. Just as it was in full retreat and Brasidas
was passing on to attack the right, he received
a wound; but his fall was not perceived by the
Athenians, as he was taken up by those near
him and carried off the field. The Athenian
right made a better stand, and though Cleon,
who from the first had no thought of fighting,
at once fled and was overtaken and slain by a
Myrcinian targeteer, his infantry forming in
close order upon the hill twice or thrice re-
pulsed the attacks of Clearidas, and did not
finally give way until they were surrounded
and routed by the missiles of the Myrcinian
and Chalcidian horse and the targeteers. Thus
the Athenian army was all now in flight; and
such as escaped being killed in the battle, or by
the Chalcidian horse and the targeteers, dis-
persed among the hills, and with difficulty
made their way to Eion. The men who had
taken up and rescued Brasidas, brought him
into the town with the breath still in him: he
lived to hear of the victory of his troops, and
not long after expired. The rest of the army re-
turning with Clearidas from the pursuit
stripped the dead and set up a trophy.

[n] After this all the allies attended in arms
and buried Brasidas at the public expense in
the city, in front of what is now the market-
place, and the Amphipohtans, having enclosed
his tomb, ever afterwards sacrifice to him as a
hero and have given to him the honour of
games and annual offerings. They constituted
him the founder of their colony, and pulled
down the Hagnonic erections, and obliterated
everything that could be interpreted as a me-
morial of his having founded the place; for
they considered that Brasidas had been their
preserver, and courting as they did the alliance
of Laccdaemon for fear of Athens, in their
present hostile relations with the latter they
could no longer with the same advantage or

satisfaction pay Hagnon his honours. They
also gave the Athenians back their dead. About
six hundred of the latter had fallen and only
seven of the enemy, owing to there having
been no regular engagement, but the affair of
accident and panic that I have described. Af-
ter taking up their dead the Athenians sailed
off home, while Clearidas and his troops re-
mained to arrange matters at Amphipolis.

[12] About the same time three Lacedaemo-
nians— Ramphias, Autocharidas, and Epicydi-
das — led a reinforcement of nine hundred
heavy infantry to the towns in the direction of
Thrace, and arriving at Heraclea in Trachis
reformed matters there as seemed good to
them. While they delayed there, this battle
took place and so the summer ended.

[13] With the beginning of the winter fol-
lowing, Ramphias and his companions pene-
trated as far as Pierium in Thessaly; but as the
Thessalians opposed their further advance, and
Brasidas whom they came to reinforce was
dead, they turned back home, thinking that
the moment had gone by, the Athenians being
defeated and gone, and themselves not equal to
the execution of Brasidas's designs. The main
cause however of their return was because they
knew that when they set out Lacedaemonian
opinion was really in favour of peace.

[14] Indeed it so happened that directly af-
ter the battle of Amphipolis and the retreat of
Ramphias from Thessaly, both sides ceased to
prosecute the war and turned their attention
to peace. Athens had suffered severely at Deli-
um, and again shortly afterwards at Amphi-
polis, and had no longer that confidence in her
strength which had made her before refuse to
treat, in the belief of ultimate victory which
her success at the moment had inspired; be-
sides, she was afraid of her allies being tempted
by her reverses to rebel more generally, and re-
pented having let go the splendid opportunity
for peace which the affair of Pylos had offered.
Lacedaemon, on the other hand, found the
event of the war to falsify her notion that a few
years would suffice for the overthrow of the
power of the Athenians by the devastation of
their land. She had suffered on the island a
disaster hitherto unknown at Sparta; she saw
her country plundered from Pylos and Cyth-
era; the Helots were deserting, and she was
in constant apprehension that those who re-
mained in Peloponnese would rely upon those
outside and take advantage of the situation to
renew their old attempts at revolution. Besides
this, as chance would have it, her thirty years'

486

THUCYDIDES

[BOOK

truce with the Argives was upon the point of
expiring; and they refused to renew it unless
Cynuria were restored to them; so that it
seemed impossible to fight Argos and Athens
at once. She also suspected some of the cities in
Peloponnese of intending to go over to the en-
emy, as was indeed the case.

[15] These considerations made both sides
disposed for an accommodation; the Lacedae-
monians being probably the most eager, as
they ardently desired to recover the men taken
upon the island, the Spartans among whom be-
longed to the first families and were according-
ly related to the governing body in Lacedae-
mon. Negotiations had been begun directly af-
ter their capture, but the Athenians in their
hour of triumph would not consent to any rea-
sonable terms; though after their defeat at
Delium, Lacedaemon, knowing that they
would be now more inclined to listen, at once
concluded the armistice for a year, during
which they were to confer together and see if
a longer period could not be agreed upon.

[16] Now, however, after the Athenian de-
feat at Amphipolis, and the death of Cleon and
Brasidas, who had been the two principal op-
ponents of peace on either side — the latter
from the success and honour which war gave
him, the former because he thought that, if
tranquillity were restored, his crimes would
be more open to detection and his slanders less
credited — the foremost candidates for power
in either city, Pleistoanax, son of Pausanias,
king of Lacedaemon, and Nicias, son of Nicer-
atus, the most fortunate general of his time,
each desired peace more ardently than ever.
Nicias, while still happy and honoured, wished
to secure his good fortune, to obtain a present
release from trouble for himself and his coun-
trymen, and hand down to posterity a name
as an ever-successful statesman, and thought
the way to do this was to keep out of danger
and commit himself as little as possible to for-
tune, and that peace alone made this keeping
out of danger possible. Pleistoanax, again, was
assailed by his enemies for his restoration, and
regularly held up by them to the prejudice of
his countrymen, upon every reverse that befell
them, as though his unjust restoration were
the cause; the accusation being that he and his
brother Aristocles had bribed the prophetess
of Delphi to tell the Lacedaemonian deputa-
tions which successively arrived at the temple
to bring home the seed of the demigod son of
Zeus from abroad, else they would have to
plough with a silver share. In this way, it was

insisted, in time he had induced the Lacedae-
monians in the nineteenth year of his exile to
Lycaeum (whither he had gone when banished
on suspicion of having been bribed to retreat
from Attica, and had built half his house with-
in the consecrated precinct of Zeus for fear of
the Lacedaemonians), to restore him with the
same dances and sacrifices with which they had
instituted their kings upon the first settlement
of Lacedaemon. [ij] The smart of this accu-
sation, and the reflection that in peace no dis-
aster could occur, and that when Lacedaemon
had recovered her men there would be nothing
for his enemies to take hold of (whereas, while
war lasted, the highest station must always
bear the scandal of everything that went
wrong), made him ardently desire a settlement.
Accordingly this winter was employed in con-
ferences; and as spring rapidly approached, the
Lacedaemonians sent round orders to the cities
to prepare for a fortified occupation of Attica,
and held this as a sword over the heads of the
Athenians to induce them to listen to their
overtures; and at last, after many claims had
been urged on either side at the conferences,
a peace was agreed on upon the following
basis. Each party was to restore its conquests,
but Athens was to keep Nisaea; her demand
for Plataea being met by the Thebans asserting
that they had acquired the place not by force
or treachery, but by the voluntary adhesion
upon agreement of its citizens; and the same,
according to the Athenian account, being the
history of her acquisition of Nisaea. This ar-
ranged, the Lacedaemonians summoned their
allies, and all voting for peace except the Boeo-
tians, Corinthians, Eleans, and Megarians, who
did not approve of these proceedings, they con-
cluded the treaty and made peace, each of the
contracting parties swearing to the following
articles:

[18] The Athenians and Lacedaemonians and
their allies made a treaty, and swore to it, city
by city, as follows;

1. Touching the national temples, there shall
be a free passage by land and by sea to all who
wish it, to sacrifice, travel, consult, and attend
the oracle or games, according to the customs
of their countries.

2. The temple and shrine of Apollo at Del-
phi and the Delphians shall be governed by
their own laws, taxed by their own state, and
fudged by their own fudges, the land and the
people, according to the custom of their
country.

15-21 ]

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

487

3. The treaty shall be binding for fifty years
upon the Athenians and the allies of the Athe-
nians, and upon the Lacedaemonians and the
allies of the Lacedaemonians, without fraud
or hurt by land or by sea.

4. // shall not be lawful to ta\e up armst with
intent to do hurt, either for the Lacedaemoni-
ans and their allies against the Athenians and
their allies, or for the Athenians and their allies
against the Lacedaemonians and their allies,
in any way or means whatsoever. But should
any difference arise between them they are to
have recourse to law and oaths, according as
may be agreed between the parties.

5. The Lacedaemonians and their allies shall
give bac\ Amphipolis to the Athenians. Nev-
ertheless, in the case of cities given up by the
Lacedaemonians to the Athenians, the inhabi-
tants shall be allowed to go where they please
and to ta\e their property with them: and the
cities shall be independent, paying only the
tribute of Aristides. And it shall not be lawful
for the Athenians or their allies to carry on war
against them after the treaty has been conclud-
ed, so long as the tribute is paid. The cities re-
ferred to are Argilus, Stagirus, Acanthus, Sco-
lus, Olynthus, and Spartolus. These cities shall
be neutral, allies neither of the Lacedaemoni-
ans nor of the Athenians: but if the cities con-
sent, it shall be lawful for the Athenians to
ma\e them their allies, provided always that
the cities wish it. The Mecybernaeans, Sanae-
ans, and Singaeans shall inhabit their own cit-
ies, as also the Olynthians and Acanthians: but
the Lacedaemonians and their allies shall give
bac\ Panactum to the Athenians.

6. The Athenians shall give bacl^ Coryphasi-
um, Cythera, Mcthana, Pteleum, and Atalanta
to the Lacedaemonians, and also all Lacedae-
monians that are in the prison at Athens or
elsewhere in the Athenian dominions, and
shall let go the Peloponnesians besieged in Sci-
one, and all others in Scione that are allies of
the Lacedaemonians, and all whom Brasidas
sent in there, and any others of the allies of the
Lacedaemonians that may be in the prison at
Athens or elsewhere in the Athenian domini-
ons.

7. The Lacedaemonians and their allies shall
in life manner give bacl^ any of the Athenians
or their allies that they may have in their
hands.

8. In the case of Scione, Toronet and Sermy-
lium, and any other cities that the Athenians
may have, the Athenians may adopt such meas-
ures as they please.

9. The Athenians shall take an oath to the
Lacedaemonians and their allies, city by city.
Every man shall swear by the most binding
oath of his country, seventeen from each city.
The oath shall be as follows; "I will abide by
this agreement and treaty honestly and with-
out deceit" In the same way an oath shall be
tafen by the Lacedaemonians and their allies
to the Athenians: and the oath shall be re-
newed annually by both parties. Pillars shall
be erected at Olympia, Pythia, the Isthmus, at
Athens in the Acropolis, and at Lacedaemon
in the temple at Amyclae.

10. // anything be forgotten, whatever it be,
and on whatever point, it shall be consistent
with their oath for both parties, the Athenians
and Lacedaemonians, to alter it, according to
their discretion.

[ry] The treaty begins from the ephoralty of
Pleistolas in Lacedaemon, on the 2jth day of
the month of Artemisium, and from the arch-
onship of Alcaeus at Athens, on the 2<$th day
of the month of Elaphebolion. Those who too^
the oath and poured the libations for the Lace-
daemonians were Pleistoanax, Agis, Pleistolas,
Damagetis, Chionis, Metagenes, Acanthus,
Dai thus, Ischagoras, Philocharidas, Zeuxidas,
Antippus, Tellis, Alcinadas, Empedias, Menas,
and Laphilus: for the Athenians, Lampon,
Isthmonicus, Nicias, Laches, Euthydcmus,
Procles, Pythodorus, Hagnon, Myrtilus, Thra-
sycles, Theagenes, Aristocrates, lolcius, Timo-
cratcs, Leon, Lamachus, and Demosthenes.

[20] This treaty was made in the spring,
just at the end of winter, directly after the city
festival of Dionysus, just ten years, with the
difference of a few days, from the first inva-
sion of Attica and the commencement of this
war. This must be calculated by the seasons
rather than by trusting to the enumeration of
the names of the several magistrates or offices
of honour that are used to mark past events.
Accuracy is impossible where an event may
have occurred in the beginning, or middle, or
at any period in their tenure of office. But by
computing by summers and winters, the meth-
od adopted in this history, it will be found that,
each of these amounting to half a year, there
were ten summers and as many winters con-
tained in this first war.

[21] Meanwhile the Lacedaemonians, to
whose lot it fell to begin the work of restitu-
tion, immediately set free all the prisoners of
war in their possession, and sent Ischagoras,
Menas, and Philocharidas as envoys to the
towns in the direction of Thrace, to order Cle-

488

THUCYDIDES

[BooK v

aridas to hand over Amphipolis to the Athe-
nians, and the rest of their allies each to ac-
cept the treaty as it affected them. They, how-
ever, did not like its terms, and refused to ac-
cept it; Clearidas also, willing to oblige the
Chalcidians, would not hand over the town,
averring his inability to do so against their will.
Meanwhile he hastened in person to Lacedae-
mon with envoys from the place, to defend his
disobedience against the possible accusations
of Ischagoras and his companions, and also to
see whether it was too late for the agreement
to be altered; and on finding the Lacedaemo-
nians were bound, quickly set out back again
with instructions from them to hand over the
place, if possible, or at all events to bring out
the Peloponnesians that were in it.

[22] The allies happened to be present in
person at Lacedaemon, and those who had not
accepted the treaty were now asked by the
Lacedaemonians to adopt it. This, however,
they refused to do, for the same reasons as be-
fore, unless a fairer one than the present were
agreed upon; and remaining firm in their de-
termination were dismissed by the Lacedae-
monians, who now decided on forming an alli-
ance with the Athenians, thinking that Argos,
who had refused the application of Ampelidas
and Lichas for a renewal of the treaty, would
without Athens be no longer formidable, and
that the rest of the Peloponnese would be most
likely to keep quiet, if the coveted alliance of
Athens were shut against them. Accordingly,
after conference with the Athenian ambassa-
dors, an alliance was agreed upon and oaths
were exchanged, upon the terms following:
[23] i. The Lacedaemonians shall be allies of
the Athenians for fifty years.

2. Should any enemy invade the territory of
Lacedaemon and injure the Lacedaemonians,
the Athenians shall help them in such way as
they most effectively cant according to their
power. But if the invader be gone after plun-
dering the country, that city shall be the enemy
of Lacedaemon and Athens, and shall be chas-
tised by both, and one shall not ma1(c peace
without the other. This to be honestly, loyally,
and without fraud.

3. Should any enemy invade the territory of
Athens and injure the Athenians, the Lacedae-
monians shall help them in such way as they
most effectively can, according to their power.
But if the invader be gone after plundering the
country, that city shall be the enemy of Lace-
daemon and Athens, and shall be chastised by
both, and one shall not maf(e peace without

the other. This to be honestly, loyally, and
without fraud.

4. Should the slave population rise, the Athe-
nians shall help the Lacedaemonians with all
their might, according to their power.

5. This treaty shall be sworn to by the same
persons on either side that swore to the other.
It shall be renewed annually by the Lacedae-
monians going to Athens for the Dionysia,
and the Athenians to Lacedaemon for the Hy~
acinthia, and a pillar shall be set up by either
party: at Lacedaemon near the statue of Apollo
at Amyclae, and at Athens on the Acropolis
near the statue of Athens. Should the Lacedae-
monians and Athenians see fit to add to or ta\e
away from the alliance in any particular, it
shall be consistent with their oaths for both
parties to do so, according to their discretion.

[24] Those who too\ the oath for the Lacedae-
monians were Pleistoanax, Agis, Pleistolas,
Damagetus, Chionis, Mela genes, Acanthus,
Daithus, Ischagoras, Philocharidas, Zeuxidas,
Antippus, Alcinadas, Tellis, Empedtas, Menas,
and Laphilus; for the Athenians, Lampon,
Isthmionicus, Laches, Nicias, Euthydemus,
Procles, Pythodorus, Hagnon, Myrtilus, Thra-
sycles, Theagenes, Aristocrates, lolcius, Timo-
crates, Leon, Lamachus, and Demosthenes.

This alliance was made not long after the
treaty; and the Athenians gave back the men
from the island to the Lacedaemonians, and
the summer of the eleventh year began. This
completes the history of the first war, which
occupied the whole of the ten years previously.

CHAPTER XVI

Feeling against Sparta in Peloponnese — League

of the Mantmeans, Elcans, Ar gives, and Athenians

— Battle of Mantinea and breaking up of the

League

[25] AFTER the treaty and the alliance between
the Lacedaemonians and Athenians, conclud-
ed after the ten years' war, in the ephorate of
Pleistolas at Lacedaemon, and the archonship
of Alcaeus at Athens, the states which had ac-
cepted them were at peace; but the Corinthians
and some of the cities in Peloponnese trying to
disturb the settlement, a fresh agitation was
instantly commenced by the allies against La-
cedaemon. Further, the Lacedaemonians, as
time went on, became suspected by the Athe-
nians through their not performing some of
the provisions in the treaty; and though for six
years and ten months they abstained from in-

22-29 ]

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

489

vasion of each other's territory, yet abroad an
unstable armistice did not prevent either party
doing the other the most effectual injury, un-
til they were finally obliged to break the treaty
made after the ten years' war and to have re-
course to open hostilities.

[26] The history of this period has been also
written by the same Thucydides, an Athenian,
in the chronological order of events by sum-
mers and winters, to the time when the Lace-
daemonians and their allies put an end to the
Athenian empire, and took the Long Walls
and Piraeus. The war had then lasted for
twenty-seven years in all. Only a mistaken
judgment can object to including the interval
of treaty in the war. Looked at by the light of
facts it cannot, it will be found, be rationally
considered a state of peace, where neither party
either gave or got back all that they had
agreed, apart from the violations of it which
occurred on both sides in the Mantinean and
Epidaurian wars and other instances, and the
fact that the allies in the direction of Thrace
were in as open hostility as ever, while the
Boeotians had only a truce renewed every ten
days. So that the first ten years' war, the treach-
erous armistice that followed it, and the sub-
sequent war will, calculating by the seasons,
be found to make up the number of years
which I have mentioned, with the difference of
a few days, and to afford an instance of faith
in oracles being for once justified by the event.
I certainly all along remember from the begin-
ning to the end of the war its being common-
ly declared that it would last thrice nine years.
I lived through the whole of it, being of an age
to comprehend events, and giving my attention
to them in order to know the exact truth about
them. It was also my fate to be an exile from
my country for twenty years after my com-
mand at Amphipolis; and being present with
both parties, and more especially with the Pel-
oponnesians by reason of my exile, I had lei-
sure to observe affairs somewhat particularly.
I will accordingly now relate the differences
that arose after the ten years' war, the breach
of the treaty, and the hostilities that followed.

^277 After the conclusion of the fifty years'
truce and of the subsequent alliance, the em-
bassies from Peloponnese which had been sum-
moned for this business returned from Lace-
daemon. The rest went straight home, but the
Corinthians first turned aside to Argos and
opened negotiations with some of the men in
office there, pointing out that Lacedaemon
could have no good end in view, but only the

subjugation of Peloponnese, or she would nev-
er have entered into treaty and alliance with
the once detested Athenians, and that the duty
of consulting for the safety of Peloponnese had
now fallen upon Argos, who should immedi-
ately pass a decree inviting any Hellenic state
that chose, such state being independent and
accustomed to meet fellow powers upon the
fair and equal ground of law and justice, to
make a defensive alliance with the Argives;
appointing a few individuals with plenipoten-
tiary powers, instead of making the people the
medium of negotiation, in order that, in the
case of an applicant being rejected, the fact of
his overtures might not be made public. They
said that many would come over from hatred
of the Lacedaemonians. After this explanation
of their views, the Corinthians returned home.

[28] The persons with whom they had com-
municated reported the proposal to their gov-
ernment and people, and the Argives passed
the decree and chose twelve men to negotiate
an alliance for any Hellenic state that wished
it, except Athens and Lacedaemon, neither of
which should be able to join without reference
to the Argive people. Argos came into the plan
the more readily because she saw that war with
Lacedaemon was inevitable, the truce being on
the point of expiring; and also because she
hoped to gain the supremacy of Peloponnese.
For at this time Lacedaemon had sunk very
low in public estimation because of her disas-
ters, while the Argives were in a most flourish-
ing condition, having taken no part in the At-
tic war, but having on the contrary profited
largely by their neutrality. The Argives accord-
ingly prepared to receive into alliance any of
the Hellenes that desired it.

[29] The Mantineans and their allies were
the first to come over through fear of the Lace-
daemonians. Having taken advantage of the
war against Athens to reduce a large part of
Arcadia into subjection, they thought that La-
cedaemon would not leave them undisturbed
in their conquests, now that she had leisure to
interfere, and consequently gladly turned to
a powerful city like Argos, the historical en-
emy of the Lacedaemonians, and a sister de-
mocracy. Upon the defection of Mantinea, the
rest of Peloponnese at once began to agitate
the propriety of following her example, con-
ceiving that the Mantineans would not have
changed sides without good reason; besides
which they were angry with Lacedaemon
among other reasons for having inserted in
the treaty with Athens that it should be con-

490

THUCYDIDES

sistent with their oaths for both parties, Lace-
daemonians and Athenians, to add to or take
away from it according to their discretion. It
was this clause that was the real origin of the
panic in Peloponnese, by exciting suspicions of
a Lacedaemonian and Athenian combination
against their liberties: any alteration should
properly have been made conditional upon the
consent of the whole body of the allies. With
these apprehensions there was a very general
desire in each state to place itself in alliance
with Argos.

[30] In the meantime the Lacedaemonians
perceiving the agitation going on in Pelopon-
nese, and that Corinth was the author of it
and was herself about to enter into alliance
with the Argives, sent ambassadors thither in
the hope of preventing what was in contempla-
tion. They accused her of having brought it all
about, and told her that she could not desert
Laccdaemon and become the ally of Argos,
without adding violation of her oaths to the
crime which she had already committed in not
accepting the treaty with Athens, when it had
been expressly agreed that the decision of the
majority of the allies should be binding, unless
the gods or heroes stood in the way. Corinth
in her answer, delivered before those of her
allies who had like her refused to accept the
treaty, and whom she had previously invited
to attend, refrained from openly stating the in-
juries she complained of, such as the non-re-
covery of Sollium or Anactorium from the
Athenians, or any other point in which she
thought she had been prejudiced, but took
shelter under the pretext that she could not
give up her Thracian allies, to whom her sep-
arate individual security had been given, when
they first rebelled with Potidaea, as well as
upon subsequent occasions. She denied, there-
fore, that she committed any violation of her
oaths to the allies in not entering into the
treaty with Athens; having sworn upon the
faith of the gods to her Thracian friends, she
could not honestly give them up. Besides, the
expression was, "unless the gods or heroes
stand in the way." Now here, as it appeared to
her, the gods stood in the way. This was what
she said on the subject of her former oaths. As
to the Argive alliance, she would confer with
her friends and do whatever was right. The
Lacedaemonian envoys returning home, some
Argive ambassadors who happened to be in
Corinth pressed her to conclude the alliance
without further delay, but were told to attend
at the next congress to be held at Corinth.

[BooK v

[31] Immediately afterwards an Elean em-
bassy arrived, and first making an alliance with
Corinth went on from thence to Argos, accord-
ing to their instructions, and became allies of
the Argives, their country being just then at
enmity with Lacedaemon and Lepreum. Some
time back there had been a war between the
Lepreans and some of the Arcadians; and the
Eleans being called in by the former with the
offer of half their lands, had put an end to the
war, and leaving the land in the hands of its
Leprean occupiers had imposed upon them the
tribute of a talent to the Olympian Zeus. Till
the Attic war this tribute was paid by the Le-
preans, who then took the war as an excuse for
no longer doing so, and upon the Eleans using
force appealed to Lacedaemon. The case was
thus submitted to her arbitrament; but the
Eleans, suspecting the fairness of the tribunal,
renounced the reference and laid waste the
Leprean territory. The Lacedaemonians never-
theless decided that the Lepreans were inde-
pendent and the Eleans aggressors, and as the
latter did not abide by the arbitration, sent a
garrison of heavy infantry into Lepreum. Upon
this the Eleans, holding that Lacedaemon had
received one of their rebel subjects, put for-
ward the convention providing that each con-
federate should come out of the Attic war in
possession of what he had when he went into
it, and considering that justice had not been
done them went over to the Argives, and now
made the alliance through their ambassadors,
who had been instructed for that purpose. Im-
mediately after them the Corinthians and the
Thracian Chalcidians became allies of Argos.
Meanwhile the Boeotians and Megarians, who
acted together, remained quiet, being left to
do as they pleased by Lacedaemon, and think-
ing that the Argive democracy would not suit
so well with their aristocratic government as
the Lacedaemonian constitution.

[32] About the same time in this summer
Athens succeeded in reducing Scione, put the
adult males to death, and, making slaves of the
women and children, gave the land for the
Plataeans to live in. She also brought back the
Delians to Delos, moved by her misfortunes in
the field and by the commands of the god at
Delphi. Meanwhile the Phocians and Locrians
commenced hostilities. The Corinthians and
Argives, being now in alliance, went to Tegea
to bring about its defection from Lacedaemon,
seeing that, if so considerable a state could be
persuaded to join, all Peloponnese would be
with them. But when the Tegeans said that

30-35]

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

491

they would do nothing against Lacedaemon,
the hitherto zealous Corinthians relaxed their
activity, and began to fear that none of the rest
would now come over. Still they went to the
Boeotians and tried to persuade them to alli-
ance and a common action generally with
Argos and themselves, and also begged them
to go with them to Athens and obtain for them
a ten days' truce similar to that made between
the Athenians and Boeotians not long after the
fifty years' treaty, and, in the event of the Athe-
nians refusing, to throw up the armistice, and
not make any truce in future without Corinth.
These were the requests of the Corinthians.
The Boeotians stopped them on the subject of
the Argive alliance, but went with them to
Athens, where however they failed to obtain
the ten days' truce; the Athenian answer be-
ing that the Corinthians had truce already, as
being allies of Lacedaemon. Nevertheless the
Boeotians did not throw up their ten days'
truce, in spite of the prayers and reproaches of
the Corinthians for their breach of faith; and
these last had to content themselves with a de
facto armistice with Athens.

[33] The same summer the Lacedaemonians
marched into Arcadia with their whole levy
under Pleistoanax, son of Pausanias, king of
Lacedaemon, against the Parrhasians, who
were subjects of Mantinea, and a faction of
whom had invited their aid. They also meant
to demolish, if possible, the fort of Cypsela
which the Mantineans had built and garri-
soned in the Parrhasian territory, to annoy the
district of Sciritis in Laconia. The Lacedae-
monians accordingly laid waste the Parrhasian
country, and the Mantineans, placing their
town in the hands of an Argive garrison, ad-
dressed themselves to the defence of their con-
federacy, but being unable to save Cypsela or
the Parrhasian towns went back to Mantinea.
Meanwhile the Lacedaemonians made the Par-
rhasians independent, razed the fortress, and
returned home.

[34] The same summer the soldiers from
Thrace who had gone out with Brasidas came
back, having been brought from thence after
the treaty by Clearidas; and the Lacedaemo-
nians decreed that the Helots who had fought
with Brasidas should be free and allowed to
live where they liked, and not long afterwards
settled them with the Neodamodes at Lep-
reum, which is situated on the Laconian and
Elean border; Lacedaemon being at this time
at enmity with Elis. Those however of the
Spartans who had been taken prisoners on the

island and had surrendered their arms might,
it was feared, suppose that they were to be sub-
jected to some degradation in consequence of
their misfortune, and so make some attempt at
revolution, if left in possession of their fran-
chise. These were therefore at once disfran-
chised, although some of them were in office at
the time, and thus placed under a disability to
take office, or buy and sell anything. After some
time, however, the franchise was restored to
them.

[35] The same summer the Dians took
Thyssus, a town on Acte by Athos in alliance
with Athens. During the whole of this sum-
mer intercourse between the Athenians and
Peloponnesians continued, although each party
began to suspect the other directly after the
treaty, because of the places specified in it not
being restored. Lacedaemon, to whose lot it
had fallen to begin by restoring Amphipolis
and the other towns, had not done so. She had
equally failed to get the treaty accepted by her
Thracian allies, or by the Boeotians or the Cor-
inthians; although she was continually promis-
ing to unite with Athens in compelling their
compliance, if it were longer refused. She also
kept fixing a time at which those who still re-
fused to come in were to be declared enemies
to both parties, but took care not to bind her-
self by any written agreement. Meanwhile the
Athenians, seeing none of these professions
performed in fact, began to suspect the honesty
of her intentions, and consequently not only re-
fused to comply with her demands for Pylos,
but also repented having given up the prison-
ers from the island, and kept tight hold of the
other places, until Lacedacmon's part of the
treaty should be fulfilled. Lacedaemon, on the
other hand, said she had done what she could,
having given up the Athenian prisoners of war
in her possession, evacuated Thrace, and per-
formed everything else in her power. Am-
phipolis it was out of her ability to restore; but
she would endeavour to bring the Boeotians
and Corinthians into the treaty, to recover Pa-
nactum, and send home all the Athenian pri-
soners of war in Boeotia. Meanwhile she re-
quired that Pylos should be restored, or at all
events that the Mcssenians and Helots should
be withdrawn, as her troops had been from
Thrace, and the place garrisoned, if necessary,
by the Athenians themselves. After a number
of different conferences held during the sum-
mer, she succeeded in persuading Athens to
withdraw from Pylos the Messenians and the
rest of the Helots and deserters from Laconia,

492

THUCYDIDES

who were accordingly settled by her at Cranii
in Cephallenia. Thus during this summer there
was peace and intercourse between the two
peoples.

[36] Next winter, however, the ephors un-
der whom the treaty had been made were no
longer in office, and some of their successors
were directly opposed to it. Embassies now ar-
rived from the Lacedaemonian confederacy,
and the Athenians, Boeotians, and Corinthians
also presented themselves at Lacedaemon, and
after much discussion and no agreement be-
tween them, separated for their several homes;
when Cleobulus and Xenares, the two ephors
who were the most anxious to break oft the
treaty, took advantage of this opportunity to
communicate privately with the Boeotians and
Corinthians, and, advising them to act as much
as possible together, instructed the former
first to enter into alliance with Argos, and then
try and bring themselves and the Argives into
alliance with Lacedaemon. The Boeotians
would so be least likely to be compelled to
come into the Attic treaty; and the Lacedae-
monians would prefer gaining the friendship
and alliance of Argos even at the price of the
hostility of Athens and the rupture of the
treaty. The Boeotians knew that an honour-
able friendship with Argos had been long the
desire of Lacedaemon; for the Lacedaemonians
believed that this would considerably facilitate
the conduct of the war outside Peloponnese.
Meanwhile they begged the Boeotians to place
Panactum in her hands in order that she might,
if possible, obtain Pylos in exchange for it, and
so be more in a position to resume hostilities
with Athens.

[37] After receiving these instructions for
their governments from Xenares and Cleo-
bulus and their friends at Lacedaemon, the
Boeotians and Corinthians departed. On their
way home they were joined by two persons
high in office at Argos, who had waited for
them on the road, and who now sounded them
upon the possibility of the Boeotians joining
the Corinthians, Eleans, and Mantineans in be-
coming the allies of Argos, in the idea that if
this could be effected they would be able, thus
united, to make peace or war as they pleased
either against Lacedaemon or any other power.
The Boeotian envoys were pleased at thus hear-
ing themselves accidentally asked to do what
their friends at Lacedaemon had told them;
and the two Argives perceiving that their pro-
posal was agreeable, departed with a promise
to send ambassadors to the Boeotians. On their

[BOOK v

arrival the Boeotians reported to the Boeo-
tarchs what had been said to them at Lacedae-
mon and also by the Argives who had met
them, and the Boeotarchs, pleased with the
idea, embraced it with the more eagerness from
the lucky coincidence of Argos soliciting the
very thing wanted by their friends at Lacedae-
mon. Shortly afterwards ambassadors appeared
from Argos with the proposals indicated; and
the Boeotarchs approved of the terms and dis-
missed the ambassadors with a promise to send
envoys to Argos to negotiate the alliance.

[38] In the meantime it was decided by the
Boeotarchs, the Corinthians, the Mcgarians,
and the envoys from Thrace first to inter-
change oaths together to give help to each
other whenever it was required and not to
make war or peace except in common; after
which the Boeotians and Megarians, who acted
together, should make the alliance with Argos.
But before the oaths were taken the Boeotarchs
communicated these proposals to the four
councils of the Boeotians, in whom the su-
preme power resides, and advised them to in-
terchange oaths with all such cities as should
be willing to enter into a defensive league with
the Boeotians. But the members of the Boeo-
tian councils refused their assent to the pro-
posal, being afraid of offending Lacedaemon
by entering into a league with the deserter
Corinth; the Boeotarchs not having acquainted
them with what had passed at Lacedaemon
and with the advice given by Cleobulus and
Xenares and the Boeotian partisans there,
namely, that they should become allies of Co-
rinth and Argos as a preliminary to a junction
with Lacedaemon; fancying that, even if they
should say nothing about this, the councils
would not vote against what had been decided
and advised by the Boeotarchs. This difficulty
arising, the Corinthians and the envoys from
Thrace departed without anything having
been concluded; and the Boeotarchs, who had
previously intended after carrying this to try
and effect the alliance with Argos, now omit-
ted to bring the Argive question before the
councils, or to send to Argos the envoys whom
they had promised; and a general coldness and
delay ensued in the matter.

/jpj In this same winter Mecyberna was as-
saulted and taken by the Olynthians, having
an Athenian garrison inside it.

All this while negotiations had been going
on between the Athenians and Lacedaemo-
nians about the conquests still retained by
each, and Lacedaemon, hoping that if Athens

36-42]

were to get back Panactum from the Boeotians
she might herself recover Pylos, now sent an
embassy to the Boeotians, and begged them to
place Panactum and their Athenian prisoners
in her hands, in order that she might exchange
them for Pylos. This the Boeotians refused to
do, unless Lacedaemon made a separate alli-
ance with them as she had done with Athens.
Lacedaemon knew that this would be a breach
of faith to Athens, as it had been agreed that
neither of them should make peace or war
without the other; yet wishing to obtain Pa-
nactum which she hoped to exchange for Pylos,
and the party who pressed for the dissolution
of the treaty strongly affecting the Boeotian
connection, she at length concluded the alli-
ance just as winter gave way to spring; and
Panactum was instantly razed. And so the
eleventh year of the war ended.

[40] In the first days of the summer follow-
ing, the Argives, seeing that the promised am-
bassadors from Boeotia did not arrive, and
that Panactum was being demolished, and that
a separate alliance had been concluded between
the Boeotians and Lacedaemonians, began to
be afraid that Argos might be left alone, and
all the confederacy go over to Lacedaemon.
They fancied that the Boeotians had been per-
suaded by the Lacedaemonians to raze Pa-
nactum and to enter into the treaty with the
Athenians, and that Athens was privy to this
arrangement, and even her alliance, therefore,
no longer open to them — a resource which
they had always counted upon, by reason of the
dissensions existing, in the event of the non-
continuance of their treaty with Lacedaemon.
In this strait the Argives, afraid that, as the re-
sult of refusing to renew the treaty with Lace-
daemon and of aspiring to the supremacy in
Peloponnese, they would have the Lacedae-
monians, Tegeans, Boeotians, and Athenians
on their hands all at once, now hastily sent off
Eustrophus and Aeson, who seemed the per-
sons most likely to be acceptable, as envoys to
Lacedaemon, with the view of making as good
a treaty as they could with the Lacedaemo-
nians, upon such terms as could be got, and be-
ing left in peace.

141] Having reached Lacedaemon, their
ambassadors proceeded to negotiate the terms
of the proposed treaty. What the Argives first
demanded was that they might be allowed to
refer to the arbitration of some state or private
person the question of the Cynurian land, a
piece of frontier territory about which they
have always been disputing, and which con-

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

493

tains the towns of Thyrea and Anthene, and is
occupied by the Lacedaemonians. The Lace-
daemonians at first said that they could not al-
low this point to be discussed, but were ready
to conclude upon the old terms. Eventually,
however, the Argive ambassadors succeeded in
obtaining from them this concession: For the
present there was to be a truce for fifty years,
but it should be competent for cither party,
there being neither plague nor war in Lacedae-
mon or Argos, to give a formal challenge and
decide the question of this territory by battle,
as on a former occasion, when both sides
claimed the victory; pursuit not being allowed
beyond the frontier of Argos or Lacedaemon.
The Lacedaemonians at first thought this mere
folly; but at last, anxious at any cost to have
the friendship of Argos, they agreed to the
terms demanded, and reduced them to writing.
However, before any of this should become
binding, the ambassadors were to return to
Argos and communicate with their people and,
in the event of their approval, to come at the
feast of the Hyacinthia and take the oaths.

The envoys returned accordingly. [42] In
the meantime, while the Argives were engaged
in these negotiations, the Lacedaemonian am-
bassadors— Andromedes, Phaedimus, and Anti-
menidas — who were to receive the prisoners
from the Boeotians and restore them and Pa-
nactum to the Athenians, found that the Boeo-
tians had themselves razed Panactum, upon
the plea that oaths had been anciently ex-
changed between their people and the Athe-
nians, after a dispute on the subject to the ef-
fect that neither should inhabit the place, but
that they should graze it in common. As for
the Athenian prisoners of war in the hands of
the Boeotians, these were delivered over to
Andromedes and his colleagues, and by them
conveyed to Athens and given back. The en-
voys at the same time announced the razing of
Panactum, which to them seemed as good as
its restitution, as it would no longer lodge an
enemy of Athens. This announcement was re-
ceived with great indignation by the Athe-
nians, who thought that the Lacedaemonians
had played them false, both in the matter of
the demolition of Panactum, which ought to
have been restored to them standing, and in
having, as they now heard, made a separate al-
liance with the Boeotians, in spite of their pre-
vious promise to join Athens in compelling the
adhesion of those who refused to accede to the
treaty. The Athenians also considered the other
points in which Lacedaemon had failed in her

494

THUCYDIDES

compact, and thinking that they had been over-
reached, gave an angry answer to the ambas-
sadors and sent them away.

[43] The breach between the Lacedaemo-
nians and Athenians having gone thus far, the
party at Athens, also, who wished to cancel
the treaty, immediately put themselves in mo-
tion. Foremost amongst these was Alcibiades,
son of Clinias, a man yet young in years for
any other Hellenic city, but distinguished by
the splendour of his ancestry. Alcibiades
thought the Argive alliance really preferable,
not that personal pique had not also a great
deal to do with his opposition; he being of-
fended with the Lacedaemonians for having
negotiated the treaty through Nicias and
Laches, and having overlooked him on account
of his youth, and also for not having shown
him the respect due to the ancient connection
of his family with them as their proxeni,
which, renounced by his grandfather, he had
lately himself thought to renew by his atten-
tions to their prisoners taken in the island. Be-
ing thus, as he thought, slighted on all hands,
he had in the first instance spoken against the
treaty, saying that the Lacedaemonians were
not to be trusted, but that they only treated, in
order to be enabled by this means to crush
Argos, and afterwards to attack Athens alone;
and now, immediately upon the above occur-
ring, he sent privately to the Argives, telling
them to come as quickly as possible to Athens,
accompanied by the Mantineans and Eleans,
with proposals of alliance; as the moment was
propitious and he himself would do all he
could to help them.

[44] Upon receiving this message and dis-
covering that the Athenians, far from being
privy to the Boeotian alliance, were involved
in a serious quarrel with the Lacedaemonians,
the Argives paid no further attention to the
embassy which they had just sent to Lacedae-
mon on the subject of the treaty, and began to
incline rather towards the Athenians, reflect-
ing that, in the event of war, they would thus
have on their side a city that was not only an
ancient ally of Argos, but a sister democracy
and very powerful at sea. They accordingly at
once sent ambassadors to Athens to treat for an
alliance, accompanied by others from Elis and
Mantinea.

At the same time arrived in haste from Lace-
daemon an embassy consisting of persons re-
puted well disposed towards the Athenians —
Philocharidas, Leon, and Endius — for fear
that the Athenians in their irritation might

[BooK v

conclude alliance with the Argives, and also to
ask back Pylos in exchange for Panactum, and
in defence of the alliance with the Boeotians to
plead that it had not been made to hurt the
Athenians. [45] Upon the envoys speaking in
the senate upon these points, and stating that
they had come with full powers to settle all
others at issue between them, Alcibiades be-
came afraid that, if they were to repeat these
statements to the popular assembly, they might
gain the multitude, and the Argive alliance
might be rejected, and accordingly had re-
course to the following stratagem. He per-
suaded the Lacedaemonians by a solemn assur-
ance that if they would say nothing of their
full powers in the assembly, he would give
back Pylos to them (himself, the present op-
ponent of its restitution, engaging to obtain
this from the Athenians), and would settle the
other points at issue. His plan was to detach
them from Nicias and to disgrace them before
the people, as being without sincerity in their
intentions, or even common consistency in
their language, and so to get the Argives,
Eleans, and Mantineans taken into alliance.
This plan proved successful. When the envoys
appeared before the people, and upon the ques-
tion being put to them, did not say as they had
said in the senate, that they had come with full
powers, the Athenians lost all patience, and
carried away by Alcibiades, who thundered
more loudly than ever against the Lacedae-
monians, were ready instantly to introduce the
Argives and their companions and to take
them into alliance. An earthquake, however,
occurring, before anything definite had been
done, this assembly was adjourned.

[46] In the assembly held the next day, Ni-
cias, in spite of the Lacedaemonians having
been deceived themselves, and having allowed
him to be deceived also in not admitting that
they had come with full powers, still main-
tained that it was best to be friends with the
Lacedaemonians, and, letting the Argive pro-
posals stand over, to send once more to Lace-
daemon and learn her intentions. The adjourn-
ment of the war could only increase their own
prestige and injure that of their rivals; the ex-
cellent state of their affairs making it their in-
terest to preserve this prosperity as long as pos-
sible, while those of Lacedaemon were so des-
perate that the sooner she could try her fortune
again the better. He succeeded accordingly in
persuading them to send ambassadors, himself
being among the number, to invite the Lace-
daemonians, if they were really sincere, to re-

43-47]

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

495

store Panactum intact with Amphipolis, and to
abandon their alliance with the Boeotians (un-
less they consented to accede to the treaty),
agreeably to the stipulation which forbade
either party to treat without the other. The am-
bassadors were also directed to say that the
Athenians, had they wished to play false,
might already have made alliance with the
Argives, who were indeed come to Athens for
that very purpose, and went of! furnished with
instructions as to any other complaints that the
Athenians had to make. Having reached Lace-
daemon, they communicated their instructions,
and concluded by telling the Lacedaemonians
that unless they gave up their alliance with the
Boeotians, in the event of their not acceding
to the treaty, the Athenians for their part
would ally themselves with the Argives and
their friends. The Lacedaemonians, however,
refused to give up the Boeotian alliance — the
party of Xenares the ephor, and such as shared
their view, carrying the day upon this point —
but renewed the oaths at the request of Nicias,
who feared to return without having accom-
plished anything and to be disgraced; as was
indeed his fate, he being held the author of the
treaty with Lacedaemon. When he returned,
and the Athenians heard that nothing had
been done at Lacedaemon, they flew into a pas-
sion, and deciding that faith had not been kept
with them, took advantage of the presence of
the Argives and their allies, who had been in-
troduced by Alcibiades, and made a treaty and
alliance with them upon the terms following:
[47] The Athenians, Argives, Mantineans, and
Eleans, acting for themselves and the allies in
their respective empires, made a treaty for a
hundred years, to be without fraud or hurt by
land and by sea.

1. It shall not be lawful to carry on war,
either for the Argives, Eleans, Mantineans, and
their allies, against the Athenians, or the allies
in the Athenian empire: or for the Athenians
and their allies against the Argives, Eleans,
Mantineans, or their allies, in any way or
means whatsoever.

The Athenians, Argives, Eleans, and Mantine-
ans shall be allies for a hundred years upon the
terms following:

2. // an enemy invade the country of the
Athenians, the Argives, Eleans, and Manti-
neans shall go to the relief of Athens, accord-
ing as the Athenians may require by message,
in such way as they most effectually can, to the
best of their power. But if the invader be gone
after plundering the territory, the offending

state shall be the enemy of the Argives, Manti-
neans, Eleans, and Athenians, and war shall be
made against it by all these cities: and no one
of the cities shall be able to ma\e peace with
that state, except all the above cities agree to
do so.

3. Likewise the Athenians shall go to the re-
lie} of Argos, Mantinea, and Elis, if an enemy
invade the country of Elis, Mantinea, or Argos,
according as the above cities may require by
message, in such way as they most effectually
can, to the best of their power. But if the in-
vader be gone after plundering the territory,
the state offending shall be the enemy of the
Athenians, Argives, Mantineans, and Eleans,
and war shall be made against it by all these
cities, and peace may not be made with that
state except all the above cities agree to it.

4. No armed force shall be allowed to pass
for hostile purposes through the country of the
powers contracting, or of the allies in their re-
spective empires, or to go by sea, except all the
cities — that is to say, Athens, Argos, Mantinea,
and Elis — vote for such passage.

5. The relieving troops shall be maintained
by the city sending them for thirty days from
their arrival in the city that has required them,
and upon their return in the same way: if their
services be desired for a longer period, the city
that sent for them shall maintain them, at the
rate of three Aeginetan obols per day for a
heavy-armed soldier, archer, or light soldier,
and an Aeginetan drachma for a trooper.

6. The city sending for the troops shall have
the command when the war is in its own coun-
try: but in case of the cities resolving upon a
joint expedition the command shall be equally
divided among all the cities.

7. The treaty shall be sworn to by the Athe-
nians for themselves and their allies, by the
Argives, Mantineans, Eleans, and their allies,
by each state individually. Each shall swear the
oath most binding in his country over full-
grown victims: the oath being as follows:

"I WILL STAND BY THE ALLIANCE AND ITS AR-
TICLES, JUSTLY, INNOCENTLY, AND SINCERELY,
AND I WILL NOT TRANSGRESS THE SAME IN ANY
WAY OR MEANS WHATSOEVER."

The oath shall be ta\en at Athens by the
Senate and the magistrates, the Prytanes ad-
ministering it: at Argos by the Senate, the
Eighty, and the Artynae, the Eighty adminis-
tering it: at Mantinea by the Demiurgi, the
Senate, and the other magistrates, the Theori
and Polemarchs administering it: at Elis by the

496

THUCYDIDES

Demiurgi, the magistrates, and the Six Hun-
dred, the Demiurgi and the Thesmophylaces
administering it. The oaths shall be renewed
by the Athenians going to Elis, Mantinea, and
Argos thirty days before the Olympic games:
by the Ar gives, Mantineans, and Eleans going
to Athens ten days before the great feast of the
Panathenaea. The articles of the treaty, the
oaths, and the alliance shall be inscribed on a
stone pillar by the Athenians in the citadel, by
the Argives in the market-place, in the temple
of Apollo: by the Mantineans in the temple of
Zeus, in the market-place: and a brazen pillar
shall be erected jointly by them at the Olympic
games now at hand. Should the above cities
see good to mafe any addition in these articles,
whatever all the above cities shall agree upon,
after consulting together, shall be binding.

[48] Although the treaty and alliances were
thus concluded, still the treaty between the
Lacedaemonians and Athenians was not re-
nounced by either party. Meanwhile Corinth,
although the ally of the Argives, did not ac-
cede to the new treaty, any more than she had
done to the alliance, defensive and offensive,
formed before this between the Eleans, Ar-
gives, and Mantineans, when she declared her-
self content with the first alliance, which was
defensive only, and which bound them to help
each other, but not to join in attacking any.
The Corinthians thus stood aloof from their
allies, and again turned their thoughts towards
Lacedaemon.

[49] At the Olympic games which were
held this summer, and in which the Arcadian
Androsthenes was victor the first time in the
wrestling and boxing, the Lacedaemonians
were excluded from the temple by the Eleans,
and thus prevented from sacrificing or con-
tending, for having refused to pay the fine spe-
cified in the Olympic law imposed upon them
by the Eleans, who alleged that they had at-
tacked Fort Phyrcus, and sent heavy infantry
of theirs into Lepreum during the Olympic
truce. The amount of the fine was two thou-
sand minae, two for each heavy-armed soldier,
as the law prescribes. The Lacedaemonians
sent envoys, and pleaded that the imposition
was unjust; saying that the truce had not yet
been proclaimed at Lacedaemon when the
heavy infantry were sent off. But the Eleans
affirmed that the armistice with them had al-
ready begun (they proclaim it first among
themselves), and that the aggression of the
Lacedaemonians had taken them by surprise
while they were living quietly as in time of

[BooK v

peace, and not expecting anything. Upon this
the Lacedaemonians submitted, that if the El-
eans really believed that they had committed
an aggression, it was useless after that to pro-
claim the truce at Lacedaemon; but they had
proclaimed it notwithstanding, as believing
nothing of the kind, and from that moment
the Lacedaemonians had made no attack upon
their country. Nevertheless the Eleans adhered
to what they had said, that nothing would per-
suade them that an aggression had not been
committed; if, however, the Lacedaemonians
would restore Lepreum, they would give up
their own share of the money and pay that of
the god for them.

[50] As this proposal was not accepted, the
Eleans tried a second. Instead of restoring Lep-
reum, if this was objected to, the Lacedaemo-
nians should ascend the altar of the Olympian
Zeus, as they were so anxious to have access to
the temple, and swear before the Hellenes that
they would surely pay the fine at a later day.
This being also refused, the Lacedaemonians
were excluded from the temple, the sacrifice,
and the games, and sacrificed at home; the
Lepreans being the only other Hellenes who
did not attend. Still the Eleans were afraid of
the Lacedaemonians sacrificing by force, and
kept guard with a heavy-armed company of
their young men; being also joined by a thou-
sand Argives, the same number of Mantine-
ans, and by some Athenian cavalry who stayed
at Harpina during the feast. Great fears were
felt in the assembly of the Lacedaemonians
coming in arms, especially after Lichas, son
of Arcesilaus, a Lacedaemonian, had been
scourged on the course by the umpires; be-
cause, upon his horses being the winners, and
the Boeotian people being proclaimed the vic-
tor on account of his having no right to enter,
he came forward on the course and crowned
the charioteer, in order to show that the chari-
ot was his. After this incident all were more
afraid than ever, and firmly looked for a dis-
turbance: the Lacedaemonians, however, kept
quiet, and let the feast pass by, as we have seen.
After the Olympic games, the Argives and the
allies repaired to Corinth to invite her to come
over to them. There they found some Lacedae-
monian envoys; and a long discussion ensued,
which after all ended in nothing, as an earth-
quake occurred, and they dispersed to their dif-
ferent homes.

Summer was now over. [51] The winter fol-
lowing a battle took place between the Hera-
cleots in Trachinia and the Aenianians, Dolo-

48-56]

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

497

plans, Malians, and certain of the Thcssalians,
all tribes bordering on and hostile to the town,
which directly menaced their country. Accord-
ingly, after having opposed and harassed it
from its very foundation by every means in
their power, they now in this battle defeated
the Heracleots, Xenares, son of Cnidis, their
Lacedaemonian commander, being among the
slain. Thus the winter ended and the twelfth
year of this war ended also. [52] After the bat-
tle, Heraclea was so terribly reduced that in the
first days of the summer following the Boeo-
tians occupied the place and sent away the
Lacedaemonian Agesippidas for misgovern-
ment, fearing that the town might be taken by
the Athenians while the Lacedaemonians were
distracted with the affairs of Peloponnese. The
Lacedaemonians, nevertheless, were offended
with them for what they had done.

The same summer Alcibiades, son of Clinias,
now one of the generals at Athens, in concert
with the Argives and the allies, went into Pelo-
ponnese with a few Athenian heavy infantry
and archers and some of the allies in those
parts whom he took up as he passed, and with
this army marched here and there through
Peloponnese, and settled various matters con-
nected with the alliance, and among other
things induced the Patrians to carry their walls
down to the sea, intending himself also to
build a fort near the Achaean Rhium. How-
ever, the Corinthians and Sicyonians, and all
others who would have suffered by its being
built, came up and hindered him.

[53] The same summer war broke out be-
tween the Epidaurians and Argives. The pre-
text was that the Epidaurians did not send an
offering for their pasture-land to Apollo Py-
thaeus, as they were bound to do, the Argives
having the chief management of the temple;
but, apart from this pretext, Alcibiades and the
Argives were determined, if possible, to gain
possession of Epidaurus, and thus to ensure
the neutrality of Corinth and give the Atheni-
ans a shorter passage for their reinforcements
from Aegina than if they had to sail round
Scyllaeum. The Argives accordingly prepared
to invade Epidaurus by themselves, to exact the
offering.

[54] About the same time the Lacedaemoni-
ans marched out with all their people to Leuc-
tra upon their frontier, opposite to Mount Ly-
caeum, under the command of Agis, son of
Archidamus, without any one knowing their
destination, not even the cities that sent the
contingents. The sacrifices, however, for cross-

ing the frontier not proving propitious, the
Lacedaemonians returned home themselves,
and sent word to the allies to be ready to march
after the month ensuing, which happened to be
the month of Carneus, a holy time for the Do-
rians. Upon the retreat of the Lacedaemonians
the Argives marched out on the last day but
three of the month before Carneus, and keep-
ing this as the day during the whole time that
they were out, invaded and plundered Epi-
daurus. The Epidaurians summoned their al-
lies to their aid, some of whom pleaded the
month as an excuse; others came as far as the
frontier of Epidaurus and there remained in-
active.

[55] While the Argives were in Epidaurus
embassies from the cities assembled at Man-
tinea, upon the invitation of the Athenians.
The conference having begun, the Corinthian
Euphamidas said that their actions did not
agree with their words; while they were sitting
deliberating about peace, the Epidaurians and
their allies and the Argives were arrayed
against each other in arms; deputies from each
party should first go and separate the armies,
and then the talk about peace might be re-
sumed. In compliance with this suggestion,
they went and brought back the Argives from
Epidaurus, and afterwards reassembled, but
without succeeding any better in coming to a
conclusion; and the Argives a second time in-
vaded Epidaurus and plundered the country.
The Lacedaemonians also marched out to Ca-
ryae; but the frontier sacrifices again proving
unfavourable, they went back again, and the
Argives, after ravaging about a third of the
Epidaurian territory, returned home. Mean-
while a thousand Athenian heavy infantry had
come to their aid under the command of Alci-
biades, but finding that the Lacedaemonian
expedition was at an end, and that they were
no longer wanted, went back again.

So passed the summer. [56] The next winter
the Lacedaemonians managed to elude the
vigilance of the Athenians, and sent in a garri-
son of three hundred men to Epidaurus, under
the command of Agesippidas. Upon this the
Argives went to the Athenians and com-
plained of their having allowed an enemy to
pass by sea, in spite of the clause in the treaty
by which the allies were not to allow an enemy
to pass through their country. Unless, there-
fore, they now put the Messenians and Helots
in Pylos to annoy the Lacedaemonians, they,
the Argives, should consider that faith had not
been kept with them. The Athenians were per-

498

THUCYDIDES

[BOOK

suaded by Alcibiades to inscribe at the bottom
of the Laconian pillar that the Lacedaemoni-
ans had not kept their oaths, and to convey the
Helots at Cranii to Pylos to plunder the coun-
try; but for the rest they remained quiet as be-
fore. During this winter hostilities went on be-
tween the Argives and Epidaurians, without
any pitched battle taking place, but only forays
and ambuscades, in which the losses were small
and fell now on one side and now on the other.
At the close of the winter, towards the begin-
ning of spring, the Argives went with scaling
ladders to Epidaurus, expecting to find it left
unguarded on account of the war and to be
able to take it by assault, but returned unsuc-
cessful. And the winter ended, and with it the
thirteenth year of the war ended also.

[57] In the middle of the next summer the
Lacedaemonians, seeing the Epidaurians, their
allies, in distress, and the rest of Peloponnese
either in revolt or disaffected, concluded that
it was high time for them to interfere if they
wished to stop the progress of the evil, and ac-
cordingly with their full force, the Helots in-
cluded, took the field against Argos, under the
command of Agis, son of Archidamus, king of
the Lacedaemonians. The Tegeans and the
other Arcadian allies of Lacedaemon joined in
the expedition. The allies from the rest of
Peloponnese and from outside mustered at
Phlius; the Boeotians with five thousand heavy
infantry and as many light troops, and five
hundred horse and the same number of dis-
mounted troopers; the Corinthians with two
thousand heavy infantry; the rest more or less
as might happen; and the Phliasians with all
their forces, the army being in their country.
[58] The preparations of the Lacedaemoni-
ans from the first had been known to the Ar-
givcs, who did not, however, take the field un-
til the enemy was on his road to join the rest
at Phlius. Reinforced by the Mantineans with
their allies, and by three thousand Elean heavy
infantry, they advanced and fell in with the
Lacedaemonians at Methydrium in Arcadia.
Each party took up its position upon a hill, and
the Argives prepared to engage the Lacedae-
monians while they were alone; but Agis elud-
ed them by breaking up his camp in the night,
and proceeded to join the rest of the allies at
Phlius. The Argives discovering this at day-
break, marched first to Argos and then to the
Nemean road, by which they expected the Lac-
edaemonians and their allies would come
down. However, Agis, instead of taking this
road as they expected, gave the Lacedaemoni-

ans, Arcadians, and Epidaurians their orders,
and went along another difficult road, and de-
scended into the plain of Argos. The Corinthi-
ans, Pellenians, and Phliasians marched by an-
other steep road; while the Boeotians, Megari-
ans, and Sicyonians had instructions to come
down by the Nemean road where the Argives
were posted, in order that, if the enemy ad-
vanced into the plain against the troops of
Agis, they might fall upon his rear with their
cavalry. These dispositions concluded, Agis in-
vaded the plain and began to ravage Samin-
thus and other places.

[59] Discovering this, the Argives came up
from Nemea, day having now dawned. On
their way they fell in with the troops of the
Phliasians and Corinthians, and killed a few
of the Phliasians and had perhaps a few more
of their own men killed by the Corinthians.
Meanwhile the Boeotians, Megarians, and Si-
cyonians, advancing upon Nemea according to
their instructions, found the Argives no longer
there, as they had gone down on seeing their
property ravaged, and were now forming for
battle, the Lacedaemonians imitating their ex-
ample. The Argives were now completely sur-
rounded; from the plain the Lacedaemonians
and their allies shut them off from their city;
above them were the Corinthians, Phliasians,
and Pellenians; and on the side of Nemea the
Boeotians, Sicyonians, and Megarians. Mean-
while their army was without cavalry, the
Athenians alone among the allies not having
yet arrived. Now the bulk of the Argives and
their allies did not see the danger of their posi-
tion, but thought that they could not have a
fairer field, having intercepted the Lacedaemo-
nians in their own country and close to the
city. Two men, however, in the Argive army,
Thrasylus, one of the five generals, and Al-
ciphron, the Lacedaemonian proxenus, just as
the armies were upon the point of engaging,
went and held a parley with Agis and urged
him not to bring on a battle, as the Argives
were ready to refer to fair and equal arbitration
whatever complaints the Lacedaemonians
might have against them, and to make a treaty
and live in peace in future.

[60] The Argives who made these state-
ments did so upon their own authority, not by
order of the people, and Agis on his accepted
their proposals, and without himself either
consulting the majority, simply communicated
the matter to a single individual, one of the
high officers accompanying the expedition, and
granted the Argives a truce for four months,

57-64]

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

499

in which to fulfil their promises; after which
he immediately led off the army without giv-
ing any explanation to any of the other allies.
The Lacedaemonians and allies followed their
general out of respect for the law, but amongst
themselves loudly blamed Agis for going away
from so fair a field (the enemy being hemmed
in on every side by infantry and cavalry) with-
out having done anything worthy of their
strength. Indeed this was by far the finest Hel-
lenic army ever yet brought together; and it
should have been seen while it was still united
at Nemea, with the Lacedaemonians in full
force, the Arcadians, Boeotians, Corinthians,
Sicyonians, Pellenians, Phliasians and Megari-
ans, and all these the flower of their respective
populations, thinking themselves a match not
merely for the Argive confederacy, but for an-
other such added to it. The army thus retired
blaming Agis, and returned every man to his
home. The Argives however blamed still more
loudly the persons who had concluded the
truce without consulting the people, them-
selves thinking that they had let escape with
the Lacedaemonians an opportunity such as
they should never see again; as the struggle
would have been under the walls of their city,
and by the side of many and brave allies. On
their return accordingly they began to stone
Thrasylus in the bed of the Charadrus, where
they try all military causes before entering the
city. Thrasylus fled to the altar, and so saved
his life; his property however they confiscated.
[61] After this arrived a thousand Athenian
heavy infantry and three hundred horse, under
the command of Laches and Nicostratus;
whom the Argives, being nevertheless loath to
break the truce with the Lacedaemonians,
begged to depart, and refused to bring before
the people, to whom they had a communica-
tion to make, until compelled to do so by the
entreaties of the Mantineans and Eleans, who
were still at Argos. The Athenians, by the
mouth of Alcibiades their ambassador there
present, told the Argives and the allies that
they had no right to make a truce at all with-
out the consent of their fellow confederates,
and now that the Athenians had arrived so
opportunely the war ought to be resumed.
These arguments proving successful with the
allies, they immediately marched upon Orcho-
menos, all except the Argives, who, although
they had consented like the rest, stayed be-
hind at first, but eventually joined the others.
They now all sat down and besieged Orcho-
menos, and made assaults upon it; one of their

reasons for desiring to gain this place being
that hostages from Arcadia had been lodged
there by the Lacedaemonians. The Orchomeni-
ans, alarmed at the weakness of their wall and
the numbers of the enemy, and at the risk they
ran of perishing before relief arrived, capitu-
lated upon condition of joining the league, of
giving hostages of their own to the Mantine-
ans, and giving up those lodged with them by
the Lacedaemonians. [62] Orchomenos thus
secured, the allies now consulted as to which
of the remaining places they should attack
next. The Eleans were urgent for Lepreum;
the Mantineans for Tegea; and the Argives
and Athenians giving their support to the
Mantineans, the Eleans went home in a rage
at their not having voted for Lepreum; while
the rest of the allies made ready at Mantinea
for going against Tegea, which a party inside
had arranged to put into their hands.

[63] Meanwhile the Lacedaemonians, upon
their return from Argos after concluding the
four months* truce, vehemently blamed Agis
for not having subdued Argos, after an oppor-
tunity such as they thought they had never had
before; for it was no easy matter to bring so
many and so good allies together. But when
the news arrived of the capture of Orcho-
menos, they became more angry than ever,
and, departing from all precedent, in the heat
of the moment had almost decided to raze his
house, and to fine him ten thousand drachmae.
Agis however entreated them to do none of
these things, promising to atone for his fault
by good service in the field, failing which they
might then do to him whatever they pleased;
and they accordingly abstained from razing
his house or fining him as they had threatened
to do, and now made a law, hitherto unknown
at Lacedaemon, attaching to him ten Spartans
as counsellors, without whose consent he
should have no power to lead an army out of
the city.

[64] At this juncture arrived word from
their friends in Tegea that, unless they speedily
appeared, Tegea would go over from them to
the Argives and their allies, if it had not gone
over already. Upon this news a force marched
out from Lacedaemon, of the Spartans and He-
lots and all their people, and that instantly
and upon a scale never before witnessed. Ad-
vancing to Orestheum in Maenalia, they di-
rected the Arcadians in their league to follow
close after them to Tegea, and, going on them-
selves as far as Orestheum, from thence sent
back the sixth part of the Spartans, consisting

500

THUCYDIDES

[BOOK v

of the oldest and youngest men, to guard their
homes, and with the rest of their army ar-
rived at Tegea; where their Arcadian allies
soon after joined them. Meanwhile they sent
to Corinth, to the Boeotians, the Phocians, and
Locrians, with orders to come up as quickly as
possible to Mantinea. These had but short no-
tice; and it was not easy except all together,
and after waiting for each other, to pass
through the enemy's country, which lay right
across and blocked up the line of communica-
tion. Nevertheless they made what haste they
could. Meanwhile the Lacedaemonians with
the Arcadian allies that had joined them, en-
tered the territory of Mantinea, and encamp-
ing near the temple of Heracles began to plun-
der the country.

[65] Here they were seen by the Argives
and their allies, who immediately took up a
strong and difficult position, and formed in
order of battle. The Lacedaemonians at once
advanced against them, and came on within a
stone's throw or javelin's cast, when one of the
older men, seeing the enemy's position to be a
strong one, hallooed to Agis that he was mind-
ed to cure one evil with another; meaning that
he wished to make amends for his retreat,
which had been so much blamed, from Argos,
by his present untimely precipitation. Mean-
while Agis, whether in consequence of this
halloo or of some sudden new idea of his own,
quickly led back his army without engaging,
and entering the Tegean territory, began to
turn off into that of Mantinea the water about
which the Mantineans and Tegeans are always
fighting, on account of the extensive damage
it does to whichever of the two countries it
falls into. His object in this was to make the
Argives and their allies come down from the
hill, to resist the diversion of the water, as they
would be sure to do when they knew of it,
and thus to fight the battle in the plain. He
accordingly stayed that day where he was, en-
gaged in turning off the water. The Argives
and their allies were at first amazed at the sud-
den retreat of the enemy after advancing so
near, and did not know what to make of it;
but when he had gone away and disappeared,
without their having stirred to pursue him,
they began anew to find fault with their gen-
erals, who had not only let the Lacedaemoni-
ans get off before, when they were so happily
intercepted before Argos, but who now again
allowed them to run away, without any one
pursuing them, and to escape at their leisure
while the Argive army was leisurely betrayed.

The generals, half-stunned for the moment,
afterwards led them down from the hill, and
went forward and encamped in the plain, with
the intention of attacking the enemy.

[66] The next day the Argives and their al-
lies formed in the order in which they meant
to fight, if they chanced to encounter the en-
emy; and the Lacedaemonians returning from
the water to their old encampment by the tem-
ple of Heracles, suddenly saw their adversaries
close in front of them, all in complete order,
and advanced from the hill. A shock like that
of the present moment the Lacedaemonians do
not ever remember to have experienced: there
was scant time for preparation, as they instant-
ly and hastily fell into their ranks, Agis, their
king, directing everything, agreeably to the
law. For when a king is in the field all com-
mands proceed from him: he gives the word to
the Polemarchs; they to the Lochages; these
to the Pentecostyes; these again to the Enomo-
tarchs, and these last to the Enomoties. In short
all orders required pass in the same way and
quickly reach the troops; as almost the whole
Lacedaemonian army, save for a small part,
consists of officers under officers, and the care
of what is to be done falls upon many.

[6j] In this battle the left wing was com-
posed of the Sciritae, who in a Lacedaemonian
army have always that post to themselves
alone; next to these were the soldiers of Brasi-
das from Thrace, and the Neodamodes with
them; then came the Lacedaemonians them-
selves, company after company, with the Ar-
cadians of Heraea at their side. After these
were the Maenalians, and on the right wing
the Tegeans with a few of the Lacedaemoni-
ans at the extremity; their cavalry being posted
upon the two wings. Such was the Lacedaemo-
nian formation. That of their opponents was
as follows: On the right were the Mantineans,
the action taking place in their country; next
to them the allies from Arcadia; after whom
came the thousand picked men of the Argives,
to whom the state had given a long course of
military training at the public expense; next to
them the rest of the Argives, and after them
their allies, the Cleonaeans and Orneans, and
lastly the Athenians on the extreme left, and
their own cavalry with them.

[68] Such were the order and the forces of
the two combatants. The Lacedaemonian army
looked the largest; though as to putting down
the numbers of either host, or of the contin-
gents composing it, I could not do so with any
accuracy. Owing to the secrecy of their gov-

65-72]

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

501

ernment the number of the Lacedaemonians
was not known, and men are so apt to brag
about the forces of their country that the es-
timate of their opponents was not trusted. The
following calculation, however, makes it pos-
sible to estimate the numbers of the Lacedae-
monians present upon this occasion. There
were seven companies in the field without
counting the Sciritae, who numbered six hun-
dred men: in each company there were four
Pentecostyes, and in the Pentccosty four Eno-
moties. The first rank of the Enomoty was
composed of four soldiers: as to the depth, al-
though they had not been all drawn up alike,
but as each captain chose, they were generally
ranged eight deep; the first rank along the
whole line, exclusive of the Sciritae, consisted
of four hundred and forty-eight men.

[69] The armies being now on the eve of
engaging, each contingent received some
words of encouragement from its own com-
mander. The Mantineans were reminded that
they were going to fight for their country and
to avoid returning to the experience of servi-
tude after having tasted that of empire; the
Argives, that they would contend for their an-
cient supremacy, to regain their once equal
share of Peloponnese of which they had been
so long deprived, and to punish an enemy and
a neighbour for a thousand wrongs; the Athe-
nians, of the glory of gaining the honours of
the day with so many and brave allies in arms,
and that a victory over the Lacedaemonians in
Peloponnese would cement and extend their
empire, and would besides preserve Attica
from all invasions in future. These were the
incitements addressed to the Argives and their
allies. The Lacedaemonians meanwhile, man
to man, and with their war-songs in the ranks,
exhorted each brave comrade to remember
what he had learnt before; well aware that the
long training of action was of more saving vir-
tue than any brief verbal exhortation, though
never so well delivered.

[70] After this they joined battle, the Ar-
gives and their allies advancing with haste and
fury, the Lacedaemonians slowly and to the
music of many flute-players — a standing insti-
tution in their army, that has nothing to do
with religion, but is meant to make them ad-
vance evenly, stepping in time, without break-
ing their order, as large armies are apt to do
in the moment of engaging.

[ji] Just before the battle joined, King Agis
resolved upon the following manoeuvre. All ar-
mies are alike in this: on going into action they

get forced out rather on their right wing, and
one and the other overlap with this adversary's
left; because fear makes each man do his best
to shelter his unarmed side with the shield of
the man next him on the right, thinking that
the closer the shields are locked together the
better will he be protected. The man primarily
responsible for this is the first upon the right
wing, who is always striving to withdraw from
the enemy his unarmed side; and the same ap-
prehension makes the rest follow him. On the
present occasion the Mantineans reached with
their wing far beyond the Sciritae, and the
Lacedaemonians and Tegeans still farther be-
yond the Athenians, as their army was the larg-
est. Agis, afraid of his left being surrounded,
and thinking that the Mantineans outflanked it
too far, ordered the Sciritae and Brasideans to
move out from their place in the ranks and
make the line even with the Mantineans, and
told the Polemarchs Hipponoidas and Aris-
tocles to fill up the gap thus formed, by throw-
ing themselves into it with two companies tak-
en from the right wing; thinking that his right
would still be strong enough and to spare, and
that the line fronting the Mantineans would
gain in solidity.

^727 However, as he gave these orders in the
moment of the onset, and at short notice, it so
happened that Aristocles and Hipponoidas
would not move over, for which offence they
were afterwards banished from Sparta, as hav-
ing been guilty of cowardice; and the enemy
meanwhile closed before the Sciritae (whom
Agis on seeing that the two companies did not
move over ordered to return to their place)
had time to fill up the breach in question. Now
it was, however, that the Lacedaemonians, ut-
terly worsted in respect of skill, showed them-
selves as superior in point of courage. As soon
as they came to close quarters with the enemy,
the Mantinean right broke their Sciritae and
Brasideans, and, bursting in with their allies
and the thousand picked Argives into the un-
closed breach in their line, cut up and sur-
rounded the Lacedaemonians, and drove them
in full rout to the wagons, slaying some of the
older men on guard there. But the Lacedaemo-
nians, worsted in this part of the field, with
the rest of their army, and especially the centre,
where the three hundred knights, as they arc
called, fought round King Agis, fell on the
older men of the Argives and the five compan-
ies so named, and on the Cleonaeans, the Orne-
ans, and the Athenians next them, and instant-
ly routed them; the greater number not even

502

THUCYDIDES

waiting to strike a blow, but giving way the
moment that they came on, some even being
trodden under foot, in their fear of being over-
taken by their assailants.

[j$] The army of the Argives and their al-
lies, having given way in this quarter, was now
completely cut in two, and the Lacedaemonian
and Tegcan right simultaneously closing
round the Athenians with the troops that out-
flanked them, these last found themselves
placed between two fires, being surrounded on
one side and already defeated on the other. In-
deed they would have suffered more severely
than any other part of the army, but for the
services of the cavalry which they had with
them. Agis also on perceiving the distress of
his left opposed to the Mantineans and the
thousand Argives, ordered all the army to ad-
vance to the support of the defeated wing; and
while this took place, as the enemy moved past
and slanted away from them, the Athenians
escaped at their leisure, and with them the
beaten Argive division. Meanwhile the Man-
tineans and their allies and the picked body of
the Argives ceased to press the enemy, and see-
ing their friends defeated and the Lacedaemo-
nians in full advance upon them, took to flight.
Many of the Mantineans perished; but the
bulk of the picked body of the Argives made
good their escape. The flight and retreat, how-
ever, were neither hurried nor long; the Lace-
daemonians fighting long and stubbornly un-
til the rout of their enemy, but that once effect-
ed, pursuing for a short time and not far.

[74] Such was the battle, as nearly as possi-
ble as I have described it; the greatest that had
occurred for a very long while among the Hel-
lenes, and joined by the most considerable
states. The Lacedaemonians took up a position
in front of the enemy's dead, and immediately
set up a trophy and stripped the slain; they
took up their own dead and carried them back
to Tegea, where they buried them, and re-
stored those of the enemy under truce. The
Argives, Orneans, and Cleonaeans had seven
hundred killed; the Mantineans two hundred,
and the Athenians and Aeginetans also two
hundred, with both their generals. On the side
of the Lacedaemonians, the allies did not suf-
fer any loss worth speaking of: as to the Lace-
daemonians themselves it was difficult to learn
the truth; it is said, however, that there were
slain about three hundred of them.

[75] While the battle was impending, Pleis-
toanax, the other king, set out with a rein-
forcement composed of the oldest and young-

[BooK v

est men, and got as far as Tegea, where he
heard of the victory and went back again. The
Lacedaemonians also sent and turned back the
allies from Corinth and from beyond the Isth-
mus, and returning themselves dismissed their
allies, and kept the Carnean holidays, which
happened to be at that time. The imputations
cast upon them by the Hellenes at the time,
whether of cowardice on account of the disas-
ter in the island, or of mismanagement and
slowness generally, were all wiped out by this
single action: fortune, it was thought, might
have humbled them, but the men themselves
were the same as ever.

The day before this battle, the Epidaurians
with all their forces invaded the deserted Ar-
give territory, and cut off many of the guards
left there in the absence of the Argive army.
After the battle three thousand Elean heavy in-
fantry arriving to aid the Mantineans, and a
reinforcement of one thousand Athenians, all
these allies marched at once against Epidaurus,
while the Lacedaemonians were keeping the
Carnea, and dividing the work among them
began to build a wall round the city. The rest
left off; but the Athenians finished at once the
part assigned to them round Cape Heraeum;
and having all joined in leaving a garrison in
the fortification in question, they returned to
their respective cities.

Summer now came to an end. [j6] In the
first days of the next winter, when the Carnean
holidays were over, the Lacedaemonians took
the field, and arriving at Tegea sent on to Ar-
gos proposals of accommodation. They had
before had a party in the town desirous of over-
throwing the democracy; and after the battle
that had been fought, these were now far
more in a position to persuade the people to
listen to terms. Their plan was first to make a
treaty with the Lacedaemonians, to be fol-
lowed by an alliance, and after this to fall upon
the commons. Lichas, son of Arcesilaus, the
Argive proxenus, accordingly arrived at Argos
with two proposals from Lacedaemon, to regu-
late the conditions of war or peace, according
as they preferred the one or the other. After
much discussion, Alcibiades happening to be in
the town, the Lacedaemonian party, who now
ventured to act openly, persuaded the Argives
to accept the proposal for an accommodation;
which ran as follows:

[77] The assembly of the Lacedaemonians
agrees to treat with the Argives upon the terms
following:

i. The Argives shall restore to the Orcho-

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

503

menians their children, and to the Maenalians
their men, and shall restore the men they have
in Mantinea to the Lacedaemonians.

2. They shall evacuate Epidaurus, and raze
the fortification there. If the Athenians refuse
to withdraw from Epidaurus t they shall be de-
clared enemies of the Argives and of the Lace-
daemonians, and of the allies of the Lacedae-
monians and the allies of the Argives.

3. // the Lacedaemonians have any children
in their custody, they shall restore them every
one to his city.

4. As to the offering to the god, the Argives,
if they wish, shall impose an oath upon the
Epidaurians, but, if not, they shall swear it
themselves.

5. All the cities in Peloponnese, both small
and great, shall be independent according to
the customs of their country.

6. // any of the powers outside Peloponnese
invade Peloponnesian territory, the parties con-
tracting shall unite to repel them, on such
terms as they may agree upon, as being most
fair for the Peloponnesians.

7. All allies of the Lacedaemonians outside
Peloponnese shall be on the same footing as the
Lacedaemonians, and the allies of the Argives
shall be on the same footing as the Argives, be-
ing left in enjoyment of their own possessions.

8. This treaty shall be shown to the allies,
and shall be concluded, if they approve; if the
allies thinJ{ fit, they may send the treaty to be
considered at home.

[j8] The Argives began by accepting this
proposal, and the Lacedaemonian army re-
turned home from Tegea. After this inter-
course was renewed between them, and not
long afterwards the same party contrived that
the Argives should give up the league with the
Mantineans, Eleans, and Athenians, and
should make a treaty and alliance with the
Lacedaemonians; which was consequently
done upon the terms following:
[79] The Lacedaemonians and Argives agree
to a treaty and alliance for fifty years upon the
terms following:

1. All disputes shall be decided by fair and
impartial arbitration, agreeably to the customs
of the two countries.

2. The rest of the cities in Peloponnese may
be included in this treaty and alliance, as in-
dependent and sovereign, in full enjoyment of
what they possess; all disputes being decided
by fair and impartial arbitration, agreeably to
the customs of the said cities.

3. All allies of the Lacedaemonians outside

Peloponnese shall be upon the same footing as
the Lacedaemonians themselves, and the allies
of the Argives shall be upon the same footing
as the Argives themselves, continuing to en-
joy what they possess.

4. // // shall be anywhere necessary to ma\e
an expedition in common, the Lacedaemoni-
ans and Argives shall consult upon it and de-
cide, as may be most fair for the allies.

5. // any of the cities, whether inside or out-
side Peloponnese, have a question whether of
frontiers or otherwise, it must be settled; but
if one allied city should have a quarrel with an-
other allied city, it must be referred to some
third city thought impartial by both parties.
Private citizens shall have their disputes de-
cided according to the laws of their several
countries.

[80] The treaty and above alliance conclud-
ed, each party at once released everything
whether acquired by war or otherwise, and
thenceforth acting in common voted to receive
neither herald nor embassy from the Atheni-
ans unless they evacuated their forts and with-
drew from Peloponnese, and also to make
neither peace nor war with any, except jointly.
Zeal was not wanting; both parties sent envoys
to the Thracian places and to Perdiccas, and
persuaded the latter to join their league. Still
he did not at once break off from Athens, al-
though minded to do so upon seeing the way
shown him by Argos, the original home of his
family. They also renewed their old oaths with
the Chalcidians and took new ones: the Ar-
gives, besides, sent ambassadors to the Athe-
nians, bidding them evacuate the fort at Epi-
daurus. The Athenians, seeing their own men
outnumbered by the rest of the garrison, sent
Demosthenes to bring them out. This general,
under colour of a gymnastic contest which he
arranged on his arrival, got the rest of the gar-
rison out of the place, and shut the gates be-
hind them. Afterwards the Athenians renewed
their treaty with the Epidaurians, and by
themselves gave up the fortress.

[81] After the defection of Argos from the
league, the Mantineans, though they held out
at first, in the end finding themselves power-
less without the Argives, themselves too came
to terms with Lacedaemon, and gave up their
sovereignty over the towns. The Lacedaemoni-
ans and Argives, each a thousand strong, now
took the field together, and the former first
went by themselves to Sicyon and made the
government there more oligarchical than be-
fore, and then both, uniting, put down the de-

504

THUCYDIDES

[BooK v

mocracy at Argos and set up an oligarchy fa-
vourable to Laccdaemon. These events oc-
curred at the close of the winter, just before
spring; and the fourteenth year of the war end-
ed. [82] The next summer the people of Dium,
in Athos, revolted from the Athenians to the
Chalcidians, and the Lacedaemonians settled
affairs in Achaea in a way more agreeable to
the interests of their country. Meanwhile the
popular party at Argos little by little gathered
new consistency and courage, and waited for
the moment of the Gymnopaedic festival at
Lacedacmon, and then fell upon the oligarchs.
After a fight in the city, victory declared for
the commons, who slew some of their oppo-
nents and banished others. The Lacedaemo-
nians for a long while let the messages of
their friends at Argos remain without effect.
At last they put off the Gymnopaediae and
marched to their succour, but learning at Te-
gea the defeat of the oligarchs, refused to go
any further in spite of the entreaties of those
who had escaped, and returned home and kept
the festival. Later on, envoys arrived with mes-
sages from the Argives in the town and from
the exiles, when the allies were also at Sparta;
and after much had been said on both sides,
the Lacedaemonians decided that the party in
the town had done wrong, and resolved to
march against Argos, but kept delaying and
putting off the matter. Meanwhile the com-
mons at Argos, in fear of the Lacedaemonians,
began again to court the Athenian alliance,
which they were convinced would be of the
greatest service to them; and accordingly pro-
ceeded to build long walls to the sea, in order
that in case of a blockade by land; with the
help of the Athenians they might have the ad-
vantage of importing what they wanted by sea.
Some of the cities in Peloponnese were also
privy to the building of these walls; and the
Argives with all their people, women and
slaves not cxceptcd, addressed themselves to
the work, while carpenters and masons came
to them from Athens.

Summer was now over. [83] The winter fol-
lowing the Lacedaemonians, hearing of the
walls that were building, marched against Ar-
gos with their allies, the Corinthians exceptcd,
being also not without intelligence in the city
itself; Agis, son of Archidamus, their king,
was in command. The intelligence which they
counted upon within the town came to noth-
ing; they however took and razed the walls
which were being built, and after capturing
the Argive town Hysiae and killing all the

freemen that fell into their hands, went back
and dispersed every man to his city. After this
the Argives marched into Phlius and plun-
dered it for harbouring their exiles, most of
whom had settled there, and so returned home.
The same winter the Athenians blockaded
Macedonia, on the score of the league entered
into by Perdiccas with the Argives and Lace-
daemonians, and also of his breach of his en-
gagements on the occasion of the expedition
prepared by Athens against the Chalcidians in
the direction of Thrace and against Amphipo-
lis, under the command of Nicias, son of Ni-
ceratus, which had to be broken up mainly be-
cause of his desertion. He was therefore pro-
claimed an enemy. And thus the winter ended,
and the fifteenth year of the war ended with it.

CHAPTER XVII

Sixteenth Year of the War — The Melian Confer-
ence— Fate of Melos

[84] THE next summer Alcibiades sailed with
twenty ships to Argos and seized the suspected
persons still left of the Lacedaemonian faction
to the number of three hundred, whom the
Athenians forthwith lodged in the neighbour-
ing islands of their empire. The Athenians also
made an expedition against the isle of Melos
with thirty ships of their own, six Chian, and
two Lesbian vessels, sixteen hundred heavy in-
fantry, three hundred archers, and twenty
mounted archers from Athens, and about fif-
teen hundred heavy infantry from the allies
and the islanders. The Melians are a colony of
Lacedaemon that would not submit to the
Athenians like the other islanders, and at first
remained neutral and took no part in the
struggle, but afterwards upon the Athenians
using violence and plundering their territory,
assumed an attitude of open hostility. Cleo-
medes, son of Lycomedes, and Tisias, son of
Tisimachus, the generals, encamping in their
territory with the above armament, before do-
ing any harm to their land, sent envoys to ne-
gotiate. These the Melians did not bring be-
fore the people, but bade them state the object
of their mission to the magistrates and the few;
upon which the Athenian envoys spoke as fol-
lows:

[85] Athenians. Since the negotiations are
not to go on before the people, in order that we
may not be able to speak straight on without
interruption, and deceive the ears of the mul-
titude by seductive arguments which would
pass without refutation (for we know that this

82-98]

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

505

is the meaning of our being brought before
the few), what if you who sit there were to
pursue a method more cautious still? Make no
set speech yourselves, but take us up at what-
ever you do not like, and settle that before go-
ing any farther. And first tell us if this propo-
sition of ours suits you.

[86] The Melian commissioners answered:

Melians. To the fairness of quietly instruct-
ing each other as you propose there is nothing
to object; but your military preparations are
too far advanced to agree with what you say,
as we see you are come to be judges in your
own cause, and that all we can reasonably ex-
pect from this negotiation is war, if we prove
to have right on our side and refuse to submit,
and in the contrary case, slavery.

[8j] Athenians. If you have met to reason
about presentiments of the future, or for any-
thing else than to consult for the safety of your
state upon the facts that you see before you, we
will give over; otherwise we will go on.

[ 88] Melians. It is natural and excusable for
men in our position to turn more ways than
one both in thought and utterance. However,
the question in this conference is, as you say,
the safety of our country; and the discussion,
if you please, can proceed in the way which
you propose.

[89] Athenians. For ourselves, we shall not
trouble you with specious pretences — either of
how we have a right to our empire because we
overthrew the Mede, or are now attacking you
because of wrong that you have done us — and
make a long speech which would not be be-
lieved; and in return we hope that you, instead
of thinking to influence us by saying that you
did not join the Lacedaemonians, although
their colonists, or that you have done us no
wrong, will aim at what is feasible, holding in
view the real sentiments of us both; since you
know as well as we do that right, as the world
goes, is only in question between equals in
power, while the strong do what they can and
the weak suffer what they must.

[90] Melians. As we think, at any rate, it
is expedient — we speak as we are obliged, since
you enjoin us to let right alone and talk only
of interest — that you should not destroy what
is our common protection, the privilege of
being allowed in danger to invoke what is
fair and right, and even to profit by argu-
ments not strictly valid if they can be got to
pass current. And you are as much interested
in this as any, as your fall would be a signal
for the heaviest vengeance and an example

for the world to meditate upon.

[91] Athenians. The end of our empire, if
end it should, does not frighten us: a rival em-
pire like Lacedaemon, even if Lacedaemon
was our real antagonist, is not so terrible to the
vanquished as subjects who by themselves at-
tack and overpower their rulers. This, how-
ever, is a risk that we are content to take. We
will now proceed to show you that we are
come here in the interest of our empire, and
that we shall say what we are now going to say,
for the preservation of your country; as we
would fain exercise that empire over you with-
out trouble, and see you preserved for the good
of us both.

[92] Melians. And how, pray, could it turn
out as good for us to serve as for you to rule?

[93] Athenians. Because you would have
the advantage of submitting before suffering
the worst, and we should gain by not destroy-
ing you.

/9^7 Melians. So that you would not consent
to our being neutral, friends instead of ene-
mies, but allies of neither side.

[95] Athenians. No; for your hostility can-
not so much hurt us as your friendship will be
an argument to our subjects of our weakness,
and your enmity of our power.

[96] Melians. Is that your subjects' idea of
equity, to put those who have nothing to do
with you in the same category with peoples
that are most of them your own colonists, and
some conquered rebels?

[97] Athenians. As far as right goes they
think one has as much of it as the other, and
that if any maintain their independence it is
because they are strong, and that if we do not
molest them it is because we are afraid; so that
besides extending our empire we should gain
in security by your subjection; the fact that you
are islanders and weaker than others rendering
it all the more important that you should not
succeed in baffling the masters of the sea.

[98] Melians. But do you consider that there
is no security in the policy which we indicate?
For here again if you debar us from talking
about justice and invite us to obey your inter-
est, we also must explain ours, and try to per-
suade you, if the two happen to coincide. How
can you avoid making enemies of all existing
neutrals who shall look at our case and con-
clude from it that one day or another you will
attack them? And what is this but to make
greater the enemies that you have already, and
to force others to become so who would other-
wise have never thought of it?

506

THUCYDIDES

[ BOOK v

[99] Athenians. Why, the fact is that con-
tinentals generally give us but little alarm; the
liberty which they enjoy will long prevent
their taking precautions against us; it is rather
islanders like yourselves, outside our empire,
and subjects smarting under the yoke, who
would be the most likely to take a rash step and
lead themselves and us into obvious danger.

[100] Melians. Well then, if you risk so
much to retain your empire, and your subjects
to get rid of it, it were surely great baseness and
cowardice in us who are stnl free not to try
everything that can be tried, before submitting
to your yoke.

/ loi J Athenians. Not if you are well ad-
vised, the contest not being an equal one, with
honour as the prize and shame as the penalty,
but a question of self-preservation and of not re-
sisting those who are far stronger than you are.

[102] Melians. But we know that the for-
tune of war is sometimes more impartial than
the disproportion of numbers might lead one
to suppose; to submit is to give ourselves over
to despair, while action still preserves for us a
hope that we may stand erect.

/ /oj7 Athenians. Hope, danger's comforter,
may be indulged in by those who have abun-
dant resources, if not without loss at all events
without ruin; but its nature is to be extrava-
gant, and those who go so far as to put their
all upon the venture see it in its true colours
only when they are ruined; but so long as the
discovery would enable them to guard against
it, it is never found wanting. Let not this be
the case with you, who are weak and hang on a
single turn of the scale; nor be like the vulgar,
who, abandoning such security as human
means may still afford, when visible hopes fail
them in extremity, turn to invisible, to prophe-
cies and oracles, and other such inventions
that delude men with hopes to their destruc-
tion.

[104] Melians. You may be sure that we are
as well aware as you of the difficulty of con-
tending against your power and fortune, un-
less the terms be equal. But we trust that the
gods may grant us fortune as good as yours,
since we are just men fighting against unjust,
and that what we want in power will be made
up by the alliance of the Lacedaemonians, who
arc bound, if only for very shame, to come to
the aid of their kindred. Our confidence, there-
fore, after all is not so utterly irrational.

[105] Athenians. When you speak of the
favour of the gods, we may as fairly hope for
that as yourselves; neither our pretensions nor

our conduct being in any way contrary to what
men believe of the gods, or practise among
themselves. Of the gods we believe, and of men
we know, that by a necessary law of their na-
ture they rule wherever they can. And it is not
as if we were the first to make this law, or to
act upon it when made: we found it existing
before us, and shall leave it to exist for ever
after us; all we do is to make use of it, know-
ing that you and everybody else, having the
same power as we have, would do the same as
we do. Thus, as far as the gods are concerned,
we have no fear and no reason to fear that we
shall be at a disadvantage. But when we come
to your notion about the Lacedaemonians,
which leads you to believe that shame will
make them help you, here we bless your sim-
plicity but do not envy your folly. The Lace-
daemonians, when their own interests or their
country's laws are in question, are the worthi-
est men alive; of their conduct towards others
much might be said, but no clearer idea of it
could be given than by shortly saying that of
all the men we know they are most conspicu-
ous in considering what is agreeable honour-
able, and what is expedient just. Such a way
of thinking does not promise much for the
safety which you now unreasonably count
upon.

[106] Melians. But it is for this very reason
that we now trust to their respect for expedi-
ency to prevent them from betraying the Meli-
ans, their colonists, and thereby losing the con-
fidence of their friends in Hellas and helping
their enemies.

[loj] Athenians. Then you do not adopt the
view that expediency goes with security, while
justice and honour cannot be followed without
danger; and danger the Lacedaemonians gen-
erally court as little as possible.

[108] Melians. But we believe that they
would be more likely to face even danger for
our sake, and with more confidence than for
others, as our nearness to Peloponnese makes
it easier for them to act, and our common blood
ensures our fidelity.

[109] Athenians. Yes, but what an intend-
ing ally trusts to is not the goodwill of those
who ask his aid, but a decided superiority of
power for action; and the Lacedaemonians
look to this even more than others. At least,
such is their distrust of their home resources
that it is only with numerous allies that they
attack a neighbour; now is it likely that while
we are masters of the sea they will cross over
to an island?

99-115]

[ no] Melians. But they Would have others
to send. The Cretan Sea is a wide one, and it
is more difficult for those who command it to
intercept others, than for those who wish to
elude them to do so safely. And should the
Lacedaemonians miscarry in this, they would
fall upon your land, and upon those left of
your allies whom Brasidas did not reach; and
instead of places which are not yours, you will
have to fight for your own country and your
own confederacy.

[in] Athenians. Some diversion of the
kind you speak of you may one day experience,
only to learn, as others have done, that the
Athenians never once yet withdrew from a
siege for fear of any. But we are struck by the
fact that, after saying you would consult for
the safety of your country, in all this discussion
you have mentioned nothing which men might
trust in and think to be saved by. Your strong-
est arguments depend upon hope and the fu-
ture, and your actual resources are too scanty,
as compared with those arrayed against you,
for you to come out victorious. You will there-
fore show great blindness of judgment, unless,
after allowing us to retire, you can find some
counsel more prudent than this. You will sure-
ly not be caught by that idea of disgrace, which
in dangers that are disgraceful, and at the same
time too plain to be mistaken, proves so fatal to
mankind; since in too many cases the very
men that have their eyes perfectly open to what
they are rushing into, let the thing called dis-
grace, by the mere influence of a seductive
name, lead them on to a point at which they
become so enslaved by the phrase as in fact to
fall wilfully into hopeless disaster, and incur
disgrace more disgraceful as the companion of
error, than when it comes as the result of mis-
fortune. This, if you are well advised, you will
guard against; and you will not think it dis-
honourable to submit to the greatest city in
Hellas, when it makes you the moderate offer
of becoming its tributary ally, without ceasing
to enjoy the country that belongs to you; nor
when you have the choice given you between
war and security, will you be so blinded as to
choose the worse. And it is certain that those
who do not yield to their equals, who keep
terms with their superiors, and are moderate
towards their inferiors, on the whole succeed
best. Think over the matter, therefore, after
our withdrawal, and reflect once and again
that it is for your country that you are consult-
ing, that you have not more than one, and that
upon this one deliberation depends its prosper-

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

507

ity or ruin.

[112] The Athenians now withdrew from
the conference; and the Melians, left to them-
selves, came to a decision corresponding with
what they had maintained in the discussion,
and answered: "Our resolution, Athenians, is
the same as it was at first. We will not in a
moment deprive of freedom a city that has
been inhabited these seven hundred years; but
we put our trust in the fortune by which the
gods have preserved it until now, and in the
help of men, that is, of the Lacedaemonians;
and so we will try and save ourselves. Mean-
while we invite you to allow us to be friends
to you and foes to neither party, and to retire
from our country after making such a treaty
as shall seem fit to us both."

[113] Such was the answer of the Melians.
The Athenians now departing from the con-
ference said: "Well, you alone, as it seems to
us, judging from these resolutions, regard
what is future as more certain than what is be-
fore your eyes, and what is out of sight, in your
eagerness, as already coming to pass; and as
you have staked most on, and trusted most in,
the Lacedaemonians, your fortune, and your
hopes, so will you be most completely de-
ceived."

[114] The Athenian envoys now returned to
the army; and the Melians showing no signs
of yielding, the generals at once betook them-
selves to hostilities, and drew a line of circum-
vallation round the Melians, dividing the work
among the different states. Subsequently the
Athenians returned with most of their army,
leaving behind them a certain number of their
own citizens and of the allies to keep guard
by land and sea. The force thus left stayed on
and besieged the place.

[ 115] About the same time the Argives in-
vaded the territory of Phhus and lost eighty
men cut off in an ambush by the Phliasians
and Argive exiles. Meanwhile the Athenians
at Pylos took so much plunder from the Lace-
daemonians that the latter, although they still
refrained from breaking off the treaty and go-
ing to war with Athens, yet proclaimed that
any of their people that chose might plunder
the Athenians. The Corinthians also com-
menced hostilities with the Athenians for pri-
vate quarrels of their own; but the rest of the
Peloponnesians stayed quiet. Meanwhile the
Melians attacked by night and took the part of
the Athenian lines over against the market,
and killed some of the men, and brought in
corn and all else that they could find useful to

508

THUCYDIDES

them, and so returned and kept quiet, while
the Athenians took measures to keep better
guard in future.

Summer was now over. [116] The next win-
ter the Lacedaemonians intended to invade the
Argive territory, but arriving at the frontier
found the sacrifices for crossing unfavourable,
and went back again. This intention of theirs
gave the Argives suspicions of certain of their
fellow citizens, some of whom they arrested;
others, however, escaped them. About the same
time the Melians again took another part of

the Athenian lirites which were but feebly gar-
risoned. Reinforcements afterwards arriving
from Athens in consequence, under the com-
mand of Philocrates, son of Demeas, the
siege was now pressed vigorously; and some
treachery taking place inside, the Melians
surrendered at discretion to the Athenians,
who put to death all the grown men whom
they took, and sold the women and children
for slaves, and subsequently sent out five
hundred colonists and inhabited the place
themselves.

The Sixth Book

CHAPTER XVIII

Seventeenth year of the War — The Sicilian Cam-
paign— Affair of the Hermae — Departure of the
Expedition

[i] THE same winter the Athenians resolved
to sail again to Sicily, with a greater arma-
ment than that under Laches and Eurymedon,
and, if possible, to conquer the island; most of
them being ignorant of its size and of the num-
ber of its inhabitants, Hellenic and barbarian,
and of the fact that they were undertaking a
war not much inferior to that against the Pelo-
ponnesians. For the voyage round Sicily in a
merchantman is not far short of eight days;
and yet, large as the island is, there are only
two miles of sea to prevent its being main-
land.

[2] It was settled originally as follows, and
the peoples that occupied it are these. The earli-
est inhabitants spoken of in any part of the
country are the Cyclopes and Laestrygones;
but I cannot tell of what race they were, or
whence they came or whither they went, and
must leave my readers to what the poets have
said of them and to what may be generally
known concerning them. The Sicanians ap-
pear to have been the next settlers, although
they pretend to have been the first of all and
aborigines; but the facts show that they were
Iberians, driven by the Ligurians from the riv-
er Sicanus in Iberia. It was from them that the
island, before called Trinacria, took its name
of Sicania, and to the present day they inhabit
the west of Sicily. On the fall of Ilium, some
of the Trojans escaped from the Achaeans,
came in ships to Sicily, and settled next to the
Sicanians under the general name of Ely mi;
their towns being called Eryx and Egesta.
With them settled some of the Phocians car-
ried on their way from Troy by a storm, first
to Libya, and afterwards from thence to Sicily.

The Sicels crossed over to Sicily from their first
home Italy, flying from the Opicans, as tradi-
tion says and as seems not unlikely, upon rafts,
having watched till the wind set down the
strait to effect the passage; although perhaps
they may have sailed over in some other way.
Even at the present day there are still Sicels in
Italy; and the country got its name of Italy
from Italus, a king of the Sicels, so called. These
went with a great host to Sicily, defeated the
Sicanians in battle and forced them to remove
to the south and west of the island, which thus
came to be called Sicily instead of Sicania, and
after they crossed over continued to enjoy the
richest parts of the country for near three hun-
dred years before any Hellenes came to Sicily;
indeed they still hold the centre and north of
the island. There were also Phoenicians living
all round Sicily, who had occupied promontories
upon the sea coasts and the islets adjacent for
the purpose of trading with the Sicels. But
when the Hellenes began to arrive in consider-
able numbers by sea, the Phoenicians aban-
doned most of their stations, and drawing to-
gether took up their abode in Motye, Soloeis,
and Panormus, near the Elymi, partly because
they confided in their alliance, and also because
these are the nearest points for the voyage be-
tween Carthage and Sicily.

These were the barbarians in Sicily, settled
as I have said. [3] Of the Hellenes, the first to
arrive were Chalcidians from Euboea with
Thucles, their founder. They founded Naxos
and built the altar to Apollo Archegctes, which
now stands outside the town, and upon which
the deputies for the games sacrifice before sail-
ing from Sicily. Syracuse was founded the
year afterwards by Archias, one of the Hera-
clids from Corinth, who began by driving out
the Sicels from the island upon which the in-
ner city now stands, though it is no longer sur-
rounded by water: in process of time the outer

509

510

THUCYDIDES

town also was taken within the walls and be-
came populous. Meanwhile Thucles and the
Chalcidians set out from Naxos in the fifth
year after the foundation of Syracuse, and
drove out the Sicels by arms and founded Le-
ontini and afterwards Catana; the Catanians
themselves choosing Evarchus as their founder.
[4] About the same time Lamis arrived in
Sicily with a colony from Megara, and after
founding a place called Trotilus beyond the
river Pantacyas, and afterwards leaving it and
for a short while joining the Chalcidians at
Leontini, was driven out by them and founded
Thapsus. After his death his companions were
driven out of Thapsus, and founded a place
called the Hyblaean Megara; Hyblon, a Sicel
king, having given up the place and inviting
them thither. Here they lived two hundred
and forty-five years; after which they were ex-
pelled from the city and the country by the
Syracusan tyrant Gelo. Before their expulsion,
however, a hundred years after they had set-
tled there, they sent out Pamillus and founded
Selinus; he having come from their mother
country Megara to join them in its foundation.
Gela was founded by Antiphemus from
Rhodes and Entimus from Crete, who joined
in leading a colony thither, in the forty-fifth
year after the foundation of Syracuse. The
town took its name from the river Gelas, the
place where the citadel now stands, and which
was first fortified, being called Lindii. The in-
stitutions which they adopted were Dorian.
Near one hundred and eight years after the
foundation of Gela, the Geloans founded Ac-
ragas (Agrigentum), so called from the river
of that name, and made Aristonous and Pys-
tilus their founders; giving their own institu-
tions to the colony. Zancle was originally
founded by pirates from Cuma, the Chalcidian
town in the country of the Opicans: after-
wards, however, large numbers came from
Chalcis and the rest of Euboea, and helped to
people the place; the founders being Perieres
and Crataemenes from Cuma and Chalcis re-
spectively. It first had the name of Zancle giv-
en it by the Sicels, because the place is shaped
like a sickle, which the Sicels call zanclon; but
upon the original settlers being afterwards ex-
pelled by some Samians and other lonians who
landed in Sicily flying from the Medes, and
the Samians in their turn not long afterwards
by Anaxilas, tyrant of Rhegium, the town was
by him colonized with a mixed population,
and its name changed to Messina, after his old
country.

[BooK vi

[5] Himera was founded from Zancle by
Euclides, Simus, and Sacon, most of those who
went to the colony being Chalcidians; though
they were joined by some exiles from Syracuse,
defeated in a civil war, called the Myletidae.
The language was a mixture of Chalcidian and
Doric, but the institutions which prevailed
were the Chalcidian. Acrae and Casmenae
were founded by the Syracusans; Acrae sev-
enty years after Syracuse, Casmenae nearly
twenty after Acrae. Camanna was first found-
ed by the Syracusans, close upon a hundred
and thirty-five years after the building of Syra-
cuse; its founders being Daxon and Menecolus.
But the Camarinaeans being expelled by arms
by the Syracusans for having revolted, Hippo-
crates, tyrant of Gela, some time later receiv-
ing their land in ransom for some Syracusan
prisoners, resettled Camarina, himself acting
as its founder. Lastly, it was again depopu-
lated by Gelo, and settled once more for the
third time by the Geloans.

[6] Such is the list of the peoples, Hellenic
and barbarian, inhabiting Sicily, and such the
magnitude of the island which the Athenians
were now bent upon invading; being ambi-
tious in real truth of conquering the whole, al-
though they had also the specious design of
succouring their kindred and other allies in
the island. But they were especially incited by
envoys from Egesta, who had come to Athens
and invoked their aid more urgently than ever.
The Egestaeans had gone to war with their
neighbours the Selinuntines upon questions of
marriage and disputed territory, and the Seli-
nuntines had procured the alliance of the Syra-
cusans, and pressed Egesta hard by land and
sea. The Egestaeans now reminded the Athe-
nians of the alliance made in the time of
Laches, during the former Leontine war, and
begged them to send a fleet to their aid, and
among a number of other considerations urged
as a capital argument that if the Syracusans
were allowed to go unpunished for their de-
population of Leontini, to ruin the allies still
left to Athens in Sicily, and to get the whole
power of the island into their hands, there
would be a danger of their one day coming
with a large force, as Dorians, to the aid of
their Dorian brethren, and as colonists, to the
aid of the Peloponnesians who had sent them
out, and joining these in pulling down the
Athenian empire. The Athenians would, there-
fore, do well to unite with the allies still left to
them, and to make a stand against the Syracu-
sans; especially as they, the Egestaeans, were

4-io]

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

511

prepared to furnish money sufficient for the
war. The Athenians, hearing these arguments
constantly repeated in their assemblies by the
Egestaeans and their supporters, voted first to
send envoys to Egesta, to see if there was really
the money that they talked of in the treasury
and temples, and at the same time to ascertain
in what posture was the war with the Selinun-
tines.

[y] The envoys of the Athenians were ac-
cordingly dispatched to Sicily. The same win-
ter the Lacedaemonians and their allies, the
Corinthians excepted, marched into the Argive
territory, and ravaged a small part of the land,
and took some yokes of oxen and carried off
some corn. They also settled the Argive exiles
at Orneae, and left them a few soldiers taken
from the rest of the army; and after making a
truce for a certain while, according to which
neither Orneatae nor Argives were to injure
each other's territory, returned home with the
army. Not long afterwards the Athenians came
with thirty ships and six hundred heavy infan-
try, and the Argives joining them with all their
forces, marched out and besieged the men in
Orneae for one day; but the garrison escaped
by night, the besiegers having bivouacked
some way off. The next day the Argives, dis-
covering it, razed Orneae to the ground, and
went back again; after which the Athenians
went home in their ships. Meanwhile the Athe-
nians took by sea to Methone on the Macedo-
nian border some cavalry of their own and the
Macedonian exiles that were at Athens, and
plundered the country of Perdiccas. Upon this
the Lacedaemonians sent to the Thracian Chal-
cidians, who had a truce with Athens from one
ten days to another, urging them to join Per-
diccas in the war, which they refused to do.
And the winter ended, and with it ended the
sixteenth year of this war of which Thucydides
is the historian.

[8] Early in the spring of the following
summer the Athenian envoys arrived from
Sicily, and the Egestaeans with them, bringing
sixty talents of uncoined silver, as a month's
pay for sixty ships, which they were to ask to
have sent them. The Athenians held an assem-
bly and, after hearing from the Egestaeans and
their own envoys a report, as attractive as it
was untrue, upon the state of affairs generally,
and in particular as to the money, of which, it
was said, there was abundance in the temples
and the treasury, voted to send sixty ships to
Sicily, under the command of Alcibiades, son
of Clinias, Nicias, son of Niceratus, and Lama-

chus, son of Xenophanes, who were appointed
with full powers; they were to help the Eges-
taeans against the Selinuntines, to restore
Leontini upon gaining any advantage in the
war, and to order all other matters in Sicily as
they should deem best for the interests of Ath-
ens. Five days after this a second assembly was
held, to consider the speediest means of equip-
ping the ships, and to vote whatever else might
be required by the generals for the expedition;
and Nicias, who had been chosen to the com-
mand against his will, and who thought that
the state was not well advised, but upon a
slight and specious pretext was aspiring to the
conquest of the whole of Sicily, a great matter
to achieve, came forward in the hope of divert-
ing the Athenians from the enterprise, and
gave them the following counsel:

[9] "Although this assembly was convened
to consider the preparations to be made for
sailing to Sicily, I think, notwithstanding, that
we have still this question to examine, whether
it be better to send out the ships at all, and that
we ought not to give so little consideration to
a matter of such moment, or let ourselves be
persuaded by foreigners into undertaking a
war with which we have nothing to do. And
yet, individually, I gain in honour by such a
course, and fear as little as other men for my
person — not that I think a man need be any
the worse citizen for taking some thought for
his person and estate; on the contrary, such a
man would for his own sake desire the pros-
perity of his country more than others — never-
theless, as I have never spoken against my con-
victions to gain honour, I shall not begin to do
so now, but shall say what I think best. Against
your character any words of mine would be
weak enough, if I were to advise your keeping
what you have got and not risking what is
actually yours for advantages which are dubi-
ous in themselves, and which you may or may
not attain. I will, therefore, content myself
with showing that your ardour is out of sea-
son, and your ambition not easy of accomplish-
ment.

[w] "I affirm, then, that you leave many en-
emies behind you here to go yonder and bring
more back with you. You imagine, perhaps,
that the treaty which you have made can be
trusted; a treaty that will continue to exist
nominally, as long as you keep quiet — for
nominal it has become, owing to the practices
of certain men here and at Sparta — but which
in the event of a serious reverse in any quarter
would not delay our enemies a moment in at-

512

THUCYDIDES

tacking us; first, because the convention was
forced upon them by disaster and was less hon-
ourable to them than to us; and secondly, be-
cause in this very convention there are many
points that are still disputed. Again, some of
the most powerful states have never yet ac-
cepted the arrangement at all. Some of these
are at open war with us; others (as the Lace-
daemonians do not yet move) are restrained by
truces renewed every ten days, and it is only
too probable that if they found our power di-
vided, as we are hurrying to divide it, they
would attack us vigorously with the Siceliots,
whose alliance they would have in the past
valued as they would that of few others. A
man ought, therefore, to consider these points,
and not to think of running risks with a coun-
try placed so critically, or of grasping at an-
other empire before we have secured the one
we have already; for in fact the Thracian Chal-
cidians have been all these years in revolt from
us without being yet subdued, and others on
the continents yield us but a doubtful obedi-
ence. Meanwhile the Egestaeans, our allies,
have been wronged, and we run to help them,
while the rebels who have so long wronged us
still wait for punishment.

[u] "And yet the latter, if brought under,
might be kept under; while the Sicilians, even
if conquered, are too far off and too numerous
to be ruled without difficulty. Now it is folly
to go against men who could not be kept under
even if conquered, while failure would leave
us in a very different position from that which
we occupied before the enterprise. The Siceli-
ots, again, to take them as they are at present,
in the event of a Syracusan conquest (the fa-
vourite bugbear of the Egestaeans, would to
my thinking be even less dangerous to us than
before. At present they might possibly come
here as separate states for love of Lacedaemon;
in the other case one empire would scarcely at-
tack another; for after joining the Pelopon-
ncsians to overthrow ours, they could only ex-
pect to see the same hands overthrow their own
in the same way. The Hellenes in Sicily would
fear us most if we never went there at all, and
next to this, if after displaying our power we
went away again as soon as possible. We all
know that that which is farthest off, and the
reputation of which can least be tested, is the
object of admiration; at the least reverse they
would at once begin to look down upon us, and
would join our enemies here against us. You
have yourselves experienced this with regard
to the Lacedaemonians and their allies, whom

[BobK vi

your unexpected success, as compared with
what you feared at first, has made you sud-
denly despise, tempting you further to aspire
to the conquest of Sicily. Instead, however, of
being puffed up by the misfortunes of your ad-
versaries, you ought to think of breaking their
spirit before giving yourselves up to confidence,
and to understand that the one thought awak-
ened in the Lacedaemonians by their disgrace
is how they may even now, if possible, over-
throw us and repair their dishonour; inasmuch
as military reputation is their oldest and chief-
est study. Our struggle, therefore, if we are
wise, will not be for the barbarian Egestaeans
in Sicily, but how to defend ourselves most ef-
fectually against the oligarchical machinations
of Lacedaemon.

[12] "We should also remember that we are
but now enjoying some respite from a great
pestilence and from war, to the no small bene-
fit of our estates and persons, and that it is
right to employ these at home on our own be-
half, instead of using them on behalf of these
exiles whose interest it is to lie as fairly as they
can, who do nothing but talk themselves and
leave the danger to others, and who if they suc-
ceed will show no proper gratitude, and if they
fail will drag down their friends with them.
And if there be any man here, overjoyed at be-
ing chosen to command, who urges you to
make the expedition, merely for ends of his
own — especially if he be still too young to com-
mand— who seeks to be admired for his stud
of horses, but on account of its heavy expenses
hopes for some profit from his appointment, do
not allow such a one to maintain his private
splendour at his country's risk, but remember
that such persons injure the public fortune
while they squander their own, and that this is
a matter of importance, and not for a young
man to decide or hastily to take in hand.

[13] "When I see such persons now sitting
here at the side of that same individual and
summoned by him, alarm seizes me; and I, in
my turn, summon any of the older men that
may have such a person sitting next him not to
let himself be shamed down, for fear of being
thought a coward if he do not vote for war,
but, remembering how rarely success is got by
wishing and how often by forecast, to leave to
them the mad dream of conquest, and as a true
lover of his country, now threatened by the
greatest danger in its history, to hold up his
hand on the other side; to vote that the Siceli-
ots be left in the limits now existing between
us, limits of which no one can complain (the

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

513

Ionian sea for the coasting voyage, and the Si-
cilian across the open main), to enjoy their
own possessions and to settle their own quar-
rels; that the Egestaeans, for their part, be told
to end by themselves with the Selinuntines the
war which they began without consulting the
Athenians; and that for the future we do not
enter into alliance, as we have been used to do,
with people whom we must help in their need,
and who can never help us in ours.

[14] "And you, Prytanis, if you think it
your duty to care for the commonwealth, and
if you wish to show yourself a good citizen, put
the question to the vote, and take a second
time the opinions of the Athenians. If you are
afraid to move the question again, consider
that a violation of the law cannot carry any
prejudice with so many abettors, that you will
be the physician of your misguided city, and
that the virtue of men in office is briefly this,
to do their country as much good as they can,
or in any case no harm that they can avoid."

[15] Such were the words of Nicias. Most of
the Athenians that came forward spoke in fa-
vour of the expedition, and of not annulling
what had been voted, although some spoke on
the other side. By far the warmest advocate of
the expedition was, however, Alcibiades, son
of Clinias, who wished to thwart Nicias both
as his political opponent and also because of
the attack he had made upon him in his speech,
and who was, besides, exceedingly ambitious
of a command by which he hoped to reduce
Sicily and Carthage, and personally to gain in
wealth and reputation by means of his succes-
ses. For the position he held among the citi-
zens led him to indulge his tastes beyond what
his real means would bear, both in keeping
horses and in the rest of his expenditure; and
this later on had not a little to do with the ruin
of the Athenian state. Alarmed at the great-
ness of his licence in his own life and habits,
and of the ambition which he showed in all
things soever that he undertook, the mass of
the people set him down as a pretender to the
tyranny, and became his enemies; and al-
though publicly his conduct of the war was as
good as could be desired, individually, his hab-
its gave offence to every one, and caused them
to commit affairs to other hands, and thus be-
fore long to ruin the city. Meanwhile he now
came forward and gave the following advice
to the Athenians:

[16] "Athenians, I have a better right to
command than others — I must begin with this
as Nicias has attacked me — and at the same

time I believe myself to be worthy of it. The
things for which I am abused, bring fame to
my ancestors and to myself, and to the country
profit besides. The Hellenes, after expecting to
see our city ruined by the war, concluded it to
be even greater than it really is, by reason of
the magnificence with which I represented it
at the Olympic games, when I sent into the
lists seven chariots, a number never before en-
tered by any private person, and won the first
prize, and was second and fourth, and took
care to have everything else in a style worthy
of my victory. Custom regards such displays as
honourable, and they cannot be made without
leaving behind them an impression of power.
Again, any splendour that I may have exhib-
ited at home in providing choruses or other-
wise, is naturally envied by my fellow citizens,
but in the eyes of foreigners has an air of
strength as in the other instance. And this is no
useless folly, when a man at his own private
cost benefits not himself only, but his city: nor
is it unfair that he who prides himself on his
position should refuse to be upon an equality
with the rest. He who is badly off has his mis-
fortunes all to himself, and as we do not see
men courted in adversity, on the like principle
a man ought to accept the insolence of prosper-
ity; or else, let him first mete out equal meas-
ure to all, and then demand to have it meted
out to him. What I know is that persons of
this kind and all others that have attained to
any distinction, although they may be unpopu-
lar in their lifetime in their relations with their
fellow-men and especially with their equals,
leave to posterity the desire of claiming con-
nection with them even without any ground,
and are vaunted by the country to which they
belonged, not as strangers or ill-doers, but as
fellow-countrymen and heroes. Such are my
aspirations, and however I am abused for them
in private, the question is whether any one
manages public affairs better than I do. Hav-
ing united the most powerful states of Pelopon-
nese, without great danger or expense to you, I
compelled the Lacedaemonians to stake their
all upon the issue of a single day at Mantinea;
and although victorious in the battle, they have
never since fully recovered confidence.

[ij] "Thus did my youth and so-called mon-
strous folly find fitting arguments to deal with
the power of the Peloponnesians, and by its
ardour win their confidence and prevail. And
do not be afraid of my youth now, but while I
am still in its flower, and Nicias appears fortu-
nate, avail yourselves to the utmost of the serv-

514

THUCYDIDES

[BOOK vi

ices of us both. Neither rescind your resolution
to sail to Sicily, on the ground that you would
be going to attack a great power. The cities in
Sicily are peopled by motley rabbles, and easily
change their institutions and adopt new ones
in their stead; and consequently the inhabit-
ants, being without any feeling of patriotism,
are not provided with arms for their persons,
and have not regularly established themselves
on the land; every man thinks that either by
fair words or by party strife he can obtain
something at the public expense, and then in
the event of a catastrophe settle in some other
country, and makes his preparations accord-
ingly. From a mob like this you need not look
for either unanimity in counsel or concert in
action; but they will probably one by one come
in as they get a fair offer, especially if they are
torn by civil strife as we are told. Moreover, the
Siceliots have not so many heavy infantry as
they boast; just as the Hellenes generally did
not prove so numerous as each state reckoned
itself, but Hellas greatly over-estimated their
numbers, and has hardly had an adequate
force of heavy infantry throughout this war.
The states in Sicily, therefore, from all that I
can hear, will be found as I say, and I have not
pointed out all our advantages, for we shall
have the help of many barbarians, who from
their hatred of the Syracusans will join us in
attacking them; nor will the powers at home
prove any hindrance, if you judge rightly. Our
fathers with these very adversaries, which it is
said we shall now leave behind us when we
sail, and the Mede as their enemy as well, were
able to win the empire, depending solely on
their superiority at sea. The Peloponnesians
had never so little hope against us as at present;
and let them be ever so sanguine, although
strong enough to invade our country even if
we stay at home, they can never hurt us with
their navy, as we leave one of our own behind
us that is a match for them.

[18] "In this state of things what reason can
we give to ourselves for holding back, or what
excuse can we offer to our allies in Sicily for
not helping them? They are our confederates,
and we are bound to assist them, without ob-
jecting that they have not assisted us. We did
not take them into alliance to have them to
help us in Hellas, but that they might so annoy
our enemies in Sicily as to prevent them from
coming over here and attacking us. It is thus
that empire has been won, both by us and by
all others that have held it, by a constant readi-
ness to support all, whether barbarians or Hel-

lenes, that invite assistance; since if all were to
keep quiet or to pick and choose whom they
ought to assist, we should make but few new
conquests, and should imperil those we have
already won. Men do not rest content with
parrying the attacks of a superior, but often
strike the first blow to prevent the attack being
made. And we cannot fix the exact point at
which our empire shall stop; we have reached
a position in which we must not be content
with retaining but must scheme to extend it,
for, if we cease to rule others, we are in danger
of being ruled ourselves. Nor can you look at
inaction from the same point of view as others,
unless you are prepared to change your habits
and make them like theirs.

"Be convinced, then, that we shall augment
our power at home by this adventure abroad,
and let us make the expedition, and so humble
the pride of the Peloponnesians by sailing off
to Sicily, and letting them see how little we
care for the peace that we are now enjoying;
and at the same time we shall either become
masters, as we very easily may, of the whole of
Hellas through the accession of the Sicilian
Hellenes, or in any case ruin the Syracusans, to
the no small advantage of ourselves and our
allies. The faculty of staying if successful, or of
returning, will be secured to us by our navy, as
we shall be superior at sea to all the Siceliots
put together. And do not let the do-nothing
policy which Nicias advocates, or his setting
of the young against the old, turn you from
your purpose, but in the good old fashion by
which our fathers, old and young together, by
their united counsels brought our affairs to
their present height, do you endeavour still to
advance them; understanding that neither
youth nor old age can do anything the one
without the other, but that levity, sobriety, and
deliberate judgment are strongest when united,
and that, by sinking into inaction, the city, like
everything else, will wear itself out, and its
skill in everything decay; while each fresh
struggle will give it fresh experience, and
make it more used to defend itself not in word
but in deed. In short, my conviction is that a
city not inactive by nature could not choose a
quicker way to ruin itself than by suddenly
adopting such a policy, and that the safest rule
of life is to take one's character and institu-
tions for better and for worse, and to live up to
them as closely as one can.'*

[19] Such were the words of Alcibiadcs.
After hearing him and the Egestaeans and
some Lcontine exiles, who came forward re-

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

515

minding them of their oaths and imploring
their assistance, the Athenians became more
eager for the expedition than before. Nicias,
perceiving that it would be now useless to try
to deter them by the old line of argument, but
thinking that he might perhaps alter their res-
olution by the extravagance of his estimates,
came forward a second time and spoke as fol-
lows:

[20] "I see, Athenians, that you are thor-
oughly bent upon the expedition, and there-
fore hope that all will turn out as we wish, and
proceed to give you my opinion at the present
juncture. From all that I hear we are going
against cities that are great and not subject to
one another, or in need of change, so as to be
glad to pass from enforced servitude to an
easier condition, or in the least likely to accept
our rule in exchange for freedom; and, to take
only the Hellenic towns, they are very numer-
ous for one island. Besides Naxos and Catana,
which I expect to join us from their connection
with Leontini, there are seven others armed at
all points just like our own power, particularly
Selinus and Syracuse, the chief objects of our
expedition. These are full of heavy infantry,
archers, and darters, have galleys in abundance
and crowds to man them; they have also
money, partly in the hands of private persons,
partly in the temples at Selinus, and at Syra-
cuse first-fruits from some of the barbarians as
well. But their chief advantage over us lies in
the number of their horses, and in the fact that
they grow their corn at home instead of im-
porting it.

[21] "Against a power of this kind it will
not do to have merely a weak naval armament,
but we shall want also a large land army to
sail with us, if we are to do anything worthy
of our ambition, and are not to be shut out
from the country by a numerous cavalry; espe-
cially if the cities should take alarm and com-
bine, and we should be left without friends
(except the Egestaeans) to furnish us with
horse to defend ourselves with. It would be
disgraceful to have to retire under compulsion,
or to send back for reinforcements, owing to
want of reflection at first: we must therefore
start from home with a competent force, see-
ing that we are going to sail far from our coun-
try, and upon an expedition not like any which
you may have undertaken in the quality of
allies, among your subject states here in Hellas,
where any additional supplies needed were
easily drawn from the friendly territory; but
we are cutting ourselves off, and going to a

land entirely strange, from which during four
months in winter it is not even easy for a mes-
senger to get to Athens.

[22] "I think, therefore, that we ought to
take great numbers of heavy infantry, both
from Athens and from our allies, and not
merely from our subjects, but also any we may
be able to get for love or for money in Pelopon-
nese, and great numbers also of archers and
slingers, to make head against the Sicilian
horse. Meanwhile we must have an over-
whelming superiority at sea, to enable us the
more easily to carry in what we want; and we
must take our own corn in merchant vessels,
that is to say, wheat and parched barley, and
bakers from the mills compelled to serve for
pay in the proper proportion; in order that in
case of our being weather-bound the arma-
ment may "not want provisions, as it is not ev-
ery city that will be able to entertain numbers
like ours. We must also provide ourselves with
everything else as far as we can, so as not to be
dependent upon others; and above all we must
take with us from home as much money as pos-
sible, as the sums talked of as ready at Egesta
are readier, you may be sure, in talk than in
any other way.

[23] "Indeed, even if we leave Athens with
a force not only equal to that of the enemy ex-
cept in the number of heavy infantry in the
field, but even at all points superior to him, we
shall still find it difficult to conquer Sicily or
save ourselves. We must not disguise from our-
selves that we go to found a city among stran-
gers and enemies, and that he who undertakes
such an enterprise should be prepared to be-
come master of the country the first day he
lands, or failing in this to find everything hos-
tile to him. Fearing this, and knowing that we
shall have need of much good counsel and
more good fortune — a hard matter for mortal
man to aspire to — I wish as far as may be to
make myself independent of fortune before
sailing, and when I do sail, to be as safe as a
strong force can make me. This I believe to be
surest for the country at large, and safest for
us who are to go on the expedition. If any one
thinks differently I resign to him my com-
mand."

[24] With this Nicias concluded, thinking
that he should either disgust the Athenians by
the magnitude of the undertaking, or, if
obliged to sail on the expedition, would thus
do so in the safest way possible. The Athenians,
however, far from having their taste for the
voyage taken away by the burdensomeness of

516

THUCYDIDES

[BOOK vi

the preparations, became more eager for it
than ever; and just the contrary took place of
what Nicias had thought, as it was held that
he had given good advice, and that the expedi-
tion would be the safest in the world. All alike
fell in love with the enterprise. The older men
thought that they would either subdue the
places against which they were to sail, or at all
events, with so large a force, meet with no dis-
aster; those in the prime of life felt a longing
for foreign sights and spectacles, and had no
doubt that they should come safe home again;
while the idea of the common people and the
soldiery was to earn wages at the moment, and
make conquests that would supply a never-
ending fund of pay for the future. With this
enthusiasm of the majority, the few that liked
it not, feared to appear unpatriotic by holding
up their hands against it, and so kept quiet.

[25] At last one of the Athenians came for-
ward and called upon Nicias and told him that
he ought not to make excuses or put them off,
but say at once before them all what forces the
Athenians should vote him. Upon this he said,
not without reluctance, that he would advise
upon that matter more at leisure with his col-
leagues; as far however as he could see at pres-
ent, they must sail with at least one hundred
galleys — the Athenians providing as many
transports as they might determine, and send-
ing for others from the allies — not less than
five thousand heavy infantry in all, Athenian
and allied, and if possible more; and the rest
of the armament in proportion; archers from
home and from Crete, and slingers, and what-
ever else might seem desirable, being got ready
by the generals and taken with them.

[26] Upon hearing this the Athenians at
once voted that the generals should have full
powers in the matter of the numbers of the
army and of the expedition generally, to do as
they judged best for the interests of Athens.
After this the preparations began; messages be-
ing sent to the allies and the rolls drawn up
at home. And as the city had just recovered
from the plague and the long war, and a num-
ber of young men had grown up and capital
had accumulated by reason of the truce, every-
thing was the more easily provided.

In the midst of these preparations ^277 all
the stone Hermae in the city of Athens, that is
to say the customary square figures, so com-
mon in the doorways of private houses and
temples, had in one night most of them their
faces mutilated. No one knew who had done
it, but large public rewards were offered to

find the authors; and it was further voted that
any one who knew of any other act of impiety
having been committed should come and give
information without fear of consequences,
whether he were citizen, alien, or slave. The
matter was taken up the more seriously, as it
was thought to be ominous for the expedition,
and part of a conspiracy to bring about a revo-
lution and to upset the democracy.

[28] Information was given accordingly by
some resident aliens and body servants, not
about the Hermae but about some previous
mutilations of other images perpetrated by
young men in a drunken frolic, and of mock
celebrations of the mysteries, averred to take
place in private houses. Alcibiades being impli-
cated in this charge, it was taken hold of by
those who could least endure him, because he
stood in the way of their obtaining the undis-
turbed direction of the people, and who
thought that if he were once removed the first
place would be theirs. These accordingly mag-
nified the matter and loudly proclaimed that
the affair of the mysteries and the mutilation
of the Hermae were part and parcel of a
scheme to overthrow the democracy, and that
nothing of all this had been done without Al-
cibiades; the proofs alleged being the general
and undemocratic licence of his life and habits.

[29] Alcibiades repelled on the spot the
charges in question, and also before going on
the expedition, the preparations for which
were now complete, offered to stand his trial,
that it might be seen whether he was guilty of
the acts imputed to him; desiring to be pun-
ished if found guilty, but, if acquitted, to take
the command. Meanwhile he protested against
their receiving slanders against him in his ab-
sence, and begged them rather to put him to
death at once if he were guilty, and pointed
out the imprudence of sending him out at the
head of so large an army, with so serious a
charge still undecided. But his enemies feared
that he would have the army for him if he
were tried immediately, and that the people
might relent in favour of the man whom they
already caressed as the cause of the Argives
and some of the Mantineans joining in the ex-
pedition, and did their utmost to get this prop-
osition rejected, putting forward other orators
who said that he ought at present to sail and
not delay the departure of the army, and be
tried on his return within a fixed number of
days; their plan being to have him sent for and
brought home for trial upon some graver
charge, which they would the more easily get

25-32]

up in his absence. Accordingly it was decreed
that he should sail.

[30] After this the departure for Sicily took
place, it being now about midsummer. Most
of the allies, with the corn transports and the
smaller craft and the rest of the expedition,
had already received orders to muster at Cor-
cyra, to cross the Ionian Sea from thence in a
body to the lapygian promontory. But the
Athenians themselves, and such of their allies
as happened to be with them, went down to
Piraeus upon a day appointed at daybreak,
and began to man the ships for putting out to
sea. With them also went down the whole
population, one may say, of the city, both citi-
zens and foreigners; the inhabitants of the
country each escorting those that belonged to
them, their friends, their relatives, or their
sons, with hope and lamentation upon their
way, as they thought of the conquests which
they hoped to make, or of the friends whom
they might never see again, considering the
long voyage which they were going to make
from their country. Indeed, at this moment,
when they were now upon the point of parting
from one another, the danger came more home
to them than when they voted for the expedi-
tion; although the strength of the armament,
and the profuse provision which they remarked
in every department, was a sight that could not
but comfort them. As for the foreigners and
the rest of the crowd, they simply went to see
a sight worth looking at and passing all belief.

[31] Indeed this armament that first sailed
out was by far the most costly and splendid
Hellenic force that had ever been sent out by a
single city up to that time. In mere number of
ships and heavy infantry that against Epidau-
rus under Pericles, and the same when going
against Potidaea under Hagnon, was not in-
ferior; containing as it did four thousand Athe-
nian heavy infantry, three hundred horse, and
one hundred galleys accompanied by fifty Les-
bian and Chian vessels and many allies besides.
But these were sent upon a short voyage and
with a scanty equipment. The present expedi-
tion was formed in contemplation of a long
term of service by land and sea alike, and was
furnished with ships and troops so as to be
ready for either as required. The fleet had been
elaborately equipped at great cost to the cap-
tains and the state; the treasury giving a
drachma a day to each seaman, and providing
empty ships, sixty men-of-war and forty trans-
ports, and manning these with the best crews
obtainable; while the captains gave a bounty in

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

517

addition to the pay from the treasury to the
thranitae and crews generally, besides spend-
ing lavishly upon figure-heads and equip-
ments, and one and all making the utmost ex-
ertions to enable their own ships to excel in
beauty and fast sailing. Meanwhile the land
forces had been picked from the best muster-
rolls, and vied with each other in paying great
attention to their arms and personal accoutre-
ments. From this resulted not only a rivalry
among themselves in their different depart-
ments, but an idea among the rest of the Hel-
lenes that it was more a display of power and
resources than an armament against an enemy.
For if any one had counted up the public ex-
penditure of the state, and the private outlay
of individuals — that is to say, the sums which
the state had already spent upon the expedi-
tion and was sending out in the hands of the
generals, and those which individuals had ex-
pended upon their personal outfit, or as cap-
tains of galleys had laid out and were still to
lay out upon their vessels; and if he had added
to this the journey money which each was
likely to have provided himself with, inde-
pendently of the pay from the treasury, for a
voyage of such length, and what the soldiers
or traders took with them for the purpose of
exchange — it would have been found that
many talents in all were being taken out of the
city. Indeed the expedition became not less fa-
mous for its wonderful boldness and for the
splendour of its appearance, than for its over-
whelming strength as compared with the peo-
ples against whom it was directed, and for the
fact that this was the longest passage from
home hitherto attempted, and the most am-
bitious in its objects considering the resources
of those who undertook it.

[32] The ships being now manned, and ev-
erything put on board with which they meant
to sail, the trumpet commanded silence, and
the prayers customary before putting out to
sea were offered, not in each ship by itself, but
by all together to the voice of a herald; and
bowls of wine were mixed through all the ar-
mament, and libations made by the soldiers
and their officers in gold and silver goblets. In
their prayers joined also the crowds on shore,
the citizens and all others that wished them
well. The hymn sung and the libations fin-
ished, they put out to sea, and first sailing out
in column then raced each other as far as Ae-
gina, and so hastened to reach Corcyra, where
the rest of the allied forces were also assenv
bling.

518

THUCYDIDES

[BooK vi

CHAPTER XIX

Seventeenth Year of the War — Parties at Syracuse

— Story of Harmodius and Artstogtton — Disgrace

of Alcibiadcs

MEANWHILE at Syracuse news came in from
many quarters of the expedition, but for a long
while met with no credence whatever. Indeed,
an assembly was held in which speeches, as
will be seen, were delivered by different
orators, believing or contradicting the re-
port of the Athenian expedition; among
whom Hermocrates, son of Hermon, came
forward, being persuaded that he knew the
truth of the matter, and gave the following
counsel:

[33] "Although I shall perhaps be no better
believed than others have been when I speak
upon the reality of the expedition, and al-
though I know that those who either make or
repeat statements thought not worthy of belief
not only gain no converts but are thought fools
for their pains, I shall certainly not be fright-
ened into holding my tongue when the state
is in danger, and when I am persuaded that I
can speak with more authority on the matter
than other persons. Much as you wonder at it,
the Athenians nevertheless have set out against
us with a large force, naval and military, pro-
fessedly to help the Egestaeans and to restore
Leontini, but really to conquer Sicily, and
above all our city, which once gained, the rest,
they think, will easily follow. Make up your
minds, therefore, to see them speedily here,
and see how you can best repel them with the
means under your hand, and do not be taken
off your guard through despising the news, or
neglect the common weal through disbelieving
it. Meanwhile those who believe me need not
be dismayed at the force or daring of the en-
emy. They will not be able to do us more hurt
than we shall do them; nor is the greatness of
their armament altogether without advantage
to us. Indaed, the greater it is the better, with
regard to the rest of the Siceliots, whom dis-
may will make more ready to join us; and if
we defeat or drive them away, disappointed of
the objects of their ambition (for I do not fear
for a moment that they will get what they
want), it will be a most glorious exploit for us,
and in my judgment by no means an unlikely
one. Few indeed have been the large arma-
ments, either Hellenic or barbarian, that have
gone far from home and been successful. They
cannot be more numerous than the people of
the country and their neighbours, all of whom

fear leagues together; and if they miscarry for
want of supplies in a foreign land, to those
against whom their plans were laid none the
less they leave renown, although they may
themselves have been the main cause of their
own discomfort. Thus these very Athenians
rose by the defeat of the Mede, in a great meas-
ure due to accidental causes, from the mere
fact that Athens had been the object of his at-
tack; and this may very well be the case with
us also.

[34] "Let us, therefore, confidently begin
preparations here; let us send and confirm
some of the Sicels, and obtain the friendship
and alliance of others, and dispatch envoys to
the rest of Sicily to show that the danger is
common to all, and to Italy to get them to be-
come our allies, or at all events to refuse to re-
ceive the Athenians. I also think that it would
be best to send to Carthage as well; they are
by no means there without apprehension, but it
is their constant fear that the Athenians may
one day attack their city, and they may per-
haps think that they might themselves suffer
by letting Sicily be sacrificed, and be willing
to help us secretly if not openly, in one way if
not in another. They are the best able to do so,
if they will, of any of the present day, as they
possess most gold and silver, by which war,
like everything else, flourishes. Let us also send
to Lacedaemon and Corinth, and ask them to
come here and help us as soon as possible, and
to keep alive the war in Hellas. But the true
thing of all others, in my opinion, to do at the
present moment, is what you, with your con-
stitutional love of quiet, will be slow to see,
and what I must nevertheless mention. If we
Siceliots, all together, or at least as many as
possible besides ourselves, would only launch
the whole of our actual navy with two months'
provisions, and meet the Athenians at Taren-
tum and the lapygian promontory, and show
them that before righting for Sicily they must
first fight for their passage across the Ionian
Sea, we should strike dismay into their army,
and set them on thinking that we have a base
for our defensive — for Tarentum is ready to
receive us — while they have a wide sea to cross
with all their armament, which could with
difficulty keep its order through so long a voy-
age, and would be easy for us to attack as it
came on slowly and in small detachments. On
the other hand, if they were to lighten their
vessels, and draw together their fast sailers and
with these attack us, we could either fall upon
them when they were wearied with rowing, or

33-37]

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

519

if we did not choose to do so, we could retire to
Tarentum; while they, having crossed with
few provisions just to give battle, would be
hard put to it in desolate places, and would
either have to remain and be blockaded, or to
try to sail along the coast, abandoning the rest
of their armament, and being further discour-
aged by not knowing for certain whether the
cities would receive them. In my opinion this
consideration alone would be sufficient to deter
them from putting out from Corcyra; and
what with deliberating and reconnoitring our
numbers and whereabouts, they would let the
season go on until winter was upon them, or,
confounded by so unexpected a circumstance,
would break up the expedition, especially as
their most experienced general has, as I hear,
taken the command against his will, and
would grasp at the first excuse offered by any
serious demonstration of ours. We should also
be reported, I am certain, as more numerous
than we really are, and men's minds are affect-
ed by what they hear, and besides the first to
attack, or to show that they mean to defend
themselves against an attack, inspire greater
fear because men see that they are ready for
the emergency. This would just be the case
with the Athenians at present. They are now
attacking us in the belief that we shall not re-
sist, having a right to judge us severely because
we did not help the Lacedaemonians in crush-
ing them; but if they were to see us showing a
courage for which they are not prepared, they
would be more dismayed by the surprise than
they could ever be by our actual power. I could
wish to persuade you to show this courage;
but if this cannot be, at all events lose not a
moment in preparing generally for the war;
and remember all of you that contempt for an
assailant is best shown by bravery in action,
but that for the present the best course is to
accept the preparations which fear inspires as
giving the surest promise of safety, and to act
as if the danger was real. That the Athenians
are coming to attack us, and are already upon
the voyage, and all but here — this is what I am
sure of."

[35] Thus far spoke Hermocrates. Mean-
while the people of Syracuse were at great
strife among themselves; some contending that
the Athenians had no idea of coming and that
there was no truth in what he said; some ask-
ing if they did come what harm they could do
that would not be repaid them tenfold in re-
turn; while others made light of the whole
affair and turned it into ridicule. In short, there

were few that believed Hermocrates and
feared for the future. Meanwhile Athenagoras,
the leader of the people and very powerful at
that time with the masses, came forward and
spoke as follows:

[36] "F°r tnc Athenians, he who does not
wish that they may be as misguided as they are
supposed to be, and that they may come here
to become our subjects, is either a coward or
a traitor to his country; while as for those who
carry such tidings and fill you with so much
alarm, I wonder less at their audacity than at
their folly if they flatter themselves that we do
not see through them. The fact is that they
have their private reasons to be afraid, and
wish to throw the city into consternation to
have their own terrors cast into the shade by
the public alarm. In short, this is what these
reports are worth; they do not arise of them-
selves, but are concocted by men who are al-
ways causing agitation here in Sicily. How-
ever, if you are well advised, you will not be
guided in your calculation of probabilities by
what these persons tell you, but by what
shrewd men and of large experience, as I es-
teem the Athenians to be, would be likely to
do. Now it is not likely that they would leave
the Peloponnesians behind them, and before
they have well ended the war in Hellas wan-
tonly come in quest of a new war quite as ardu-
ous in Sicily; indeed, in my judgment, they
are only too glad that we do not go and attack
them, being so many and so great cities as we
are.

[37] "However, if they should come as is
reported, I consider Sicily better able to go
through with the war than Peloponnese, as be-
ing at all points better prepared, and our city
by itself far more than a match for this pre-
tended army of invasion, even were it twice as
large again. I know that they will not have
horses with them, or get any here, except a few
perhaps from the Egestaeans; or be able to
bring a force of heavy infantry equal in num-
ber to our own, in ships which will already
have enough to do to come all this distance,
however lightly laden, not to speak of the
transport of the other stores required against a
city of this magnitude, which will be no slight
quantity. In fact, so strong is my opinion upon
trie subject, that I do not well see how they
could avoid annihilation if they brought with
them another city as large as Syracuse, and set-
tled down and carried on war from our fron-
tier; much less can they hope to succeed with
all Sicily hostile to them, as all Sicily will be,

520

THUCYDIDES

[BOOK vi

and with only a camp pitched from the ships,
and composed of tents and bare necessaries,
from which they would not be able to stir far
for fear of our cavalry,

[38] "But the Athenians see this as I tell you,
and as I have reason to know are looking after
their possessions at home, while persons here
invent stories that neither arc true nor ever will
be. Nor is this the first time that I see these
persons, when they cannot resort to deeds, try-
ing by such stories and by others even more
abominable to frighten your people and get
into their hands the government: it is what I
see always. And I cannot help fearing that try-
ing so often they may one day succeed, and
that we, as long as we do not feel the smart,
may prove too weak for the task of prevention,
or, when the offenders arc known, of pursuit.
The result is that our city is rarely at rest, but
is subject to constant troubles and to contests
as frequent against herself as against the en-
emy, not to speak of occasional tyrannies and
infamous cabals. However, I will try, if you
will support me, to let nothing of this happen
in our time, by gaining you, the many, and by
chastising the authors of such machinations,
not merely when they are caught in the act— •
a difficult feat to accomplish — but also for what
they have the wish though not the power to
do; as it is necessary to punish an enemy not
only for what he does, but also beforehand for
what he intends to do, if the first to relax pre-
caution would not be also the first to suffer. I
shall also reprove, watch, and on occasion warn
the few — the most effectual way, in my opin-
ion, of turning them from their evil courses.
And after all, as I have often asked, what
would you have, young men? Would you hold
office at once? The law forbids it, a law enact-
ed rather because you are not competent than
to disgrace you when competent. Meanwhile
you would not be on a legal equality with the
many! But how can it be right that citizens of
the same state should be held unworthy of the
same privileges?

[39] "It will be said, perhaps, that democra-
cy is neither wise nor equitable, but that the
holders of property are also the best fitted to
rule. I say, on the contrary, first, that the word
demos, or people, includes the whole state, oli-
garchy only a part; next, that if the best guardi-
ans of property are the rich, and the best coun-
sellors the wise, none can hear and decide so
well as the many; and that all these talents,
severally and collectively, have their just place
in a democracy. But an oligarchy gives the

many their share of the danger, and not con-
tent with the largest part takes and keeps the
whole of the profit; and this is what the pow-
erful and young among you aspire to, but in
a great city cannot possibly obtain.

140] "But even now, foolish men, most
senseless of all the Hellenes that I know, if
you have no sense of the wickedness of your
designs, or most criminal if you have that sense
and still dare to pursue them — even now, if it
is not a case for repentance, you may still learn
wisdom, and thus advance the interest of the
country, the common interest of us all. Reflect
that in the country's prosperity the men of
merit in your ranks will have a share and a
larger share than the great mass of your fellow
countrymen, but that if you have other designs
you run a risk of being deprived of all; and
desist from reports like these, as the people
know your object and will not put up with it.
If the Athenians arrive, this city will repulse
them in a manner worthy of itself; we have
moreover, generals who will see to this mat-
ter. And if nothing of this be true, as I incline
to believe, the city will not be thrown into a
panic by your intelligence, or impose upon it-
self a self-chosen servitude by choosing you
for its rulers; the city itself will look into the
matter, and will judge your words as if they
were acts, and, instead of allowing itself to be
deprived of its liberty by listening to you, will
strive to preserve that liberty, by taking care
to have always at hand the means of making
itself respected."

[41] Such were the words of Athenagoras.
One of the generals now stood up and stopped
any other speakers coming forward, adding
these words of his own with reference to the
matter in hand: "It is not well for speakers to
utter calumnies against one another, or for
their hearers to entertain them; we ought
rather to look to the intelligence that we have
received, and see how each man by himself and
the city as a whole may best prepare to repel
the invaders. Even if there be no need, there
is no harm in the state being furnished with"
horses and arms and all other insignia of war;
and we will undertake to see to and order this,
and to send round to the cities to reconnoitre
and do all else that may appear desirable. Part
of this we have seen to already, and whatever
we discover shall be laid before you." After
these words from the general, the Syracusans
departed from the assembly.

[42] In the meantime the Athenians with
all their allies had now arrived at Corcyra.

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

521

Here the generals began by again reviewing
the armament, and made arrangements as to
the order in which they were to anchor and
encamp, and dividing the whole fleet into three
divisions, allotted one to each of their number,
to avoid sailing all together and being thus
embarrassed for water, harbourage, or provi-
sions at the stations which they might touch
at, and at the same time to be generally better
ordered and easier to handle, by each squad-
ron having its own commander. Next they sent
on three ships to Italy and Sicily to find out
which of the cities would receive them, with
instructions to meet them on the way and let
them know before they put in to land.

[43] After this the Athenians weighed from
Corcyra, and proceeded to cross to Sicily with
an armament now consisting of one hundred
and thirty-four galleys in all (besides two Rho-
dian fifty-oars), of which one hundred were
Athenian vessels — sixty men-of-war, and forty
troopships — and the remainder from Chios
and the other allies; five thousand and one
hundred heavy infantry in all, that is to say,
fifteen hundred Athenian citizens from the
rolls at Athens and seven hundred Thetes
shipped as marines, and the rest allied troops,
some of them Athenian subjects, and besides
these five hundred Argives, and two hundred
and fifty Mantineans serving for hire; four
hundred and eighty archers in all, eighty of
whom were Cretans, seven hundred slingers
from Rhodes, one hundred and twenty light-
armed exiles from Megara, and one horse-
transport carrying thirty horses.

[44] Such was the strength of the first ar-
mament that sailed over for the war. The sup-
plies for this force were carried by thirty ships
of burden laden with corn, which conveyed
the bakers, stone-masons, and carpenters, and
the tools for raising fortifications, accompanied
by one hundred boats, like the former pressed
into the service, besides many other boats and
ships of burden which followed the armament
voluntarily for purposes of trade; all of which
now left Corcyra and struck across the Ionian
Sea together. The whole force making land at
the lapygian promontory and Tarentum, with
more or less good fortune, coasted along the
shores of Italy, the cities shutting their mar-
kets and gates against them, and according
them nothing but water and liberty to anchor,
and Tarentum and Locri not even that, until
they arrived at Rhegium, the extreme point of
Italy. Here at length they reunited, and not
gaining admission within the walls pitched a

camp outside the city in the precinct of Arte-
mis, where a market was also provided for
them, and drew their ships on shore and kept
quiet. Meanwhile they opened negotiations
with the Rhegians, and called upon them as
Chalcidians to assist their Leon tine kinsmen;
to which the Rhegians replied that they would
not side with either party, but should await the
decision of the rest of the Italiots, and do as
they did. Upon this the Athenians now began
to consider what would be the best action to
take in the affairs of Sicily, and meanwhile
waited for the ships sent on to come back from
Egesta, in order to know whether there was
really there the money mentioned by the mes-
sengers at Athens.

[45] In the meantime came in from all quar-
ters to the Syracusans, as well as from their
own officers sent to reconnoitre, the positive
tidings that the fleet was at Rhegium; upon
which they laid aside their incredulity and
threw themselves heart and soul into the work
of preparation. Guards or envoys, as the case
might be, were sent round to the Sicels, garri-
sons put into the posts of the Peripoli in the
country, horses and arms reviewed in the city
to see that nothing was wanting, and all other
steps taken to prepare for a war which might
be upon them at any moment.

[46] Meanwhile the three ships that had
been sent on came from Egesta to the Atheni-
ans at Rhegium, with the news that so far
from there being the sums promised, all that
could be produced was thirty talents. The gen-
erals were not a little disheartened at being
thus disappointed at the outset, and by the re-
fusal to join in the expedition of the Rhegians,
the people they had first tried to gain and had
had most reason to count upon, from their re-
lationship to the Leontines and constant friend-
ship for Athens. If Nicias was prepared for the
news from Egesta, his two colleagues were
taken completely by surprise. The Egestaeans
had had recourse to the following stratagem,
when the first envoys from Athens came to in-
spect their resources. They took the envoys in
question to the temple of Aphrodite at Eryx
and showed them the treasures deposited
there: bowls, wine-ladles, censers, and a large
number of other pieces of plate, which from
being in silver gave an impression of wealth
quite out of proportion to their really small
value. They also privately entertained the
ships' crews, and collected all the cups of gold
and silver that they could find in Egesta itself
or could borrow in the neighbouring Phoeni-

522 THUCYDIDES

cian and Hellenic towns, and each brought
them to the banquets as their own; and as all
used pretty nearly the same, and everywhere
a great quantity of plate was shown, the effect
was most dazzling upon the Athenian sailors,
and made them talk loudly of the riches they
had seen when they got back to Athens. The
dupes in question — who had in their turn per-
suaded the rest — when the news got abroad
that there was not the money supposed at Eges-
ta, were much blamed by the soldiers.

Meanwhile the generals consulted upon
what was to be done. [47] The opinion of Ni-
cias was to sail with all the armament to Seli-
nus, the main object of the expedition, and if
the Egestaeans could provide money for the
whole force, to advise accordingly; but if they
could not, to require them to supply provisions
for the sixty ships that they had asked for, to
stay and settle matters between them and the
Selinuntines either by force or by agreement,
and then to coast past the other cities, and af-
ter displaying the power of Athens and prov-
ing their zeal for their friends and allies, to
sail home again (unless they should have some
sudden and unexpected opportunity of serv-
ing the Leontines, or of bringing over some of
the other cities), and not to endanger the state
by wasting its home resources.

[48] Alcibiades said that a great expedition
like the present must not disgrace itself by
going away without having done anything;
heralds must be sent to all the cities except
Selinus and Syracuse, and efforts be made to
make some of the Sicels revolt from the Syra-
cusans, and to obtain the friendship of others,
in order to have corn and troops; and first of
all to gain the Messinese, who lay right in the
passage and entrance to Sicily, and would
afford an excellent harbour and base for the
army. Thus, after bringing over the towns and
knowing who would be their allies in the war,
they might at length attack Syracuse and Seli-
nus; unless the latter came to terms with Eges-
ta and the former ceased to oppose the restora-
tion of Leontini.

[49] Lamachus, on the other hand, said that
they ought to sail straight to Syracuse, and
fight their battle at once under the walls of the
town while the people were still unprepared,
and the panic at its height. Every armament
was most terrible at first; if it allowed time to
run on without showing itself, men's courage
revived, and they saw it appear at last almost
with indifference. By attacking suddenly*
while Syracuse still trembled at their coming,

[BooK vi

they would have the best chance of gaining a
victory for themselves and of striking a com-
plete panic into the enemy by the aspect of
their numbers — which would never appear so
considerable as at present — by the anticipation
of coming disaster, and above all by the im-
mediate danger of the engagement. They
might also count upon surprising many in the
fields outside, incredulous of their coming;
and at the moment that the enemy was carry-
ing in his property the army would not want
for booty if it sat down in force before the city.
The rest of the Siceliots would thus be imme-
diately less disposed to enter into alliance with
the Syracusans, and would join the Athenians,
without waiting to see which were the strong-
est. They must make Megara their naval sta-
tion as a place to retreat to and a base from
which to attack: it was an uninhabited place
at no great distance from Syracuse either by
land or by sea.

[50] After speaking to this effect, Lamachus
nevertheless gave his support to the opinion of
Alcibiades. After this Alcibiades sailed in his
own vessel across to Messina with proposals of
alliance, but met with no success, the inhabi-
tants answering that they could not receive
him within their walls, though they would
provide him with a market outside. Upon this
he sailed back to Rhegium. Immediately upon
his return the generals manned and victualled
sixty ships out of the whole fleet and coasted
along to Naxos, leaving the rest ot the arma-
ment behind them at Rhegium with one of
their number. Received by the Naxians, they
then coasted on to Catana, and being refused
admittance by the inhabitants, there being a
Syracusan party in the town, went on to the
river Terias. Here they bivouacked, and the
next day sailed in single file to Syracuse with
all their ships except ten which they sent on in
front to sail into the great harbour and see if
there was any fleet launched, and to proclaim
by herald from shipboard that the Athenians
were come to restore the Leontines to their
country, as being their allies and kinsmen, and
that such of them, therefore, as were in Syra-
cuse should leave it without fear and join their
friends and benefactors the Athenians. After
making this proclamation and reconnoitring
the city and the harbours, and the features of
the country which they would have to make
their base of operations in the war, they sailed
back to Catana.

[51] An assembly being held here, the in-
habitants refused to receive the armament, but

47-55]

invited the generals to come in and say what
they desired; and while Alcibiades was speak-
ing and the citizens were intent on the assem-
bly, the soldiers broke down an ill-walled-up
postern gate without being observed, and get-
ting inside the town, flocked into the market-
place. The Syracusan party in the town no
sooner saw the army inside than they became
frightened and withdrew, not being at all nu-
merous; while the rest voted for an alliance
with the Athenians and invited them to fetch
the rest of their forces from Rhegium. After
this the Athenians sailed to Rhegium, and put
off, this time with all the armament, for Ca-
tana, and fell to work at their camp immedi-
ately upon their arrival.

[52] Meanwhile word was brought them
from Camarina that if they went there the
town would go over to them, and also that the
Syracusans were manning a fleet. The Atheni-
ans accordingly sailed alongshore with all their
armament, first to Syracuse, where they found
no fleet manning, and so always along the
coast to Camarina, where they brought to at
the beach, and sent a herald to the people, who,
however, refused to receive them, saying that
their oaths bound them to receive the Atheni-
ans only with a single vessel, unless they them-
selves sent for more. Disappointed here, the
Athenians now sailed back again, and after
landing and plundering on Syracusan terri-
tory and losing some stragglers from their light
infantry through the coming up of the Syra-
cusan horse, so got back to Catana.

[53] There they found the Salaminia come
from Athens for Alcibiades, with orders for
him to sail home to answer the charges which
the state brought against him, and for certain
others of the soldiers who with him were ac-
cused of sacrilege in the matter of the mysteries
and of the Hermae. For the Athenians, after
the departure of the expedition, had continued
as active as ever in investigating the facts of
the mysteries and of the Hermae, and, instead
of testing the informers, in their suspicious
temper welcomed all indifferently, arresting
and imprisoning the best citizens upon the evi-
dence of rascals, and preferring to sift the mat-
ter to the bottom sooner than to let an accused
person of good character pass unquestioned,
owing to the rascality of the informer. The
commons had heard how oppressive the tyran-
ny of Pisistratus and his sons had become be-
fore it ended, and further that that tyranny
had been put down at last, not by themselves
and Harmodius, but by the Lacedaemonians,

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

523

and so were always in fear and took everything
suspiciously.

/5^7 Indeed, the daring action of Aristogi-
ton and Harmodius was undertaken in con-
sequence of a love affair, which I shall relate at
some length, to show that the Athenians are
not more accurate than the rest of the world in
their accounts of their own tyrants and of the
facts of their own history. Pisistratus dying at
an advanced age in possession of the tyranny,
was succeeded by his eldest son, Hippias, and
not Hipparchus, as is vulgarly believed. Har-
modius was then in the flower of youthful
beauty, and Aristogiton, a citizen in the middle
rank of life, was his lover and possessed him.
Solicited without success by Hipparchus, son
of Pisistratus, Harmodius told Aristogiton,
and the enraged lover, afraid that the powerful
Hipparchus might take Harmodius by force,
immediately formed a design, such as his con-
dition in life permitted, for overthrowing the
tyranny. In the meantime Hipparchus, after
a second solicitation of Harmodius, attended
with no better success, unwilling to use vio-
lence, arranged to insult him in some covert
way. Indeed, generally their government was
not grievous to the multitude, or in any way
odius in practice; and these tyrants cultivated
wisdom and virtue as much as any, and with-
out exacting from the Athenians more than a
twentieth of their income, splendidly adorned
their city, and carried on their wars, and pro-
vided sacrifices for the temples. For the rest, the
city was left in full enjoyment of its existing
laws, except that care was always taken to
have the offices in the hands of some one of the
family. Among those of them that held the
yearly archonship at Athens was Pisistratus,
son of the tyrant Hippias, and named after
his grandfather, who dedicated during his term
of office the altar to the twelve gods in the
market-place, and that of Apollo in the Pythi-
an precinct. The Athenian people afterwards
built on to and lengthened the altar in the mar-
ket-place, and obliterated the inscription; but
that in the Pythian precinct can still be seen,
though in faded letters, and is to the following
effect:

Pisistratus, the son of Hippias,

Set up this record of his archonship

In precinct of Apollo Pythias.

[55] That Hippias was the eldest son and
succeeded to the government, is what I posi-
tively assert as a fact upon which I have had
more exact accounts than others, and may be
also ascertained by the following circumstance,

524

THUCYDIDES

[BooK vi

He is the only one of the legitimate brothers
that appears to have had children; as the altar
shows, and the pillar placed in the Athenian
Acropolis, commemorating the crime of the
tyrants, which mentions no child of Thessalus
or of Hipparchus, but five of Hippias, which
he had by Myrrhine, daughter of Callias, son
of Hyperechides; and naturally the eldest
would have married first. Again, his name
comes first on the pillar after that of his father;
and this too is quite natural, as he was the eld-
est after him, and the reigning tyrant. Nor can
I ever believe that Hippias would have ob-
tained the tyranny so easily, if Hipparchus
had been in power when he was killed, and he,
Hippias, had had to establish himself upon the
same day; but he had no doubt been long ac-
customed to overawe the citizens, and to be
obeyed by his mercenaries, and thus not only
conquered, but conquered with ease, without
experiencing any of the embarrassment of a
younger brother unused to the exercise of au-
thority. It was the sad fate which made Hip-
parchus famous that got him also the credit
with posterity of having been tyrant.

^567 To return to Harmodius; Hipparchus
having been repulsed in his solicitations in-
sulted him as he had resolved, by first inviting
a sister of his, a young girl, to come and bear a
basket in a certain procession, and then reject-
ing her, on the plea that she had never been in-
vited at all owing to her unworthiness. If Har-
modius was indignant at this, Aristogiton for
his sake now became more exasperated than
ever; and having arranged everything with
those who were to join them in the enterprise,
they only waited for the great feast of the Pan-
athenaea, the sole day upon which the citizens
forming part of the procession could meet to-
gether in arms without suspicion. Aristogiton
and Harmodius were to begin, but were to be
supported immediately by their accomplices
against the bodyguard. The conspirators were
not many, for better security, besides which
they hoped that those not in the plot would be
carried away by the example of a few daring
spirits, and use the arms in their hands to re-
cover their liberty.

[57] At last the festival arrived; and Hippias
with his bodyguard was outside the city in the
Ceramicus, arranging how the different parts
of the procession were to proceed. Harmodius
and Aristogiton had already their daggers and
were getting ready to act, when seeing one of
their accomplices talking familiarly with Hip-
pias, who was easy of access to every one, they

took fright, and concluded that they were dis-
covered and on the point of being taken; and
eager if possible to be revenged first upon the
man who had wronged them and for whom
they had undertaken all this risk, they rushed,
as they were, within the gates, and meeting
with Hipparchus by the Leocorium recklessly
fell upon him at once, infuriated, Aristogiton
by love, and Harmodius by insult, and smote
him and slew him. Aristogiton escaped the
guards at the moment, through the crowd run-
ning up, but was afterwards taken and dis-
patched in no merciful way: Harmodius was
killed on the spot.

[58] When the news was brought to Hip-
pias in the Ceramicus, he at once proceeded
not to the scene of action, but to the armed
men in the procession, before they, being some
distance away, knew anything of the matter,
and composing his features for the occasion,
so as not to betray himself, pointed to a cer-
tain spot, and bade them repair thither with-
out their arms. They withdrew accordingly,
fancying he had something to say; upon which
he told the mercenaries to remove the arms,
and there and then picked out the men he
thought guilty and all found with daggers, the
shield and spear being the usual weapons for
a procession.

/59J In this way offended love first led Har-
modius and Aristogiton to conspire, and the
alarm of the moment to commit the rash action
recounted. After this the tyranny pressed
harder on the Athenians, and Hippias, now
grown more fearful, put to death many of the
citizens, and at the same time began to turn
his eyes abroad for a refuge in case of revolu-
tion. Thus, although an Athenian, he gave his
daughter, Archedice, to a Lampsacene, Aean-
tides, son of the tyrant of Lampsacus, seeing
that they had great influence with Darius. And
there is her tomb in Lampsacus with this in-
scription:

Archedice lies buried in this earth,
Hippias her sire, and Athens gave her birth;
Unto her bosom pride was never fyiown,
Though daughter, wife, and sister to the throne.
Hippias, after reigning three years longer over
the Athenians, was deposed in the fourth by
the Lacedaemonians and the banished Alc-
maeonidae, and went with a safe conduct to
Sigeum, and to Aeantides at Lampsacus, and
from thence to King Darius; from whose court
he set out twenty years after, in his old age, and
came with the Medes to Marathon.

[60] With these events in their minds, and

56-62]

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

525

recalling everything they knew by hearsay on
the subject, the Athenian people grow difficult
of humour and suspicious of the persons
charged in the affair of the mysteries, and per-
suaded that all that had taken place was part
of an oligarchical and monarchical conspiracy.
In the state of irritation thus produced, many
persons of consideration had been already
thrown into prison, and far from showing any
signs of abating, public feeling grew daily
more savage, and more arrests were made; un-
til at last one of those in custody, thought to
be the most guilty of all, was induced by a
fellow prisoner to make a revelation, whether
true or not is a matter on which there are two
opinions, no one having been able, either then
or since, to say for certain who did the deed.
However this may be, the other found argu-
ments to persuade him, that even if he had not
done it, he ought to save himself by gaining a
promise of impunity, and free the state of its
present suspicions; as he would be surer of
safety if he confessed after promise of impuni-
ty than if he denied and were brought to trial.
He accordingly made a revelation, affecting
himself and others in the affair of the Hermae;
and the Athenian people, glad at last, as they
supposed, to get at the truth, and furious until
then at not being able to discover those who
had conspired against the commons, at once
let go the informer and all the rest whom he
had not denounced, and bringing the accused
to trial executed as many as were apprehended,
and condemned to death such as had fled and
set a price upon their heads. In this it was, after
all, not clear whether the sufferers had been
punished unjustly, while in any case the rest
of the city received immediate and manifest
relief.

[61] To return to Alcibiades: public feeling
was very hostile to him, being worked on by
the same enemies who had attacked him be-
fore he went out; and now that the Athenians
fancied that they had got at the truth of the
matter of the Hermae, they believed more
firmly than ever that the affair of the mysteries
also, in which he was implicated, had been con-
trived by him in the same intention and was
connected with the plot against the democracy.
Meanwhile it so happened that, just at the
time of this agitation, a small force of Lacedae-
monians had advanced as far as the Isthmus,
in pursuance of some scheme with the Boeo-
tians. It was now thought that this had come
by appointment, at his instigation, and not on
account of the Boeotians, and that, if the citi-

zens had not acted on the information received,
and forestalled them by arresting the prison-
ers, the city would have been betrayed. The
citizens went so far as to sleep one night armed
in the temple of Theseus within the walls. The
friends also of Alcibiades at Argos were just
at this time suspected of a design to attack the
commons; and the Argive hostages deposited
in the islands were given up by the Athenians
to the Argive people to be put to death upon
that account: in short, everywhere something
was found to create suspicion against Alcibia-
des. It was therefore decided to bring him to
trial and execute him, and the Salaminia was
sent to Sicily for him and the others named in
the information, with instructions to order
him to come and answer the charges against
him, but not to arrest him, because they
wished to avoid causing any agitation in the
army or among the enemy in Sicily, and above
all to retain the services of the Mantineans and
Argives, who, it was thought, had been in-
duced to join by his influence. Alcibiades, with
his own ship and his fellow accused, accord-
ingly sailed off with the Salaminia from Sicily,
as though to return to Athens, and went with
her as far as Thurii, and there they left the
ship and disappeared, being afraid to go home
for trial with such a prejudice existing against
them. The crew of the Salaminia stayed some
time looking for Alcibiades and his compan-
ions, and at length, as they were nowhere to
be found, set sail and departed. Alcibiades,
now an outlaw, crossed in a boat not long af-
ter from Thurii to Peloponnese; and the Athe-
nians passed sentence of death by default upon
him and those in his company.

CHAPTER XX

Seventeenth and Eighteenth Years of the War—'

Inaction of the Athenian Army — Alcibiades at

Sparta — Investment of Syracuse

[62] THE Athenian generals left in Sicily now
divided the armament into two parts, and, each
taking one by lot, sailed with the whole for
Selinus and Egesta, wishing to know whether
the Egestaeans would give the money, and to
look into the question of Selinus and ascertain
the state of the quarrel between her and Eges-
ta. Coasting along Sicily, with the shore on
their left, on the side towards the Tyrrhene
Gulf, they touched at Himera, the only Hel-
lenic city in that part of the island, and being
refused admission resumed their voyage. On
their way they took Hyccara, a petty Sicanian.

526

THUCYDIDES

seaport, nevertheless at war with Egesta, and
making slaves of the inhabitants gave up the
town to the Egestaeans, some of whose horse
had joined them; after which the army pro-
ceeded through the territory of the Sicels until
it reached Catana, while the fleet sailed along
the coast with the slaves on board. Meanwhile
Nicias sailed straight from Hyccara along the
coast and went to Egesta and, after transacting
his other business and receiving thirty talents,
rejoined the forces. They now sold their slaves
for the sum of one hundred and twenty talents,
and sailed round to their Sicel allies to urge
them to send troops; and meanwhile went
with half their own force to the hostile town
of Hybla in the territory of Gela, but did not
succeed in taking it.

Summer was now over. [63] The winter fol-
lowing, the Athenians at once began to prepare
for moving on Syracuse, and the Syracusans
on their side for marching against them. From
the moment when the Athenians failed to at-
tack them instantly as they at first feared and
expected, every day that passed did something
to revive their courage; and when they saw
them sailing far away from them on the other
side of Sicily, and going to Hybla only to fail
in their attempts to storm it, they thought less
of them than ever, and called upon their gen-
erals, as the multitude is apt to do in its mo-
ments of confidence, to lead them to Catana,
since the enemy would not come to them. Par-
ties also of the Syracusan horse employed in
reconnoitring constantly rode up to the Athe-
nian armament, and among other insults asked
them whether they had not really come to set-
tle with the Syracusans in a foreign country
rather than to resettle the Leontines in their
own.

[64] Aware of this, the Athenian generals
determined to draw them out in mass as far
as possible from the city, and themselves in the
meantime to sail by night alongshore, and take
up at their leisure a convenient position. This
they knew they could not so well do, if they
had to disembark from their ships in front of a
force prepared for them, or to go by land open-
ly. The numerous cavalry of the Syracusans (a
force which they were themselves without)
would then be able to do the greatest mischief
to their light troops and the crowd that fol-
lowed them; but this plan would enable them
to take up a position in which the horse could
do them no hurt worth speaking of, some Syr-
acusan exiles with the army having told them
of the spot near the Olympieum, which they

[BooK vi

afterwards occupied. In pursuance of their
idea, the generals imagined the following strat-
agem. They sent to Syracuse a man devoted to
them, and by the Syracusan generals thought
to be no less in their interest; he was a native
of Catana, and said he came from persons in
that place, whose names the Syracusan gener-
als were acquainted with, and whom they
knew to be among the members of their party
still left in the city. He told them that the
Athenians passed the night in the town, at
some distance from their arms, and that if the
Syracusans would name a day and come with
all their people at daybreak to attack the arma-
ment, they, their friends, would close the gates
upon the troops in the city, and set fire to the
vessels, while the Syracusans would easily take
the camp by an attack upon the stockade. In
this they would be aided by many of the Cata-
nians, who were already prepared to act, and
from whom he himself came.

^657 The generals of the Syracusans, who
did not want confidence, and who had intend-
ed even without this to march on Catana, be-
lieved the man without any sufficient inquiry,
fixed at once a day upon which they would be
there, and dismissed him, and the Selinuntines
and others of their allies having now arrived,
gave orders for all the Syracusans to march out
in mass. Their preparations completed, and
the time fixed for their arrival being at hand,
they set out for Catana, and passed the night
upon the river Symaethus, in the Leontine ter-
ritory. Meanwhile the Athenians no sooner
knew of their approach than they took all their
forces and such of the Sicels or others as had
joined them, put them on board their ships and
boats, and sailed by night to Syracuse. Thus,
when morning broke the Athenians were
landing opposite the Olympieum ready to seize
their camping ground, and the Syracusan horse
having ridden up first to Catana and found
that all the armament had put to sea, turned
back and told the infantry, and then all turned
back together, and went to the relief of the
city.

[66] In the meantime, as the march before
the Syracusans was a long one, the Athenians
quietly sat down their army in a convenient
position, where they could begin an engage-
ment when they pleased, and where the Syra-
cusan cavalry would have least opportunity of
annoying them, either before or during the ac-
tion, being fenced off on one side by walls,
houses, trees, and by a marsh, and on the other
by cliffs. They also felled the neighbouring

63-70]

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

527

and carried them down to the sea, and
formed a palisade alongside of their ships, and
with stones which they picked up and wood
hastily raised a fort at Daskon, the most vul-
nerable point of their position, and broke down
the bridge over the Anapus. These prepara-
tions were allowed to go on without any in-
terruption from the city, the first hostile force
to appear being the Syracusan cavalry, fol-
lowed afterwards by all the foot together. At
first they came close up to the Athenian army,
and then, finding that they did not offer to en-
gage, crossed the Helorine road and encamped
for the night.

^677 The next day the Athenians and their
allies prepared for battle, their dispositions be-
ing as follows: Their right wing was occupied
by the Argives and Mantineans, the centre by
the Athenians, and the rest of the field by the
other allies. Half their army was drawn up
eight deep in advance, half close to their tents
in a hollow square, formed also eight deep,
which had orders to look out and be ready to
go to the support of the troops hardest pressed.
The camp followers were placed inside this re-
serve. The Syracusans, meanwhile, formed
their heavy infantry sixteen deep, consisting of
the mass levy of their own people, and such al-
lies as had joined them, the strongest contin-
gent being that of the Selinuntines; next to
them the cavalry of the Geloans, numbering
two hundred in all, with about twenty horse
and fifty archers from Camarina. The cavalry
was posted on their right, full twelve hundred
strong, and next to it the darters. As the Athe-
nians were about to begin the attack, Nicias
went along the lines, and addressed these
words of encouragement to the army and the
nations composing it:

[68] "Soldiers, a long exhortation is little
needed by men like ourselves, who are here to
fight in the same battle, the force itself being,
to my thinking, more fit to inspire confidence
than a fine speech with a weak army. Where
we have Argives, Mantineans, Athenians, and
the first of the islanders in the ranks together,
it were strange indeed, with so many and so
brave companions in arms, if we did not feel
confident of victory; especially when we have
mass levies opposed to our picked troops, and
what is more, Siceliots, who may disdain us
but will not stand against us, their skill not
being at all commensurate to their rashness.
You may also remember that we are far from
home and have no friendly land near, except
what your own swords shall win you; and here

I put before you a motive just the reverse of
that which the enemy are appealing to; their
cry being that they shall fight for their country,
mine that we shall fight for a country that is
not ours, where we must conquer or hardly
get away, as we shall have their horse upon
us in great numbers. Remember, therefore,
your renown, and go boldly against the en-
emy, thinking the present strait and necessity
more terrible than they."

[69] After this address Nicias at once led on
the army. The Syracusans were not at that mo-
ment expecting an immediate engagement,
and some had even gone away to the town,
which was close by; these now ran up as hard
as they could and, though behind time, took
their places here or there in the main body as
fast as they joined it. Want of zeal or daring
was certainly not the fault of the Syracusans,
either in this or the other battles, but although
not inferior in courage, so far as their military
science might carry them, when this failed
them they were compelled to give up their res-
olution also. On the present occasion, although
they had not supposed that the Athenians
would begin the attack, and although con-
strained to stand upon their defence at short
notice, they at once took up their arms and
advanced to meet them. First, the stone-throw-
ers, slingers, and archers of either army began
skirmishing, and routed or were routed by one
another, as might be expected between light
troops; next, soothsayers brought forward the
usual victims, and trumpeters urged on the
heavy infantry to the charge; and thus they ad-
vanced, the Syracusans to fight for their coun-
try, and each individual for his safety that day
and liberty hereafter; in the enemy's army, the
Athenians to make another's country theirs
and to save their own from suffering by their
defeat; the Argives and independent allies to
help them in getting what they came for, and
to earn by victory another sight of the country
they had left behind; while the subject allies
owed most of their ardour to the desire of self-
preservation, which they could only hope for
if victorious; next to which, as a secondary mo-
tive, came the chance of serving on easier
terms, after helping the Athenians to a fresh
conquest.

[jo] The armies now came to close quarters,
and for a long while fought without either giv-
ing ground. Meanwhile there occurred some
claps of thunder with lightning and heavy
rain, which did not fail to add to the fears of
the party fighting for the first time, and very

528

THUCYDIDES

[ BOOK vi

little acquainted with war; while to their more
experienced adversaries these phenomena ap-
peared to be produced by the time of year, and
much more alarm was felt at the continued re-
sistance of the enemy. At last the Argives
drove in the Syracusan left, and after them the
Athenians routed the troops opposed to them,
and the Syracusan army was thus cut in two
and betook itself to flight. The Athenians did
not pursue far, being held in check by the nu-
merous and undefeated Syracusan horse, who
attacked and drove back any of their heavy in-
fantry whom they saw pursuing in advance of
the rest; in spite of which the victors followed
so far as was safe in a body, and then went
back and set up a trophy. Meanwhile the Syra-
cusans rallied at the Helorine road, where they
re-formed as well as they could under the cir-
cumstances, and even sent a garrison of their
own citizens to the Olympieum, fearing that
the Athenians might lay hands on some of the
treasures there. The rest returned to the town.

lyi] The Athenians, however, did not go
to the temple, but collected their dead and
laid them upon a pyre, and passed the night
upon the field. The next day they gave the en-
emy back their dead under truce, to the num-
ber of about two hundred and sixty, Syracusans
and allies, and gathered together the bones of
their own, some fifty, Athenians and allies,
and taking the spoils of the enemy, sailed back
to Catana. It was now winter; and it did not
seem possible for the moment to carry on the
war before Syracuse, until horse should have
been sent for from Athens and levied among
the allies in Sicily — to do away with their utter
inferiority in cavalry — and money should have
been collected in the country and received
from Athens, and until some of the cities,
which they hoped would be now more disposed
to listen to them after the battle, should have
been brought over, and corn and all other
necessaries provided, for a campaign in the
spring against Syracuse.

/72j With this intention they sailed off to
Naxos and Catana for the winter. Meanwhile
the Syracusans burned their dead, and then
held an assembly, in which Hcrmocratcs, son
of Hermon, a man who with a general ability
of the first order had given proofs of military
capacity and brilliant courage in the war, came
forward and encouraged them, and told them
not to let what had occurred make them give
way, since their spirit had not been conquered,
but their want of discipline had done the mis-
chief. Still they had not been beaten by so

much as might have been expected, especially
as they were, one might say, novices in the art
of war, an army of artisans opposed to the most
practised soldiers in Hellas. What had also
done great mischief was the number of the gen-
erals (there were fifteen of them) and the
quantity of orders given, combined with the
disorder and insubordination of the troops.
But if they were to have a few skilful generals,
and used this winter in preparing their heavy
infantry, finding arms for such as had not got
any, so as to make them as numerous as possi-
ble, and forcing them to attend to their train-
ing generally, they would have every chance of
beating their adversaries, courage being al-
ready theirs and discipline in the field having
thus been added to it. Indeed, both these quali-
ties would improve, since danger would exer-
cise them in discipline, while their courage
would be led to surpass itself by the confidence
which skill inspires. The generals should be
few and elected with full powers, and an oath
should be taken to leave them entire discretion
in their command: if they adopted this plan,
their secrets would be better kept, all prepara-
tions would be properly made, and there
would be no room for excuses.

[j$] The Syracusans heard him, and voted
everything as he advised, and elected three
generals, Hermocrates himself, Heraclides, son
of Lysimachus, and Sicanus, son of Execestes.
They also sent envoys to Corinth and Lacedae-
mon to procure a force of allies to join them,
and to induce the Lacedaemonians for their
sakes openly to address themselves in real
earnest to the war against the Athenians, that
they might either have to leave Sicily or be less
able to send reinforcements to their army there.

[jq] The Athenian forces at Catana now at
once sailed against Messina, in the expectation
of its being betrayed to them. The intrigue,
however, after all came to nothing: Alcibiades,
who was in the secret, when he left his com-
mand upon the summons from home, foresee-
ing that he would be outlawed, gave informa-
tion of the plot to the friends of the Syracusans
in Messina, who had at once put to death its
authors, and now rose in arms against the op-
posite faction with those of their way of think-
ing, and succeeded in preventing the admis-
sion of the Athenians. The latter waited for
thirteen days, and then, as they were exposed
to the weather and without provisions, and
met with no success, went back to Naxos,
where they made places for their ships to lie in,
erected a palisade round their camp, and re-

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

529

tired into winter quarters; meanwhile they
sent a galley to Athens for money and cavalry
to join them in the spring. ^757 During the
winter the Syracusans built a wall on to the
city, so as to take in the statue of Apollo Te-
menites, all along the side looking towards
Epipolae, to make the task of circumvallation
longer and more difficult, in case of their being
defeated, and also erected a fort at Megara and
another in the Olympieum, and stuck palisades
along the sea wherever there was a landing
place. Meanwhile, as they knew that the Athe-
nians were wintering at Naxos, they marched
with all their people to Catana, and ravaged
the land and set fire to the tents and encamp-
ment of the Athenians, and so returned home.
Learning also that the Athenians were send-
ing an embassy to Camarina, on the strength
of the alliance concluded in the time of Laches,
to gain, if possible, that city, they sent another
from Syracuse to oppose them. They had a
shrewd suspicion that the Camarinaeans had
not sent what they did send for the first battle
very willingly; and they now feared that they
would refuse to assist them at all in future,
after seeing the success of the Athenians in the
action, and would join the latter on the
strength of their old friendship. Hermocrates,
with some others, accordingly arrived at Cam-
arina from Syracuse, and Euphemus and oth-
ers from the Athenians; and an assembly of the
Camarinaeans having been convened, Hermo-
crates spoke as follows, in the hope of preju-
dicing them against the Athenians:

[76] "Camarinaeans, we did not come on
this embassy because we were afraid of your
being frightened by the actual forces of the
Athenians, but rather of your being gained
by what they would say to you before you
heard anything from us. They are come to Sic-
ily with the pretext that you know, and the in-
tention which we all suspect, in my opinion
less to restore the Leontines to their homes
than to oust us from ours; as it is out of all rea-
son that they should restore in Sicily the cities
that they lay waste in Hellas, or should cher-
ish the Leontine Chalcidians because of their
Ionian blood, and keep in servitude the Eu-
boean Chalcidians, of whom the Leontines are
a colony. No; but the same policy which has
proved so successful in Hellas is now being
tried in Sicily. After being chosen as the lead-
ers of the lonians and of the other allies of
Athenian origin, to punish the Mede, the Athe-
nians accused some of failure in military serv-
ice, some of fighting against each other, and

others, as the case might be, upon any colour-
able pretext that could be found, until they
thus subdued them all. In fine, in the struggle
against the Medes, the Athenians did not fight
for the liberty of the Hellenes, or the Hellenes
for their own liberty, but the former to make
their countrymen serve them instead of him,
the latter to change one master for another,
wiser indeed than the first, but wiser for evil.

[jj] "But we are not now come to declare
to an audience familiar with them the mis-
deeds of a state so open to accusation as is the
Athenian, but much rather to blame ourselves,
who, with the warnings we possess in the Hel-
lenes in those parts that have been enslaved
through not supporting each other, and seeing
the same sophisms being now tried upon our-
selves— such as restorations of Leontine kins-
folk and support of Egestaean allies — do not
stand together and resolutely show them that
here are no lonians, or Hellespontines, or is-
landers, who change continually, but always
serve a master, sometimes the Mede and some-
times some other, but free Dorians from in-
dependent Peloponnese, dwelling in Sicily. Or,
are we waiting until we be taken in detail, one
city after another; knowing as we do that in
no other way can we be conquered, and seeing
that they turn to this plan, so as to divide some
of us by words, to draw some by the bait of
an alliance into open war with each other, and
to ruin others by such flattery as different cir-
cumstances may render acceptable? And do we
fancy when destruction first overtakes a dis-
tant fellow countryman that the danger will
not come to each of us also, or that he who
suffers before us will suffer in himself alone?

[j8] "As for the Camarinaean who says
that it is the Syracusan, not he, that is the en-
emy of the Athenian, and who thinks it hard
to have to encounter risk in behalf of my coun-
try, I would have him bear in mind that he
will fight in my country, not more for mine
than for his own, and by so much the more
safely in that he will enter on the struggle not
alone, after the way has been cleared by my
ruin, but with me as his ally, and that the ob-
ject of the Athenian is not so much to punish
the enmity of the Syracusan as to use me as a
blind to secure the friendship of the Cama-
rinaean. As for him who envies or even fears
us (and envied and feared great powers must
always be), and who on this account wishes
Syracuse to be humbled to teach us a lesson,
but would still have her survive, in the inter-
est of his own security the wish that he in-

530

THUCYDIDES

dulges is not humanly possible. A man can
control his own desires, but he cannot like-
wise control circumstances; and in the event of
his calculations proving mistaken, he may live
to bewail his own misfortune, and wish to be
again envying my prosperity. An idle wish, if
he now sacrifice us and refuse to take his share
of perils which are the same, in reality though
not in name, for him as for us; what is nomi-
nally the preservation of our power being real-
ly his own salvation. It was to be expected that
you, of all people in the world, Camarinaeans,
being our immediate neighbours and the next
in danger, would have foreseen this, and in-
stead of supporting us in the lukewarm way
that you are now doing, would rather come to
us of your own accord, and be now offering at
Syracuse the aid which you would have asked
for at Camarina, if to Camarina the Athenians
had first come, to encourage us to resist the in-
vader. Neither you, however, nor the rest have
as yet bestirred yourselves in this direction.

/ 7pJ "Fear perhaps will make you study to
do right both by us and by the invaders, and
plead that you have an alliance with the Athe-
nians. But you made that alliance, not against
your friends, but against the enemies that
might attack you, and to help the Athenians
when they were wronged by others, not when
as now they are wronging their neighbours.
Even the Rhegians, Chalcidians though they
be, refuse to help to restore the Chalcidian Le-
ontines; and it would be strange if, while they
suspect the gist of this fine pretence and are
wise without reason, you, with every reason on
your side, should yet choose to assist your nat-
ural enemies, and should join with their direst
foes in undoing those whom nature has made
your own kinsfolk. This is not to do right; but
you should help us without fear of their arma-
ment, which has no terrors if we hold together,
but only if we let them succeed in their endeav-
ours to separate us; since even after attacking
us by ourselves and being victorious in battle,
they had to go off without effecting their pur-
pose.

[80] "United, therefore, we have no cause
to despair, but rather new encouragement to
league together; especially as succour will come
to us from the Peloponnesians, in military mat-
ters the undoubted superiors of the Athenians.
And you need not think that your prudent
policy of taking sides with neither, because al-
lies of both, is cither safe for you or fair to us.
Practically it is not as fair as it pretends to be.
If the vanquished be defeated, and the victor

[ BOOK VI

conquer, through your refusing to >oin, what
is the effect of your abstention but to leave the
former to perish unaided, and to allow the lat-
ter to offend unhindered? And yet it were
more honourable to join those who are not
only the injured party, but your own kindred,
and by so doing to defend the common inter-
ests of Sicily and save your friends the Atheni-
ans from doing wrong.

"In conclusion, we Syracusans say that it is
useless for us to demonstrate either to you or
to the rest what you know already as well as
we do; but we entreat, and if our entreaty fail,
we protest that we are menaced by our eternal
enemies the lonians, and are betrayed by you
our fellow Dorians. If the Athenians reduce
us, they will owe their victory to your decision,
but in their own name will reap the honour,
and will receive as the prize of their triumph
the very men who enabled them to gain it.
On the other hand, if we are the conquerors,
you will have to pay for having been the cause
of our danger. Consider, therefore; and now
make your choice between the security which
present servitude offers and the prospect of
conquering with us and so escaping disgrace-
ful submission to an Athenian master and
avoiding the lasting enmity of Syracuse."

[8r] Such were the words of Hermocrates;
after whom Euphemus, the Athenian ambas-
sador, spoke as follows:

[82] "Although we came here only to renew
the former alliance, the attack of the Syra-
cusans compels us to speak of our empire and
of the good right we have to it. The best proof
of this the speaker himself furnished, when he
called the lonians eternal enemies of the Dori-
ans. It is the fact; and the Peloponnesian Dori-
ans being our superiors in numbers and next
neighbours, we lonians looked out for the best
means of escaping their domination. After the
Median War we had a fleet, and so got rid of
the empire and supremacy of the Lacedaemo-
nians, who had no right to give orders to us
more than we to them, except that of being
the strongest at that moment; and being ap-
pointed leaders of the King's former subjects,
we continue to be so, thinking that we are least
likely to fall under the dominion of the Pelo-
ponnesians, if we have a force to defend our-
selves with, and in strict truth having done
nothing unfair in reducing to subjection the
lonians and islanders, the kinsfolk whom the
Syracusans say we have enslaved. They, our
kinsfolk, came against their mother country,
that is to say against us, together with the

79-86]

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

531

Mede, and, instead of having the courage to
revolt and sacrifice their property as we did
when we abandoned our city, chose to be slaves
themselves, and to try to make us so.

[83] "We, therefore, deserve to rule because
we placed the largest fleet and an unflinching
patriotism at the service of the Hellenes, and
because these, our subjects, did us mischief by
their ready subservience to the Medes; and,
desert apart, we seek to strengthen ourselves
against the Peloponnesians. We make no fine
profession of having a right to rule because we
overthrew the barbarian single-handed, or be-
cause we risked what we did risk for the free-
dom of the subjects in question any more than
for that of all, and for our own: no one can be
quarrelled with for providing for his proper
safety. If we are now here in Sicily, it is equally
in the interest of our security, with which we
perceive that your interest also coincides. We
prove this from the conduct which the Syra-
cusans cast against us and which you some-
what too timorously suspect; knowing that
those whom fear has made suspicious may be
carried away by the charm of eloquence for
the moment, but when they come to act follow
their interests.

"Now, as we have said, fear makes us hold
our empire in Hellas, and fear makes us now
come, with the help of our friends, to order
safely matters in Sicily, and not to enslave any
but rather to prevent any from being enslaved.
[84] Meanwhile, let no one imagine that we
are interesting ourselves in you without your
having anything to do with us, seeing that, if
you are preserved and able to make head
against the Syracusans, they will be less likely
to harm us by sending troops to the Pelopon-
nesians. In this way you have everything to do
with us, and on this account it is perfectly rea-
sonable for us to restore the Leontines, and to
make them, not subjects like their kinsmen in
Euboea, but as powerful as possible, to help
us by annoying the Syracusans from their
frontier. In Hellas we are alone a match for our
enemies; and as for the assertion that it is out
of all reason that we should free the Sicilian,
while we enslave the Chalcidian, the fact is
that the latter is useful to us by being without
arms and contributing money only; while the
former, the Leontines and our other friends,
cannot be too independent.

[85] "Besides, for tyrants and imperial cities
nothing is unreasonable if expedient, no one
a kinsman unless sure; but friendship or en-
mity is everywhere an affair of time and cir-

cumstance. Here, in Sicily, our interest is not
to weaken our friends, but by means of their
strength to cripple our enemies. Why doubt
this? In Hellas we treat our allies as we find
them useful. The Chians and Methymnians
govern themselves and furnish ships; most of
the rest have harder terms and pay tribute in
money; while others, although islanders and
easy for us to take, are free altogether, because
they occupy convenient positions round Pelo-
ponnese. In our settlement of the states here in
Sicily, we should, therefore, naturally be guid-
ed by our interest, and by fear, as we say, of the
Syracusans. Their ambition is to rule you, their
object to use the suspicions that we excite to
unite you, and then, when we have gone away
without effecting anything, by force or through
your isolation, to become the masters of Sicily.
And masters they must become, if you unite
with them; as a force of that magnitude would
be no longer easy for us to deal with united,
and they would be more than a match for you
as soon as we were away.

[86] "Any other view of the case is con-
demned by the facts. When you first asked us
over, the fear which you held out was that of
danger to Athens if we let you come under the
dominion of Syracuse; and it is not right now
to mistrust the very same argument by which
you claimed to convince us, or to give way to
suspicion because we are come with a larger
force against the power of that city. Those
whom you should really distrust are the Syra-
cusans. We are not able to stay here without
you, and if we proved perfidious enough to
bring you into subjection, we should be unable
to keep you in bondage, owing to the length of
the voyage and the difficulty of guarding large,
and in a military sense continental, towns:
they, the Syracusans, live close to you, not in a
camp, but in a city greater than the force we
have with us, plot always against you, never
let slip an opportunity once offered, as they
have shown in the case of the Leontines and
others, and now have the face, just as if you
were fools, to invite you to aid them against
the power that hinders this, and that has thus
far maintained Sicily independent. We, as
against them, invite you to a much more real
safety, when we beg you not to betray that
common safety which we each have in the oth-
er, and to reflect that they, even without allies,
will, by their numbers, have always the way
open to you, while you will not often have the
opportunity of defending yourselves with such
numerous auxiliaries; if, through your sus-

532

THUCYDIDES

[Boo*: vi

picions, you once let these go away unsuccess-
ful or defeated, you will wish to see if only
a handful of them back again, when the day
is past in which their presence could do any-
thing for you.

[8j] "But we hope, Camarinaeans, that the
calumnies of the Syracusans will not be allowed
to succeed either with you or with the rest:
we have told you the whole truth upon the
things we are suspected of, and will now brief-
ly recapitulate, in the hope of convincing you.
We assert that we are rulers in Hellas in order
not to be subjects; liberators in Sicily that we
may not be harmed by the Sicilians; that we
are compelled to interfere in many things, be-
cause we have many things to guard against;
and that now, as before, we are come as allies
to those of you who suffer wrong in this island, -
not without invitation but upon invitation. Ac-
cordingly, instead of making yourselves judges
or censors of our conduct, and trying to turn
us, which it were now difficult to do, so far
as there is anything in our interfering policy or
in our character that chimes in with your in-
terest, this take and make use of; and be sure
that, far from being injurious to all alike, to
most of the Hellenes that policy is even bene-
ficial. Thanks to it, all men in all places, even
where we are not, who either apprehend or
meditate aggression, from the near prospect
before them, in the one case, of obtaining our
intervention in their favour, in the other, of
our arrival making the venture dangerous, find
themselves constrained, respectively, to be
moderate against their will, and to be pre-
served without trouble of their own. Do not
you reject this security that is open to all who
desire it, and is now offered to you; but do like
others, and instead of being always on the de-
fensive against the Syracusans, unite with us,
and in your turn at last threaten them."

[88] Such were the words of Euphemus.
What the Camarinaeans felt was this. Sympa-
thizing with the Athenians, except in so far as
they might be afraid of their subjugating Sic-
ily, they had always been at enmity with their
neighbour Syracuse. From the very fact, how-
ever, that they were their neighbours, they
feared the Syracusans most of the two, and
being apprehensive of their conquering even
without them, both sent them in the first in-
stance the few horsemen mentioned, and for
the future determined to support them most
in fact, although as sparingly as possible; but
for the moment in order not to seem to slight
the Athenians, especially as they had been suc-

cessful in the engagement, to answer both
alike- Agreeably to this resolution they an-
swered that as both the contending parties hap-
pened to be allies of theirs, they thought it
most consistent with their oaths at present to
side with neither; with which answer the am-
bassadors of either party departed.

In the meantime, while Syracuse pursued
her preparations for war, the Athenians were
encamped at Naxos, and tried by negotiation
to gain as many of the Sicels as possible. Those
more in the low lands, and subjects of Syra-
cuse, mostly held aloof; but the peoples of the
interior who had never been otherwise than
independent, with few exceptions, at once
joined the Athenians, and brought down corn
to the army, and in some cases even money.
The Athenians marched against those who
refused to join, and forced some of them to
do so; in the case of others they were stopped
by the Syracusans sending garrisons and rein-
forcements. Meanwhile the Athenians moved
their winter quarters from Naxos to Catana,
and reconstructed the camp burnt by the Syra-
cusans, and stayed there the rest of the winter.
They also sent a galley to Carthage, with prof-
fers of friendship, on the chance of obtaining
assistance, and another to Tyrrhenia; some of
the cities there having spontaneously offered to
join them in the war. They also sent round to
the Sicels and to Egesta, desiring them to send
them as many horses as possible, and mean-
while prepared bricks, iron, and all other
things necessary for the work of circumvalla-
tion, intending by the spring to begin hostili-
ties.

In the meantime the Syracusan envoys dis-
patched to Corinth and Lacedaemon tried as
they passed along the coast to persuade the
Italiots to interfere with the proceedings of the
Athenians, which threatened Italy quite as
much as Syracuse, and having arrived at Cor-
inth made a speech calling on the Corinthi-
ans to assist them on the ground of their com-
mon origin. The Corinthians voted at once to
aid them heart and soul themselves, and then
sent on envoys with them to Lacedaemon, to
help them to persuade her also to prosecute the
war with the Athenians more openly at home
and to send succours to Sicily. The envoys from
Corinth having reached Lacedaemon found
there Alcibiades with his fellow refugees, who
had at once crossed over in a trading vessel
from Thurii, first to Cyllene in Elis, and after-
wards from thence to Lacedaemon; upon the
Lacedaemonians' own invitation, after first

87-91]

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

533

obtaining a safe conduct, as he feared them
for the part he had taken in the affair of Man-
tinea. The result was that the Corinthians,
Syracusans, and Alcibiades, pressing all the
same request in the assembly of the Lacedae-
monians, succeeded in persuading them; but
as the ephors and the authorities, although re-
solved to send envoys to Syracuse to prevent
their surrendering to the Athenians, showed
no disposition to send them any assistance, Al-
cibiades now came forward and inflamed and
stirred the Lacedaemonians by speaking as fol-
lows:

[89] "I am forced first to speak to you of the
prejudice with which I am regarded, in order
that suspicion may not make you disinclined
to listen to me upon public matters. The con-
nection with you as your proxeni, which the
ancestors of our family by reason of some dis-
content renounced, I personally tried to renew
by my good offices towards you, in particular
upon the occasion of the disaster at Pylos. But
although I maintained this friendly attitude,
you yet chose to negotiate the peace with the
Athenians through my enemies, and thus to
strengthen them and to discredit me. You had
therefore no right to complain if I turned to
the Mantineans and Argives, and seized other
occasions of thwarting and injuring you; and
the time has now come when those among you,
who in the bitterness of the moment may have
been then unfairly angry with me, should look
at the matter in its true light, and take a differ-
ent view. Those again who judged me un-
favourably, because I leaned rather to the side
of the commons, must not think that their dis-
like is any better founded. We have always
been hostile to tyrants, and all who oppose ar-
bitrary power are called commons; hence we
continued to act as leaders of the multitude;
besides which, as democracy was the govern-
ment of the city, it was necessary in most things
to conform to established conditions. How-
ever, we endeavoured to be more moderate
than the licentious temper of the times; and
while there were others, formerly as now, who
tried to lead the multitude astray — the same
who banished me— our party was that of the
whole people, our creed being to do our part
in preserving the form of government under
which the city enjoyed the utmost greatness
and freedom, and which we had found exist-
ing. As for democracy, the men of sense among
us knew what it was, and I perhaps as well as
any, as I have the more cause to complain of
it; but there is nothing new to be said of a

patent absurdity; meanwhile we did not think
it safe to alter it under the pressure of your
hostility,

[go] "So much then for the prejudices with
which I am regarded: I now can call your at-
tention to the questions you must consider,
and upon which superior knowledge perhaps
permits me to speak. We sailed to Sicily first
to conquer, if possible, the Siccliots, and after
them the Italiots also, and finally to assail the
empire and city of Carthage. In the event of all
or most of these schemes succeeding, we were
then to attack Peloponnese, bringing with us
the entire force of the Hellenes lately acquired
in those parts, and taking a number of barbar-
ians into our pay, such as the Iberians and oth-
ers in those countries, confessedly the most
warlike known, and building numerous gal-
leys in addition to those which we had already,
timber being plentiful in Italy; and with this
fleet blockading Peloponnese from the sea and
assailing it with our armies by land, taking
some of the cities by storm, drawing works of
circumvallation round others, we hoped with-
out difficulty to effect its reduction, and after
this to rule the whole of the Hellenic name.
Money and corn meanwhile for the better exe-
cution of these plans were to be supplied in
sufficient quantities by the newly acquired
places in those countries, independently of our
revenues here at home.

[91] "You have thus heard the history of
the present expedition from the man who most
exactly knows what our objects were; and the
remaining generals will, if they can, carry these
out just the same. But that the states in Sicily
must succumb if you do not help them, I will
now show. Although the Siccliots, with all
their inexperience, might even now be saved
if their forces were united, the Syracusans
alone, beaten already in one battle with all
their people and blockaded from the sea, will
be unable to withstand the Athenian arma-
ment that is now there. But if Syracuse falls,
all Sicily falls also, and Italy immediately after-
wards; and the danger which I just now spoke
of from that quarter will before long be upon
you. None need therefore fancy that Sicily only
is in question; Peloponnese will be so also,
unless you speedily do as I tell you, and send
on board ship to Syracuse troops that shall be
able to row their ships themselves, and serve
as heavy infantry the moment that they land;
and what I consider even more important than
the troops, a Spartan as commanding officer
to discipline the forces already on foot and to

534

THUCYDIDES

compel recusants to serve. The friends that
you have already will thus become more confi-
dent, and the waverers will be encouraged to
join you. Meanwhile you must carry on the
war here more openly, that the Syracusans,
seeing that you do not forget them, may put
heart into their resistance, and that the Athe-
nians may be less able to reinforce their arma-
ment. You must fortify Decelea in Attica, the
blow of which the Athenians are always most
afraid and the only one that they think they
have not experienced in the present war; the
surest method of harming an enemy being to
find out what he most fears, and to choose this
means of attacking him, since every one nat-
urally knows best his own weak points and
fears accordingly. The fortification in ques-
tion, while it benefits you, will create difficul-
ties for your adversaries, of which I shall pass
over many, and shall only mention the chief.
Whatever property there is in the country will
most of it become yours, either by capture or
surrender; and the Athenians will at once be
deprived of their revenues from the silver
mines at Laurium, of their present gains from
their land and from the law courts, and above
all of the revenue from their allies, which will
be paid less regularly, as they lose their awe of
Athens and see you addressing yourselves with
vigour to the war. ^927 The zeal and speed
with which all this shall be done depends, La-
cedaemonians, upon yourselves; as to its possi-
bility, I am quite confident, and I have little
fear of being mistaken.

"Meanwhile I hope that none of you will
think any the worse of me if, after having hith-
erto passed as a lover of my country, I now ac-
tively join its worst enemies in attacking it, or
will suspect what I say as the fruit of an out-
law's enthusiasm. I am an outlaw from the in-
iquity of those who drove me forth, not, if you
will be guided by me, from your service; my
worst enemies are not you who only harmed
your foes, but they who forced their friends to
become enemies; and love of country is what I
do not feel when I am wronged, but what I
felt when secure in my rights as a citizen. In-
deed I do not consider that I am now attacking
a country that is still mine; I am rather trying
to recover one that is mine no longer; and the
true lover of his country is not he who consents
to lose it unjustly rather than attack it, but he
who longs for it so much that he will go all
lengths to recover it. For myself, therefore, La-
cedaemonians, I beg you to use me without
scruple for danger and trouble of every kind,

[BooK vi

and to remember the argument in every one's
mouth, that if I did you great harm as an ene-
my, I could likewise do you good service as a
friend, inasmuch as I know the plans of the
Athenians, while I only guessed yours. For
yourselves I entreat you to believe that your
most capital interests are now under delibera-
tion; and I urge you to send without hesita-
tion the expeditions to Sicily and Attica; by the
presence of a small part of your forces you will
save important cities in that island, and you
will destroy the power of Athens both present
and prospective; after this you will dwell in se-
curity and enjoy the supremacy over all Hel-
las, resting not on force but upon consent and
affection."

/9j7 Such were the words of Alcibiades. The
Lacedaemonians, who had themselves before
intended to march against Athens, but were
still waiting and looking about them, at once
became much more in earnest when they re-
ceived this particular information from Alcibi-
ades, and considered that they had heard it
from the man who best knew the truth of the
matter. Accordingly they now turned their at-
tention to the fortifying of Decelea and send-
ing immediate aid to the Sicilians; and naming
Gylippus, son of Cleandridas, to the command
of the Syracusans, bade him consult with that
people and with the Corinthians and arrange
for succours reaching the island, in the best
and speediest way possible under the circum-
stances. Gylippus desired the Corinthians to
send him at once two ships to Asine, and to
prepare the rest that they intended to send, and
to have them ready to sail at the proper time.
Having settled this, the envoys departed from
Lacedaemon.

In the meantime arrived the Athenian galley
from Sicily sent by the generals for money and
cavalry; and the Athenians, after hearing what
they wanted, voted to send the supplies for the
armament and the cavalry. And the winter
ended, and with it ended the seventeenth year
of the present war of which Thucydides is the
historian.

[94] The next summer, at the very begin-
ning of the season, the Athenians in Sicily put
out from Catana, and sailed along shore to
Megara in Sicily, from which, as I have men-
tioned above, the Syracusans expelled the in-
habitants in the time of their tyrant Gelo,
themselves occupying the territory. Here the
Athenians landed and laid waste the country,
and after an unsuccessful attack upon a fort of
the Syracusans, went on with the fleet and

92-98]

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

535

army to the river Terias, and advancing inland
laid waste the plain and set fire to the corn; and
after killing some of a small Syracusan party
which they encountered, and setting up a tro-
phy, went back again to their ships. They now
sailed to Catana and took in provisions there,
and going with their whole force against Cen-
toripa, a town of the Sicels, acquired it by ca-
pitulation, and departed, after also burning the
corn of the Inessaeans and Hybleans. Upon
their return to Catana they found the horse-
men arrived from Athens, to the number of
two hundred and fifty (with their equipments,
but without their horses which were to be pro-
cured upon the spot), and thirty mounted
archers and three hundred talents of silver.

[95] The same spring the Lacedaemoni-
ans marched against Argos, and went as far
as Cleonae, when an earthquake occurred and
caused them to return. After this the Argives
invaded the Thyreatid, which is on their bor-
der, and took much booty from the Lacedae-
monians, which was sold for no less than
twenty-five talents. The same summer, not long
after, the Thespian commons made an attack
upon the party in office, which was not suc-
cessful, but succours arrived from Thebes, and
some were caught, while others took refuge at
Athens.

[96] The same summer the Syracusans
learned that the Athenians had been joined by
their cavalry, and were on the point of march-
ing against them; and seeing that without be-
coming masters of Epipolae, a precipitous spot
situated exactly over the town, the Athenians
could not, even if victorious in battle, easily in-
vest them, they determined to guard its ap-
proaches, in order that the enemy might not
ascend unobserved by this, the sole way by
which ascent was possible, as the remainder is
lofty ground, and falls right down to the city,
and can all be seen from inside; and as it lies
above the rest the place is called by the Syracu-
sans Epipolae or Overtown. They accordingly
went out in mass at daybreak into the meadow
along the river Anapus, their new generals,
Hermocrates and his colleagues, having just
come into office, and held a review of their
heavy infantry, from whom they first selected
a picked body of six hundred, under the com-
mand of Diomilus, an exile from Andros, to
guard Epipolae, and to be ready to muster at a
moment's notice to help wherever help should
be required.

[97] Meanwhile the Athenians, the very
same morning, were holding a review, having

already made land unobserved with all the
armament from Catana, opposite a place called
Leon, not much more than half a mile from
Epipolae, where they disembarked their army,
bringing the fleet to anchor at Thapsus, a pe-
ninsula running out into the sea, with a nar-
row isthmus, and not far from the city of Syra-
cuse either by land or water. While the naval
force of the Athenians threw a stockade across
the isthmus and remained quiet at Thapsus,
the land army immediately went on at a run to
Epipolae, and succeeded in getting up by Eu-
ryelus before the Syracusans perceived them,
or could come up from the meadow and the re-
view. Diomilus with his six hundred and the
rest advanced as quickly as they could, but
they had nearly three miles to go from the
meadow before reaching them. Attacking in
this way in considerable disorder, the Syracu-
sans were defeated in battle at Epipolae and
retired to the town, with a loss of about three
hundred killed, and Diomilus among the num-
ber. After this the Athenians set up a trophy
and restored to the Syracusans their dead un-
der truce, and next day descended to Syracuse
itself; and no one coming out to meet them, re-
ascended and built a fort at Labdalum, upon
the edge of the cliffs of Epipolae, looking to-
wards Megara, to serve as a magazine for their
baggage and money, whenever they advanced
to give battle or to work at the lines.

[98] Not long afterwards three hundred
cavalry came to them from Egesta, and about a
hundred from the Sicels, Naxians, and others;
and thus, with the two hundred and fifty from
Athens, for whom they had got horses from
the Egestaeans and Catanians, besides others
that they bought, they now mustered six hun-
dred and fifty cavalry in all. After posting a
garrison in Labdalum, they advanced to Syca,
where they sat down and quickly built the Cir-
cle or centre of their wall of circumvallation.
The Syracusans, appalled at the rapidity with
which the work advanced, determined to go
out against them and give battle and interrupt
it; and the two armies were already in battle
array, when the Syracusan generals observed
that their troops found such difficulty in get-
ting into line, and were in such disorder, that
they led them back into the town, except part
of the cavalry. These remained and hindered
the Athenians from carrying stones or dispers-
ing to any great distance, until a tribe of
the Athenian heavy infantry, with all the
cavalry, charged and routed the Syracusan
horse with some loss; after which they set

536

THUCYDIDES

up a trophy for the cavalry action.

[99] The next day the Athenians began
building the wall to the north of the Circle, at
the same time collecting stone and timber,
which they kept laying down towards Trogi-
lus along the shortest line for their works from
the great harbour to the sea; while the Syracu-
sans, guided by their generals, and above all by
Hermocrates, instead of risking any more gen-
eral engagements, determined to build a coun-
terwork in the direction in which the Atheni-
ans were going to carry their wall. If this could
be completed in time, the enemy's lines would
be cut; and meanwhile, if he were to attempt
to interrupt them by an attack, they would
send a part of their forces against him, and
would secure the approaches beforehand with
their stockade, while the Athenians would
have to leave off working with their whole
force in order to attend to them. They accord-
ingly sallied forth and began to build, starting
from their city, running a cross wall below the
Athenian Circle, cutting down the olives and
erecting wooden towers. As the Athenian fleet
had not yet sailed round into the great har-
bour, the Syracusans still commanded the sea-
coast, and the Athenians brought their provi-
sions by land from Thapsus.

jf/ooj The Syracusans now thought the
stockades and stonework of their counterwall
sufficiently far advanced; and as the Atheni-
ans, afraid of being divided and so fighting at
a disadvantage, and intent upon their own
wall, did not come out to interrupt them, they
left one tribe to guard the new work and went
back into the city. Meanwhile the Athenians
destroyed their pipes of drinking-water carried
underground into the city; and watching un-
til the rest of the Syracusans were in their tents
at midday, and some even gone away into the
city, and those in the stockade keeping but in-
different guard, appointed three hundred
picked men of their own, and some men
picked from the light troops and armed for the
purpose, to run suddenly as fast as they could
to the counterwork, while the rest of the army
advanced in two divisions, the one with one of
the generals to the city in case of a sortie, the
other with the other general to the stockade by
the postern gate. The three hundred attacked
and took the stockade, abandoned by its garri-
son, who took refuge in the outworks round
the statue of Apollo Temenites. Here the pur-
suers burst in with them, and after getting in
were beaten out by the Syracusans, and some
few of the Argives and Athenians slain; after

[BOOK vi

which the whole army retired, and having de-
molished the counterwork and pulled up the
stockade, carried away the stakes to their own
lines, and set up a trophy.

[101] The next day the Athenians from the
Circle proceeded to fortify the cliff above the
marsh which on this side of Epipolae looks to-
wards the great harbour; this being also the
shortest line for their work to go down across
the plain and the marsh to the harbour. Mean-
while the Syracusans marched out and began a
second stockade, starting from the city, across
the middle of the marsh, digging a trench
alongside to make it impossible for the Atheni-
ans to carry their wall down to the sea. As soon
as the Athenians had finished their work at the
cliff they again attacked the stockade and ditch
of the Syracusans. Ordering the fleet to sail
round from Thapsus into the great harbour of
Syracuse, they descended at about dawn from
Epipolae into the plain, and laying doors and
planks over the marsh, where it was muddy
and firmest, crossed over on these, and by day-
break took the ditch and the stockade, except a
small portion which they captured afterwards.
A battle now ensued, in which the Athenians
were victorious, the right wing of the Syracu-
sans flying to the town and the left to the river.
The three hundred picked Athenians, wishing
to cut off their passage, pressed on at a run to
the bridge, when the alarmed Syracusans, who
had with them most of their cavalry, closed
and routed them, hurling them back upon the
Athenian right wing, the first tribe of which
was thrown into a panic by the shock. Seeing
this, Lamachus came to their aid from the
Athenian left with a few archers and with the
Argives, and crossing a ditch, was left alone
with a few that had crossed with him, and was
killed with five or six of his men. These the
Syracusans managed immediately to snatch up
in haste and get across the river into a place of
security, themselves retreating as the rest of the
Athenian army now came up.

[102] Meanwhile those who had at first fled
for refuge to the city, seeing the turn affairs
were taking, now rallied from the town and
formed against the Athenians in front of them,
sending also a part of their number to the
Circle on Epipolae, which they hoped to take
while denuded of its defenders. These took
and destroyed the Athenian outwork of a
thousand feet, the Circle itself being saved by
Nicias, who happened to have been left in it
through illness, and who now ordered the ser-
vants to set fire to the engines and timber

99-ios]

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

537

thrown down before the wall; want of men, as
he was aware, rendering all other means of es-
cape impossible. This step was justified by the
result, the Syracusans not coming any further
on account of the fire, but retreating. Mean-
while succours were coming up from the Athe-
nians below, who had put to flight the troops
opposed to them; and the fleet also, according
to orders, was sailing from Thapsus into the
great harbour. Seeing this, the troops on the
heights retired in haste, and the whole army of
the Syracusans re-entered the city, thinking
that with their present force they would no
longer be able to hinder the wall reaching the
sea.

[103] After this the Athenians set up a tro-
phy and restored to the Syracusans their dead
under truce, receiving in return Lamachus and
those who had fallen with him. The whole of
their forces, naval and military, being now
with them, they began from Epipolae and the
cliffs and enclosed the Syracusans with a dou-
ble wall down to the sea. Provisions were now
brought in for the armament from all parts of
Italy; and many of the Sicels, who had hither-
to been looking to see how things went, came
as allies to the Athenians: there also arrived
three ships of fifty oars from Tyrrhenia. Mean-
while everything else progressed favourably for
their hopes. The Syracusans began to despair
of finding safety in arms, no relief having
reached them from Peloponnese, and were
now proposing terms of capitulation among
themselves and to Nicias, who after the death
of Lamachus was left sole commander. No de-
cision was come to, but, as was natural with
men in difficulties and besieged more straitly
than before, there was much discussion with
Nicias and still more in the town. Their pres-
ent misfortunes had also made them suspicious
of one another; and the blame of their disas-
ters was thrown upon the ill-fortune or treach-
ery of the generals under whose command they
had happened; and these were deposed and
others, Heraclides, Eucles, and Tellias, elected
in their stead.

[ 104] Meanwhile the Lacedaemonian, Gy-
lippus, and the ships from Corinth were now
off Leucas, intent upon going with all haste to
the relief of Sicily. The reports that reached
them being of an alarming kind, and all agree-

ing in the falsehood that Syracuse was already
completely invested, Gylippus abandoned aU
hope of Sicily, and wishing to save Italy, rapid-
ly crossed the Ionian Sea to Tarcntum with the
Corinthian, Pythen, two Laconian, and two
Corinthian vessels, leaving the Corinthians to
follow him after manning, in addition to their
own ten, two Leucadian and two Ambraciot
ships. From Tarentum Gylippus first went on
an embassy to Thurii, and claimed anew the
rights of citizenship which his father had en-
joyed; failing to bring over the townspeople,
he weighed anchor and coasted along Italy.
Opposite the Terinaean Gulf he was caught
by the wind which blows violently and stead-
ily from the north in that quarter, and was car-
ried out to sea; and after experiencing very
rough weather, remade Tarentum, where he
hauled ashore and refitted such of his ships as
had suffered most from the tempest. Nicias
heard of his approach, but, like the Thurians,
despised the scanty number of his ships, and
set down piracy as the only probable object of
the voyage, and so took no precautions for the
present.

[105] About the same time in this summer,
the Lacedaemonians invaded Argos with their
allies, and laid waste most of the country. The
Athenians went with thirty ships to the relief
of the Argives, thus breaking their treaty with
the Lacedaemonians in the most overt manner.
Up to this time incursions from Pylos, descents
on the coast of the rest of Peloponnese, instead
of on the Laconian, had been the extent of
their co-operation with the Argives and Man-
tineans; and although the Argives had often
begged them to land, if only for a moment,
with their heavy infantry in Laconia, lay waste
ever so little of it with them, and depart, they
had always refused to do so. Now, however,
under the command of Phytodorus, Laespodi-
us, and Demaratus, they landed at Epidaurus
Limera, Prasiae, and other places, and plun-
dered the country; and thus furnished the La-
cedaemonians with a better pretext for hostili-
ties against Athens. After the Athenians had
retired from Argos with their fleet, and the
Lacedaemonians also, the Argives made an in-
cursion into the Phlisaid, and returned home
after ravaging their land and killing some of
the inhabitants.

The Seventh Book

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r if/If iff iff iff /ft iff

CHAPTER XXI

Eighteenth and Nineteenth Years of the War —

Arrival of Gyltppus at Syracuse — Fortification of

Dccclea — Successes of the Syracusans

[i] AFTER refitting their ships, Gylippus and
Pythen coasted along from Tarentum to Epi-
zephyrian Locris. They now received the more
correct information that Syracuse was not yet
completely invested, but that it was still pos-
sible for an army arriving at Epipolae to effect
an entrance; and they consulted, accordingly,
whether they should keep Sicily on their right
and risk sailing in by sea, or, leaving it on their
left, should first sail to Himera and, taking
with them the Himeraeans and any others that
might agree to join them, go to Syracuse by
land. Finally they determined to sail for Hi-
mera, especially as the four Athenian ships
which Nicias had at length sent off, on hear-
ing that they were at Locris, had not yet ar-
rived at Rhegium. Accordingly, before these
reached their post, the Peloponnesians crossed
the strait and, after touching at Rhegium and
Messina, came to Himera. Arrived there, they
persuaded the Himeraeans to join in the war,
and not only to go with them themselves but
to provide arms for the seamen from their ves-
sels which they had drawn ashore at Himera;
and they sent and appointed a place for the
Selinuntines to meet them with all their forces.
A few troops were also promised by the Gelo-
ans and some of the Sicels, who were now
ready to join them with much greater alacrity,
owing to the recent death of Archonidas, a
powerful Sicel king in that neighbourhood
and friendly to Athens, and owing also to the
vigour shown by Gylippus in coming from
Lacedaemon. Gylippus now took with him
about seven hundred of his sailors and ma-
rines, that number only having arms, a thou-
sand heavy infantry and light troops from Hi-

53S

mera with a body of a hundred horse, some
light troops and cavalry from Selinus, a few
Geloans, and Sicels numbering a thousand in
all, and set out on his march for Syracuse.

[2] Meanwhile the Corinthian fleet from
Leucas made all haste to arrive; and one of
their commanders, Gongylus, starting last with
a single ship, was the first to reach Syracuse, a
little before Gylippus. Gongylus found the
Syracusans on the point of holding an assem-
bly to consider whether they should put an end
to the war. This he prevented, and reassured
them by telling them that more vessels were
still to arrive, and that Gylippus, son of Clean-
dridas, had been dispatched by the Lacedae-
monians to take the command. Upon this the
Syracusans took courage, and immediately
marched out with all their forces to meet Gy-
lippus, who they found was now close at hand.
Meanwhile Gylippus, after taking letae, a fort
of the Sicels, on his way, formed his army in
order of battle, and so arrived at Epipolae, and
ascending by Euryelus, as the Athenians had
done at first, now advanced with the Syracu-
sans against the Athenian lines. His arrival
chanced at a critical moment. The Athenians
had already finished a double wall of six or
seven furlongs to the great harbour, with the
exception of a small portion next the sea, which
they were still engaged upon; and in the re-
mainder of the circle towards Trogilus on the
other sea, stones had been laid ready for build-
ing for the greater part of the distance, and
some points had been left half finished, while
others were entirely completed. The danger of
Syracuse had indeed been great.

[3] Meanwhile the Athenians, recovering
from the confusion into which they had been
at first thrown by the sudden approach of Gy-
lippus and the Syracusans, formed in order of
battle. Gylippus halted at a short distance off
and sent on a herald to tell them that, if they

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

539

would evacuate Sicily with bag and baggage
within five days' time, he was willing to make
a truce accordingly. The Athenians treated this
proposition with contempt, and dismissed the
herald without an answer. After this both
sides began to prepare for action. Gylippus,
observing that the Syracusans were in disorder
and did not easily fall into line, drew off his
troops more into the open ground, while Nici-
as did not lead on the Athenians but lay still
by his own wall. When Gylippus saw that
they did not come on, he led off his army to
the citadel of the quarter of Apollo Temenites,
and passed the night there. On the following
day he led out the main body of his army, and,
drawing them up in order of battle before the
walls of the Athenians to prevent their going
to the relief of any other quarter, dispatched a
strong force against Fort Labdalum, and took
it, and put all whom he found in it to the
sword, the place not being within sight of the
Athenians. On the same day an Athenian gal-
ley that lay moored off the harbour was cap-
tured by the Syracusans.

[4] After this the Syracusans and their allies
began to carry a single wall, starting from the
city, in a slanting direction up Epipolae, in or-
der that the Athenians, unless they could hin-
der the work, might be no longer able to in-
vest them. Meanwhile the Athenians, having
now finished their wall down to the sea, had
come up to the heights; and part of their wall
being weak, Gylippus drew out his army by
night and attacked it. However, the Athenians
who happened to be bivouacking outside took
the alarm and came out to meet him, upon
seeing which he quickly led his men back
again. The Athenians now built their wall
higher, and in future kept guard at this point
themselves, disposing their confederates along
the remainder of the works, at the stations as-
signed to them. Nicias also determined to for-
tify Plemmyrium, a promontory over against
the city, which juts out and narrows the mouth
of the Great Harbour. He thought that the
fortification of this place would make it easier
to bring in supplies, as they would be able to
carry on their blockade from a less distance,
near to the port occupied by the Syracusans;
instead of being obliged, upon every move-
ment of the enemy's navy, to put out against
them from the bottom of the great harbour.
Besides this, he now began to pay more atten-
tion to the war by sea, seeing that the coming
of Gylippus had diminished their hopes by
land. Accordingly, he conveyed over his ships

and some troops, and built three forts in which
he placed most of his baggage, and moored
there for the future the larger craft and men-
of-war. This was the first and chief occasion
of the losses which the crews experienced. The
water which they used was scarce and had to
be fetched from far, and the sailors could not
go out for firewood without being cut off by
the Syracusan horse, who were masters of the
country; a third of the enemy's cavalry being
stationed at the little town of Olympieum, to
prevent plundering incursions on the part of
the Athenians at Plemmyrium. Meanwhile
Nicias learned that the rest of the Corinthian
fleet was approaching, and sent twenty ships
to watch for them, with orders to be on the
look-out for them about Locris and Rhegium
and the approach to Sicily.

[5] Gylippus, meanwhile, went on with the
wall across Epipolae, using the stones which
the Athenians had laid down for their own
wall, and at the same time constantly led out
the Syracusans and their allies, and formed
them in order of battle in front of the lines,
the Athenians forming against him. At last he
thought that the moment was come, and began
the attack; and a hand-to-hand fight ensued
between the lines, where the Syracusan cav-
alry could be of no use; and the Syracusans and
their allies were defeated and took up their
dead under truce, while the Athenians erected
a trophy. After this Gylippus called the sol-
diers together, and said that the fault was not
theirs but his; he had kept their lines too much
within the works, and had thus deprived them
of the services of their cavalry and darters. He
would now, therefore, lead them on a second
time. He begged them to remember that in
material force they would be fully a match for
their opponents, while, with respect to moral
advantages, it were intolerable if Peloponne-
sians and Dorians should not feel confident of
overcoming lonians and islanders with the
motley rabble that accompanied them, and of
driving them out of the country.

[6] After this he embraced the first oppor-
tunity that offered of again leading them
against the enemy. Now Nicias and the Athe-
nians held the opinion that even if the Syracu-
sans should not wish to offer battle, it was nec-
essary for them to prevent the building of the
cross wall, as it already almost overlapped the
extreme point of their own, and if it went any
further it would from that moment make no
difference whether they fought ever so many
successful actions, or never fought at all. They

540

THUCYDIDES

accordingly came out to meet the Syracusans.
Gylippus led out his heavy infantry further
from the fortifications than on the former oc-
casion, and so joined battle; posting his horse
and darters upon the flank of the Athenians in
the open space, where the works of the two
walls terminated. During the engagement the
cavalry attacked and routed the left wing of
the Athenians, which was opposed to them;
and the rest of the Athenian army was in con-
sequence defeated by the Syracusans and driv-
en headlong within their lines. The night fol-
lowing the Syracusans carried their wall up to
the Athenian works and passed them, thus
putting it out of their power any longer to
stop them, and depriving them, even if vic-
torious in the field, of all chance of investing
the city for the future.

[y] After this the remaining twelve vessels
of the Corinthians, Ambraciots, and Leucadi-
ans sailed into the harbour under the com-
mand of Erasinides, a Corinthian, having elud-
ed the Athenian ships on guard, and helped
the Syracusans in completing the remainder of
the cross wall. Meanwhile Gylippus went into
the rest of Sicily to raise land and naval forces,
and also to bring over any of the cities that
cither were lukewarm in the cause or had hith-
erto kept out of the war altogether. Syracusan
and Corinthian envoys were also dispatched to
Lacedaemon and Corinth to get a fresh force
sent over, in any way that might offer, either
in merchant vessels or transports, or in any
other manner likely to prove successful, as the
Athenians too were sending for reinforce-
ments; while the Syracusans proceeded to man
a fleet and to exercise, meaning to try their for-
tune in this way also, and generally became ex-
ceedingly confident.

[8] Nicias perceiving this, and seeing the
strength of the enemy and his own difficulties
daily increasing, himself also sent to Athens.
He had before sent frequent reports of events
as they occurred, and felt it especially incum-
bent upon him to do so now, as he thought
that they were in a critical position, and that,
unless speedily recalled or strongly reinforced
from home, they had no hope of safety. He
feared, however, that the messengers, either
through inability to speak, or through failure
of memory, or from a wish to please the multi-
tude, might not report the truth, and so
thought it best to write a letter, to ensure that
the Athenians should know his own opinion
without its being lost in transmission, and be
able to decide upon the real facts of the case.

[BooK vii

His emissaries, accordingly, departed with the
letter and the requisite verbal instructions;
and he attended to the affairs of the army,
making it his aim now to keep on the defensive
and to avoid any unnecessary danger.

[g] At the close of the same summer the
Athenian general Euetion marched in concert
with Perdiccas with a large body of Thracians
against Amphipolis, and failing to take it
brought some galleys round into the Strymon,
and blockaded the town from the river, having
his base at Himeraeum.

Summer was now over. [10] The winter en-
suing, the persons sent by Nicias, reaching
Athens, gave the verbal messages which had
been entrusted to them, and answered any
questions that were asked them, and delivered
the letter. The clerk of the city now came for-
ward and read out to the Athenians the letter,
which was as follows:

[n] "Our past operations, Athenians, have
been made known to you by many other let-
ters; it is now time for you to become equally
familiar with our present condition, and to
take your measures accordingly. We had de-
feated in most of our engagements with them
the Syracusans, against whom we were sent,
and we had built the works which we now
occupy, when Gylippus arrived from Lacedae-
mon with an army obtained from Peloponnese
and from some of the cities in Sicily. In our
first battle with him we were victorious; in the
battle on the following day we were overpow-
ered by a multitude of cavalry and darters, and
compelled to retire within our lines. We have
now, therefore, been forced by the numbers of
those opposed to us to discontinue the work
of circumvallation, and to remain inactive;
being unable to make use even of all the force
we have, since a large portion of our heavy in-
fantry is absorbed in the defence of our lines.
Meanwhile the enemy have carried a single
wall past our lines, thus making it impossible
for us to invest them in future, until this cross
wall be attacked by a strong force and cap-
tured. So that the besieger in name has be-
come, at least from the land side, the besieged
in reality; as we are prevented by their cavalry
from even going for any distance into the
country.

[12] "Besides this, an embassy has been dis-
patched to Peloponnese to procure reinforce-
ments, and Gylippus has gone to the cities in
Sicily, partly in the hope of inducing those
that are at present neutral to join him in the
war, partly of bringing from his allies addi-

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

541

tional contingents for the land forces and ma-
terial for the navy. For I understand that they
contemplate a combined attack, upon our lines
with their land forces and with their fleet by
sea. You must none of you be surprised that
I say by sea also. They have discovered that the
length of the time we have now been in com-
mission has rotted our ships and wasted our
crews, and that with the entirencss of our
crews and the soundness of our ships the pris-
tine efficiency of our navy has departed. For it
is impossible for us to haul our ships ashore
and careen them, because, the enemy's vessels
being as many or more than our own, we are
constantly anticipating an attack. Indeed, they
may be seen exercising, and it lies with them
to take the initiative; and not having to main-
tain a blockade, they have greater facilities for
drying their ships.

/ /// "This we should scarcely be able to do,
even if we had plenty of ships to spare, and
were freed from our present necessity of ex-
hausting all our strength upon the blockade.
For it is already difficult to carry in supplies
past Syracuse; and were we to relax our vig-
ilance in the slightest degree it would become
impossible. The losses which our crews have
suffered and still continue to suffer arise from
the following causes. Expeditions for fuel and
for forage, and the distance from which water
has to be fetched, cause our sailors to be cut off
by the Syracusan cavalry; the loss of our previ-
ous superiority emboldens our slaves to desert;
our foreign seamen are impressed by the un-
expected appearance of a navy against us, and
the strength of the enemy's resistance; such of
them as were pressed into the service take the
first opportunity of departing to their respec-
tive cities; such as were originally seduced by
the temptation of high pay, and expected little
fighting and large gains, leave us either by
desertion to the enemy or by availing them-
selves of one or other of the various facilities
of escape which the magnitude of Sicily affords
them. Some even engage in trade themselves
and prevail upon the captains to take Hyccaric
slaves on board in their place; thus they have
ruined the efficiency of our navy.

[14] "Now I need not remind you that the
time during which a crew is in its prime is
short, and that the number of sailors who can
start a ship on her way and keep the rowing in
time is small. But by far my greatest trouble
is, that holding the post which I do, I am pre-
vented by the natural indocility of the Atheni-
an seaman from putting a stop to these evils;

and that meanwhile we have no source from
which to recruit our crews, which the enemy
can do from many quarters, but are compelled
to depend both for supplying the crews in serv-
ice and for making good our losses upon the
men whom we brought with us. For our pres-
ent confederates, Naxos and Catana, are in-
capable of supplying us. There is only one
thing more wanting to our opponents, I mean
the defection of our Italian markets. If they
were to see you neglect to relieve us from our
present condition, and were to go over to the
enemy, famine would compel us to evacuate,
and Syracuse would finish the war without a
blow.

"I might, it is true, have written to you some-
thing different and more agreeable than this,
but nothing certainly more useful, if it is de-
sirable for you to know the real state of things
here before taking your measures. Besides I
know that it is your nature to love to be told
the best side of things, and then to blame the
teller if the expectations which he has raised
in your minds are not answered by the result;
and I therefore thought it safest to declare to
you the truth.

[15] "Now you are not to think that either
your generals or your soldiers have ceased to
be a match for the forces originally opposed to
them. But you are to reflect that a general
Sicilian coalition is being formed against us;
that a fresh army is expected from Pelopon-
nese, while the force we have here is unable to
cope even with our present antagonists; and
you must promptly decide either to recall us or
to send out to us another fleet and army as nu-
merous again, with a large sum of money, and
someone to succeed me, as a disease in the kid-
neys unfits me for retaining my post. I have, I
think, some claim on your indulgence, as
while I was in my prime I did you much good
service in my commands. But whatever you
mean to do, do it at the commencement of
spring and without delay, as the enemy will
obtain his Sicilian reinforcements shortly,
those from Pcloponncse after a longer inter-
val; and unless you attend to the matter the
former will be here before you, while the lat-
ter will elude you as they have done before."

[16] Such were the contents of Nicias's let-
ter. When the Athenians had heard it they re-
fused to accept his resignation, but chose him
two colleagues, naming Menander and Euthy-
demus, two of the officers at the seat of war,
to fill their places until their arrival, that Ni-
cias might not be left alone in his sickness to

542

THUCYDIDES

bear the whole weight of affairs. They also
voted to send out another army and navy,
drawn partly from the Athenians on the mus-
ter-roll, partly from the allies. The colleagues
chosen for Nicias were Demosthenes, son of
Alcisthenes, and Eurymedon, son of Thucles.
Eurymedon was sent off at once, about the
time of the winter solstice, with ten ships, a
hundred and twenty talents of silver, and in-
structions to tell the army that reinforcements
would arrive, and that care would be taken of
them; [ij] but Demosthenes stayed behind to
organize the expedition, meaning to start as
soon as it was spring, and sent for troops to
the allies, and meanwhile got together money,
ships, and heavy infantry at home.

The Athenians also sent twenty vessels
round Peloponnese to prevent any one cross-
ing over to Sicily from Corinth or Pelopon-
nese. For the Corinthians, filled with confi-
dence by the favourable alteration in Sicilian
affairs which had been reported by the envoys
upon their arrival, and convinced that the fleet
which they had before sent out had not been
without its use, were now preparing to dis-
patch a force of heavy infantry in merchant ves-
sels to Sicily, while the Lacedaemonians did
the like for the rest of Peloponnese. The Co-
rinthians also manned a fleet of twenty-five
vessels, intending to try the result of a battle
with the squadron on guard at Naupactus,
and meanwhile to make it less easy for the
Athenians there to hinder the departure of
their merchantmen, by obliging them to keep
an eye upon the galleys thus arrayed against
them.

[18] In the meantime the Lacedaemonians
prepared for their invasion of Attica, in ac-
cordance with their own previous resolve, and
at the instigation of the Syracusans and Co-
rinthians, who wished for an invasion to arrest
the reinforcements which they heard that Ath-
ens was about to send to Sicily. Alcibiades also
urgently advised the fortification of Decelea,
and a vigorous prosecution of the war. But the
Lacedaemonians derived most encouragement
from the belief that Athens, with two wars on
her hands, against themselves and against the
Siceliots, would be more easy to subdue, and
from the conviction that she had been the first
to infringe the truce. In the former war, they
considered, the offence had been more on their
own side, both on account of the entrance of
the Thebans into Plataea in time of peace, and
also of their own refusal to listen to the Athe-
nian offer of arbitration, in spite of the clause

[BooK vii

in the former treaty that where arbitration
should be offered there should be no appeal to
arms. For this reason they thought that they
deserved their misfortunes, and took to heart
seriously the disaster at Pylos and whatever
else had befallen them. But when, besides the
ravages from Pylos, which went on without
any intermission, the thirty Athenian ships
came out from Argos and wasted part of Epi-
daurus, Prasiae, and other places; when upon
every dispute that arose as to the interpretation
of any doubtful point in the treaty, their own
offers of arbitration were always rejected by
the Athenians, the Lacedaemonians at length
decided that Athens had now committed the
very same offence as they had before done, and
had become the guilty party; and they began to
be full of ardour for the war. They spent this
winter in sending round to their allies for iron,
and in getting ready the other implements for
building their fort; and meanwhile began rais-
ing at home, and also by forced requisitions in
the rest of Peloponnese, a force to be sent out
in the merchantmen to their allies in Sicily.
Winter thus ended, and with it the eighteenth
year of this war of which Thucydides is the
historian.

[19] In the first days of the spring following,
at an earlier period than usual, the Lacedae-
monians and their allies invaded Attica, under
the command of Agis, son of Archidamus,
king of the Lacedaemonians. They began by
devastating the parts bordering upon the plain,
and next proceeded to fortify Decelea, divid-
ing the work among the different cities. De-
celea is about thirteen or fourteen miles from
the city of Athens, and the same distance or
not much further from Boeotia; and the fort
was meant to annoy the plain and the richest
parts of the country, being in sight of Athens.
While the Peloponnesians and their allies in
Attica were engaged in the work of fortifica-
tion, their countrymen at home sent off, at
about the same time, the heavy infantry in the
merchant vessels to Sicily; the Lacedaemoni-
ans furnishing a picked force of Helots and
Neodamodes (or freedmen), six hundred
heavy infantry in all, under the command of
Eccritus, a Spartan; and the Boeotians three
hundred heavy infantry, commanded by two
Thebans, Xenon and Nicon, and by Hegesan-
der, a Thespian. These were among the first to
put out into the open sea, starting from Tac-
narus in Laconia. Not long after their depar-
ture the Corinthians sent off a force of five
hundred heavy infantry, consisting partly of

17-23]

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

543

men from Corinth itself, and partly of Arcadi-
an mercenaries, placed under the command of
Alexarchus, a Corinthian. The Sicyonians also
sent off two hundred heavy infantry at the
same time as the Corinthians, under the com-
mand of Sargeus, a Sicyonian. Meantime the
five-and-twenty vessels manned by Corinth
during the winter lay confronting the twenty
Athenian ships at Naupactus until the heavy
infantry in the merchantmen were fairly on
their way from Peloponnese; thus fulfilling the
object for which they had been manned origi-
nally, which was to divert the attention of
the Athenians from the merchantmen to the
galleys.

[20] During this time the Athenians were
not idle. Simultaneously with the fortification
of Decelea, at the very beginning of spring,
they sent thirty ships round Peloponnese, un-
der Charicles, son of Apollodorus, with in-
structions to call at Argos and demand a force
of their heavy infantry for the fleet, agreeably
to the alliance. At the same time they dis-
patched Demosthenes to Sicily, as they had in-
tended, with sixty Athenian and five Chian
vessels, twelve hundred Athenian heavy in-
fantry from the muster-roll, and as many of the
islanders as could be raised in the different
quarters, drawing upon the other subject allies
for whatever they could supply that would be
of use for the war. Demosthenes was instructed
first to sail round with Charicles and to oper-
ate with him upon the coasts of Laconia, and
accordingly sailed to Aegma and there waited
for the remainder of his armament, and for
Charicles to fetch the Argive troops.

[21] In Sicily, about the same time in this
spring, Gylippus came to Syracuse with as
many troops as he could bring from the cities
which he had persuaded to join. Calling the
Syracusans together, he told them that they
must man as many ships as possible, and try
their hand at a sea-fight, by which he hoped to
achieve an advantage in the war not unworthy
of the risk. With him Hermocrates actively
joined in trying to encourage his countrymen
to attack the Athenians at sea, saying that the
latter had not inherited their naval prowess
nor would they retain it for ever; they had
been landsmen even to a greater degree than
the Syracusans, and had only become a mari-
time power v^hen obliged by the Mcde. Be-
sides, to daring spirits like the Athenians, a
daring adversary would seem the most for-
midable; and the Athenian plan of paralysing
by the boldness of their attack a neighbour

often not their inferior in strength could now
be used against them with as good effect by the
Syracusans. He was convinced also that the
unlooked-for spectacle of Syracusans daring to
face the Athenian navy would cause a terror
to the enemy, the advantages of which would
far outweigh any loss that Athenian science
might inflict upon their inexperience. He ac-
cordingly urged them to throw aside their
fears and to try their fortune at sea; and the
Syracusans, under the influence of Gylippus
and Hermocrates, and perhaps some others,
made up their minds for the sea-fight and be-
gan to man their vessels.

[22] When the fleet was ready, Gylippus led
out the whole army by night; his plan being to
assault in person the forts on Plemmyrium by
land, while thirty-five Syracusan galleys sailed
according to appointment against the enemy
from the great harbour, and the forty-five re-
maining came round from the lesser harbour,
where they had their arsenal, in order to effect
a junction with those inside and simultaneous-
ly to attack Plemmyrium, and thus to distract
the Athenians by assaulting them on two sides
at once. The Athenians quickly manned sixty
ships, and with twenty-five of these engaged
the thirty-five of the Syracusans in the great
harbour, sending the rest to meet those sailing
round from the arsenal; and an action now en-
sued directly in front of the mouth of the great
harbour, maintained with equal tenacity on
both sides; the one wishing to force the pas-
sage, the other to prevent them,

[23] In the meantime, while the Athenians
in Plemmyrium were down at the sea, attend-
ing to the engagement, Gylippus made a sud-
den attack on the forts in the early morning
and took the largest first, and afterwards the
two smaller, whose garrisons did not wait for
him, seeing the largest so easily taken. At the
fall of the first fort, the men from it who suc-
ceeded in taking refuge in their boats and mer-
chantmen, found great difficulty in reaching
the camp, as the Syracusans were having the
best of it in the engagement in the great har-
bour, and sent a fast-sailing galley to pursue
them. But when the two others fell, the Syra-
cusans were now being defeated; and the fugi-
tives from these sailed alongshore with more
ease. The Syracusan ships fighting off the
mouth of the harbour forced their way
through the Athenian vessels and sailing in
without any order fell foul of one another, and
transferred the victory to the Athenians; who
not only routed the squadron in question, but

544

THUCYDIDES

also that by which they were <at first being de-
feated in the harbour, sinking eleven of the
Syracusan vessels and killing most of the men,
except the crews of three ships whom they
made prisoners. Their own loss was confined
to three vessels; and after hauling ashore the
Syracusan wrecks and setting up a trophy
upon the islet in front of Plemmyrium, they
retired to their own camp.

[24] Unsuccessful at sea, the Syracusans had
nevertheless the forts in Plemmyrium, for
which they set up three trophies. One of the
two last taken they razed, but put in order and
garrisoned the two others. In the capture of
the forts a great many men were killed and
made prisoners, and a great quantity of prop-
erty was taken in all. As the Athenians had
used them as a magazine, there was a large
stock of goods and corn of the merchants in-
side, and also a large stock belonging to the
captains; the masts and other furniture of forty

Klleys being taken, besides three galleys which
d been drawn up on shore. Indeed the first
and chiefest cause of the ruin of the Athenian
army was the capture of Plemmyrium; even
the entrance of the harbour being now no
longer safe for carrying in provisions, as the
Syracusan vessels were stationed there to pre-
vent it, and nothing could be brought in with-
out fighting; besides the general impression of
dismay and discouragement produced upon
the army.

[2$] After this the Syracusans sent out
twelve ships under the command of Agathar-
chus, a Syracusan. One of these went to Pelo-
ponnese with ambassadors to describe the
hopeful state of their affairs, and to incite the
Peloponnesians to prosecute the war there even
more actively than they were now doing, while
the eleven others sailed to Italy, hearing that
vessels laden with stores were on their way to
the Athenians. After falling in with and des-
troying most of the vessels in question, and
burning in the Caulonian territory a quantity
of timber for shipbuilding, which had been got
ready for the Athenians, the Syracusan squad-
ron went to Locri, and one of the merchant-
men from Peloponnese coming in, while they
were at anchor there, carrying Thespian heavy
infantry, took these on board and sailed along-
shore towards home. The Athenians were on
the look-out for them with twenty ships at
Megara, but were only able to take one vessel
with its crew; the rest getting clear off to Syra-
cuse. There was also some skirmishing in the
harbour about the piles which trie Syracusans

[BooK vii

had driven in the sea in front of the did docks,
to allow their ships to lie at anchor inside,
without being hurt by the Athenians sailing up
and running them down. The Athenians
brought up to them a ship of ten thousand tal-
ents burden furnished with wooden turrets
and screens, and fastened ropes round the piles
from their boats, wrenched them up and broke
them, or dived down and sawed them in two.
Meanwhile the Syracusans plied them with
missiles from the docks, to which they replied
from their large vessel; until at last most of the
piles were removed by the Athenians. But the
most awkward part of the stockade was the
part out of sight: some of the piles which had
been driven in did not appear above water, so
that it was dangerous to sail up, for fear of run-
ning the ships upon them, just as upon a reef,
through not seeing them. However divers
went down and sawed off even these for re-
ward; although the Syracusans drove in oth-
ers. Indeed there was no end to the contriv-
ances to which they resorted against each oth-
er, as might be expected between two hostile
armies confronting each other at such a short
distance: and skirmishes and all kinds of other
attempts were of constant occurrence. Mean-
while the Syracusans sent embassies to the cit-
ies, composed of Corinthians, Ambraciots, and
Lacedaemonians, to tell them of the capture of
Plemmyrium, and that their defeat in the sea-
fight was due less to the strength of the enemy
than to their own disorder; and generally, to
let them know that they were full of hope, and
to desire them to come to their help with ships
and troops, as the Athenians were expected
with a fresh army, and if the one already there
could be destroyed before the other arrived, the
war would be at an end.

While the contending parties in Sicily were
thus engaged, [26] Demosthenes, having now
got together the armament with which he was
to go to the island, put out from Aegina, and
making sail for Peloponnese, joined Charicles
and the thirty ships of the Athenians. Taking
on board the heavy infantry from Argos they
sailed to Laconia, and, after first plundering
part of Epidaurus Limera, landed on the coast
of Laconia, opposite Cythera, where the tem-
ple of Apollo stands, and, laying waste part of
the country, fortified a sort of isthmus, to
which the Helots of the Lacedaemonians
might desert, and from whence plundering in-
cursions might be made as from Pylos. Demos-
thenes helped to occupy this place, and then
immediately sailed on to Corcyra to take up

24-29]

some of the allies in that island, and so to pro*
ceed without delay to Sicily; while Chariclcs
waited until he had completed the fortification
of the place and, leaving a garrison there, re-
turned home subsequently with his thirty ships
and the Argives also.

[27] This same summer arrived at Athens
thirteen hundred targetcers, Thracian swords-
men of the tribe of the Dii, who were to have
sailed to Sicily with Demosthenes. Since they
had come too late, the Athenians determined
to send them back to Thrace, whence they had
come; to keep them for the Decelean war ap-
pearing too expensive, as the pay of each man
was a drachma a day. Indeed since Decelea had
been first fortified by the whole Peloponnesian
army during this summer, and then occupied
for the annoyance of the country by. the garri-
sons from the cities relieving each other at
stated intervals, it had been doing great mis-
chief to the Athenians; in fact this occupation,
by the destruction of property and loss of men
which resulted from it, was one of the princi-
pal causes of their ruin. Previously the inva-
sions were short, and did not prevent their en-
joying their land during the rest of the time:
the enemy was now permanently fixed in At-
tica; at one time it was an attack in force, at
another it was the regular garrison overrun-
ning the country and making forays for its
subsistence, and the Lacedaemonian king,
Agis, was in the field and diligently prosecut-
ing the war; great mischief was therefore done
to the Athenians. They were deprived of their
whole country: more than twenty thousand
slaves had deserted, a great part of them arti-
sans, and all their sheep and beasts of burden
were lost; and as the cavalry rode out daily
upon excursions to Decelea and to guard the
country, their horses were either lamed by be-
ing constantly worked upon rocky ground, or
wounded by the enemy.

[28] Besides, the transport of provisions
from Euboea, which had before been carried
on so much more quickly overland by Decelea
from Oropus, was now effected at great cost by
sea round Sunium; everything the city re-
quired had to be imported from abroad, and
instead of a city it became a fortress. Summer
and winter the Athenians were worn out by
having to keep guard on the fortifications, dur-
ing the day by turns, by night all together, the
cavalry excepted, at the different military posts
or upon the wall. But what most oppressed
them was that they had two wars at once, and
had thus reached a pitch of frenzy which no one

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

would have believed possible if he had heard
of it before it had come to pass. For could any
one have imagined that even when besieged by
the Peloponnesians entrenched in Attica, they
would still, instead of withdrawing from Sic-
ily, stay on there besieging in like manner Syr-
acuse, a town (taken as a town) in no way in-
ferior to Athens, or would so thoroughly upset
the Hellenic estimate of their strength and
audacity, as to give the spectacle of a people
which, at the beginning of the war, some
thought might hold out one year, some two,
none more than three, if the Peloponnesians
invaded their country, now seventeen years
after the first invasion, after having already
suffered from all the evils of war, going to Sic-
ily and undertaking a new war nothing in-
ferior to that which they already had with the
Peloponnesians? These causes, the great losses
from Decelea, and the other heavy charges that
fell upon them, produced their financial em-
barrassment; and it was at this time that they
imposed upon their subjects, instead of the
tribute, the tax of a twentieth upon all imports
and exports by sea, which they thought would
bring them in more money; their expenditure
being now not the same as at first, but having
grown with the war while their revenues de-
cayed.

/2pJ Accordingly, not wishing to incur ex-
pense in their present want of money, they
sent back at once the Thracians who came too
late for Demosthenes, under the conduct of
Diitrephcs, who was instructed, as they were
to pass through the Euripus, to make use of
them if possible in the voyage alongshore to
injure the enemy. Diitrephes first landed them
at Tanagra and hastily snatched some booty;
he then sailed across the Euripus in the eve-
ning from Chalcis in Euboea and disembark-
ing in Boeotia led them against Mycalessus.
The night he passed unobserved near the tem-
ple of Hermes, not quite two miles from My-
calessus, and at daybreak assaulted and took
the town, which is not a large one; the inhabi-
tants being off their guard and not expecting
that any one would ever come up so far from
the sea to molest them, the wall too being
weak, and in some places having tumbled
down, while in others it had not been built to
any height, and the gates also being left open
through their feeling of security. Tne Thraci-
ans bursting into Mycalessus sacked the houses
and temples, and butchered the inhabitants,
sparing neither youth nor age, but killing all
they fell in with, one after the other, children

546

THUCYDIDES

[BOOK vii

and women, and even beasts of burden, and
whatever other living creatures they saw; the
Thracian race, like the bloodiest of the barbari-
ans, being even more so when it has nothing to
fear. Everywhere confusion reigned and death
in all its shapes; and in particular they attacked
a boys' school, the largest that there was in the
place, into which the children had just gone,
and massacred them all. In short, the disaster
falling upon the whole town was unsurpassed
in magnitude, and unapproached by any in
suddenness and in horror.

[30] Meanwhile the Thebans heard of it
and marched to the rescue, and overtaking the
Thracians before they had gone far, recovered
the plunder and drove them in panic to the
Euripus and the sea, where the vessels which
brought them were lying. The greatest slaugh-
ter took place while they were embarking, as
they did not know how to swim, and those in
the vessels on seeing what was going on on
shore moored them out of bowshot: in the rest
of the retreat the Thracians made a very re-
spectable defence against the Theban horse, by
which they were first attacked, dashing out
and closing their ranks according to the tac-
tics of their country, and lost only a few men
in that part of the affair. A good number who
were after plunder were actually caught in the
town and put to death. Altogether the Thra-
cians had two hundred and fifty killed out of
thirteen hundred, the Thebans and the rest
who came to the rescue about twenty, troopers
and heavy infantry, with Scirphondas, one of
the Boeotarchs. The Mycalessians lost a large
proportion of their population.

While Mycalessus thus experienced a calam-
ity for its extent as lamentable as any that
happened in the war, [31] Demosthenes,
whom we left sailing to Corcyra, after the
building of the fort in Laconia, found a mer-
chantman lying at Phea in Elis, in which the
Corinthian heavy infantry were to cross to
Sicily. The ship he destroyed, but the men es-
caped, and subsequently got another in which
they pursued their voyage. After this, arriving
at Zacynthus and Cephallenia, he took a body
of heavy infantry on board, and sending for
some of the Messenians from Naupactus,
crossed over to the opposite coast of Acarnania,
to Alyzia, and to Anactorium which was held
by the Athenians. While he was in these parts
he was met by Eurymedon returning from
Sicily, where he had been sent, as has been
mentioned, during the winter, with the money
for the army, who told him the news, and also

that he had heard, while at sea, that the Syra-
cusans had taken Plemmyrium. Here, also,
Conon came to them, the commander at Nau-
pactus, with news that the twenty-five Corin-
thian ships stationed opposite to him, far from
giving over the war, were meditating an en-
gagement; and he therefore begged them to
send him some ships, as his own eighteen were
not a match for the enemy's twenty-five. De-
mosthenes and Eurymedon, accordingly, sent
ten of their best sailers with Conon to reinforce
the squadron at Naupactus, and meanwhile
prepared for the muster of their forces; Eury-
medon, who was now the colleague of Demos-
thenes, and had turned back in consequence of
his appointment, sailing to Corcyra to tell
them to man fifteen ships and to enlist heavy
infantry; while Demosthenes raised slingers
and darters from the parts about Acarnania.

[32] Meanwhile the envoys, already men-
tioned, who had gone from Syracuse to the
cities after the capture of Plemmyrium, had
succeeded in their mission, and were about to
bring the army that they had collected, when
Nicias got scent of it, and sent to the Centori-
pae and Alicyaeans and other of the friendly
Sicels, who held the passes, not to let the en-
emy through, but to combine to prevent their
passing, there being no other way by which
they could even attempt it, as the Agrigentines
would not give them a passage through their
country. Agreeably to this request the Sicels
laid a triple ambuscade for the Siceliots upon
their march, and attacking them suddenly,
while off their guard, killed about eight hun-
dred of them and all the envoys, the Corinthi-
an only excepted, by whom fifteen hundred
who escaped were conducted to Syracuse.

[33] About the same time the Camarinaeans
also came to the assistance of Syracuse with
five hundred heavy infantry, three hundred
darters, and as many archers, while the Gelo-
ans sent crews for five ships, four hundred dart-
ers, and two hundred horse. Indeed almost the
whole of Sicily, except the Agrigentines, who
were neutral, now ceased merely to watch
events as it had hitherto done, and actively
joined Syracuse against the Athenians.

While the Syracusans after the Sicel disas-
ter put off any immediate attack upon the
Athenians, Demosthenes and Eurymedon,
whose forces from Corcyra and the continent
were now ready, crossed the Ionian Gulf with
all their armament to the lapygian promon-
tory, and starting from thence touched at the
Chocrades Isles lying off lapygia, where they

3036]

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

took on board a hundred and fifty lapygian
darters of the Messapian tribe, and after re-
newing an old friendship with Artas the chief,
who had furnished them with the darters, ar-
rived at Metapontium in Italy. Here they per-
suaded their allies the Metapontines to send
with them three hundred darters and two gal-
leys, and with this reinforcement coasted on to
Thurii, where they found the party hostile to
Athens recently expelled by a revolution, and
accordingly remained there to muster and re-
view the whole army, to see if any had been
left behind, and to prevail upon the Thurians
resolutely to join them in their expedition, and
in the circumstances in which they found
themselves to conclude a defensive and offen-
sive alliance with the Athenians.

[34] About the same time the Peloponne-
sians in the twenty-five ships stationed opposite
to the squadron at Naupactus to protect the
passage of the transports to Sicily had got
ready for engaging, and manning some addi-
tional vessels, so as to be numerically little in-
ferior to the Athenians, anchored off Erineus
in Achaia in the Rhypic country. The place off
which they lay being in the form of a crescent,
the land forces furnished by the Corinthians
and their allies on the spot came up and
ranged themselves upon the projecting head-
lands on either side, while the fleet, under the
command of Polyanthes, a Corinthian, held
the intervening space and blocked up the en-
trance. The Athenians under Diphilus now
sailed out against them with thirty-three ships
from Naupactus, and the Corinthians, at first
not moving, at length thought they saw their
opportunity, raised the signal, and advanced
and engaged the Athenians. After an obsti-
nate struggle, the Corinthians lost three ships,
and without sinking any altogether, disabled
seven of the enemy, which were struck prow
to prow and had their foreships stove in by the
Corinthian vessels, whose cheeks had been
strengthened for this very purpose. After an
action of this even character, in which either
party could claim the victory (although the
Athenians became masters of the wrecks
through the wind driving them out to sea, the
Corinthians not putting out again to meet
them), the two combatants parted. No pursuit
took place, and no prisoners were made on
cither side; the Corinthians and Peloponnesi-
ans who were fighting near the shore escaping
with ease, and none of the Athenian vessels
having been sunk. The Athenians now sailed
back to Naupactus, and the Corinthians im-

mediately set up a trophy as victors, because
they had disabled a greater number of the en-
emy's ships. Moreover they held that they had
not been worsted, for the very same reason
that their opponent held that he had not been
victorious; the Corinthians considering that
they were conquerors, if not decidedly con-
quered, and the Athenians thinking them-
selves vanquished, becsu/se not decidedly vic-
torious. However, when the Peloponnesians
sailed off and their land forces had dispersed,
the Athenians also set up a trophy as victors
in Achaia, about two miles and a quarter from
Erineus, the Corinthian station.

This was the termination of the action at
Naupactus. [35] To return to Demosthenes
and Eurymedon: the Thurians having now
got ready to join in the expedition with seven
hundred heavy infantry and three hundred
darters, the two generals ordered the ships to
sail along the coast to the Crotonian territory,
and meanwhile held a review of all the land
forces upon the river Sybaris, and then led
them through the Thurian country. Arrived at
the river Hylias, they here received a message
from the Crotonians, saying that they would
not allow the army to pass through their coun-
try; upon which the Athenians descended to-
wards the shore, and bivouacked near the sea
and the mouth of the Hylias, where the fleet
also met them, and the next day embarked and
sailed along the coast touching at all the cities
except Locri, until they came to Petra in the
Rhegian territory.

[36] Meanwhile the Syracusans hearing of
their approach resolved to make a second at-
tempt with their fleet and their other forces on
shore, which they had been collecting for this
very purpose in order to do something before
their arrival. In addition to other improve-
ments suggested by the former sea-fight which
they now adopted in the equipment of their
navy, they cut down their prows to a smaller
compass to make them more solid and made
their cheeks stouter, and from these let stays
into the vessels' sides for a length of six cubits
within and without, in the same way as the
Corinthians had altered their prows before en-
gaging the squadron at Naupactus. The Syr-
acusans thought that they would thus have an
advantage over the Athenian vessels, which
were not constructed with equal strength, but
were slight in the bows, from their being more
used to sail round and charge the enemy's side
than to meet him prow to prow, and that the
battle being in the great harbour, with a great

548

THUCYDIDES

[BooK vn

many ships in not much room, was also a fact
in their favour. Charging prow to prow, they
would stave in the enemy's bows, by striking
with solid and stout beaks against hollow and
weak ones; and secondly, the Athenians for
want of room would be unable to use their
favourite manoeuvre of breaking the line or of
sailing round, as the Syracusans would do their
best not to let them do the one, and want of
room would prevent their doing the other.
This charging prow to prow, which had hith-
erto been thought want of skill in a helmsman,
would be the Syracusans' chief manoeuvre, as
being that which they should find most useful,
since the Athenians, if repulsed, would not be
able to back water in any direction except to-
wards the shore, and that only for a little way,
and in the little space in front of their own
camp. The rest of the harbour would be com-
manded by the Syracusans; and the Athenians,
if hard pressed, by crowding together in a
small space and all to the same point, would
run foul of one another and fall into disorder,
which was, in fact, the thing that did the Athe-
nians most harm in all the sea-fights, they not
having, like the Syracusans, the whole harbour
to retreat over. As to their sailing round into
the open sea, this would be impossible, with
the Syracusans in possession of the way out
and in, especially as Plemmyrium would be
hostile to them, and the mouth of the harbour
was not large.

[37] With these contrivances to suit their
skill and ability, and now more confident after
the previous sea-fight, the Syracusans attacked
by land and sea at once. The town force Gylip-
pus led out a little the first and brought them
up to the wall of the Athenians, where it
looked towards the city, while the force from
the Olympicum, that is to say, the heavy in-
fantry that were there with the horse and the
light troops of the Syracusans, advanced
against the wall from the opposite side; the
snips of the Syracusans and allies sailing out
immediately afterwards. The Athenians at
first fancied that they were to be attacked by
land only, and it was not without alarm that
they saw the fleet suddenly approaching as
well; and while some were forming upon the
walls and in front of them against the advanc-
ing enemy, and some marching out in haste
against the numbers of horse and darters com-
ing from the Olympieum and from outside,
others manned the ships or rushed down to the
beach to oppose the enemy, and when the ships
were manned put out with seventy-five sail

against about eighty of the Syracusans.

[ 38] After spending a great part of the day
in advancing and retreating and skirmishing
with each other, without either being able to
gain any advantage worth speaking of, except
that the Syracusans sank one or two of the
Athenian vessels, they parted, the land force at
the same time retiring from the lines. The next
day the Syracusans remained quiet, and gave
no signs of what they were going to do; but
Nicias, seeing that the battle had been a drawn
one, and expecting that they would attack
again, compelled the captains to refit any of
the ships that had suffered, and moored mer-
chant vessels before the stockade which they
had driven into the sea in front of their ships,
to serve instead of an enclosed harbour, at
about two hundred feet from each other, in or-
der that any ship that was hard pressed might
be able to retreat in safety and sail out again at
leisure. These preparations occupied the Athe-
nians all day until nightfall.

[39] The next day the Syracusans began op-
erations at an earlier hour, but with the same
plan of attack by land and sea. A great part of
the day the rivals spent as before, confronting
and skirmishing with each other; until at last
Ariston, son of Pyrrhicus, a Corinthian, the
ablest helmsman in the Syracusan service, per-
suaded their naval commanders to send to the
officials in the city, and tell them to move the
sale market as quicAdv as they could down to
the sea, and oblige cve;ry one to bring whatever
eatables he had and jsiell them there, thus ena-
bling the commanders to land the crews and
dine at once close to the ships, and shortly af-
terwards, the selfsame day, to attack the Athe-
nians again when they were not expecting it.

[40] In compliance with this advice a mes-
senger was setyt and the market got ready,
^upon which the Syracusans suddenly backed
water ancj withdrew to the town, and at once
landed arid took their dinner upon the spot;
while the Athenians, supposing that they had
returned to the town because they felt they
were beaten, disembarked at their leisure and
set about getting their dinners and about their
other occupations, under the idea that they
done with fighting for that day. Suddenly the
Syracusans had manned their ships and again
sailed against them; and the Athenians, in
great confusion and most of them fasting, got
on board, and with great difficulty put out to
meet them. For some time both parties re-
mained on the defensive without engaging,
until the Athenians at last resolved not to let

37-43]

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

549

themselves be worn out by waiting where they
were, but to attack without delay, and giving
a cheer, went into action. The Syracusans re-
ceived them, and charging prow to prow as
they had intended, stove in a great part of the
Athenian foreships by the strength of their
beaks; the darters on the decks also did great
damage to the Athenians, but still greater dam-
age was done by the Syracusans who went
about in small boats, ran in upon the oars of
the Athenian galleys, and sailed against their
sides, and discharged from thence their darts
upon the sailors.

[41] At last, fighting hard in this fashion,
the Syracusans gained the victory, and the
Athenians turned and fled between the mer-
chantmen to their own station. The Syracusan
ships pursued them as far as the merchantmen,
where they were stopped by the beams armed
with dolphins suspended from those vessels
over the passage. Two of the Syracusan vessels
went too near in the excitement of victory and
were destroyed, one of them being taken with
its crew. After sinking seven of the Athenian
vessels and disabling many, and taking most
of the men prisoners and killing others, the
Syracusans retired and set up trophies for both
the engagements, being now confident of hav-
ing a decided superiority by sea, and by no
means despairing of equal success by land.

CHAPTER XXII

Nineteenth ^ear of the War — Arrival of Demos-
thenes— Defeat of the Athenians at Epipolae
— Folly and Obstinacy of Nicias

IN the meantime, while the Syracusans were
preparing for a second attack upon both ele-
ments, [42] Demosthenes and Eurymedon ar-
rived with the succours from Athens, consist-
ing of about seventy-three ships, including the
foreigners; nearly five thousand heavy infan-
try, Athenian and allied; a large number of
darters, Hellenic and barbarian, and slingers
and archers and everything else upon a corre-
sponding scale. The Syracusans and their allies
were for the moment not a little dismayed at
the idea that there was to be no term or end-
ing to their dangers, seeing, in spite of the for-
tification of Decelea, a new army arrive nearly
equal to the former, and the power of Athens
proving so great in every quarter. On the other
hand, the first Athenian armament regained a
certain confidence in the midst of its misfor-
tunes. Demosthenes, seeing how matters stood,
felt that he could not drag on and fare as Ni-

cias had done, who by wintering in Ca tana in-
stead of at once attacking Syracuse had al-
lowed the terror of his first arrival to evapo-
rate in contempt, and had given time to Gylip-
pus to arrive with a force from Peloponnese,
which the Syracusans would never have sent
for if he had attacked immediately; for they
fancied that they were a match for him by
themselves, and would not have discovered
their inferiority until they were already invest-
ed, and even if they then sent for succours, they
would no longer have been equally able to
profit by their arrival. Recollecting this, and
well aware that it was now on the first day
after his arrival that he like Nicias was most
formidable to the enemy, Demosthenes deter-
mined to lose no time in drawing the utmost
profit from the consternation at the moment
inspired by his army; and seeing that the coun-
terwall of the Syracusans, which hindered the
Athenians from investing them, was a single
one, and that he who should become master
of the way up to Epipolae, and afterwards of
the camp there, would find no difficulty in tak-
ing it, as no one would even wait for his at-
tack, made all haste to attempt the enterprise.
This he took to be the shortest way of ending
the war, as he would either succeed and take
Syracuse, or would lead back the armament
instead of frittering away the lives of the Athe-
nians engaged in the expedition and the re-
sources of the country at large.

First therefore the Athenians went out and
laid waste the lands of the Syracusans about
the Anapus and carried all before them as at
first by land and by sea, the Syracusans not
offering to oppose them upon either element,
unless it were with their cavalry and darters
from the Olympieum. [43] Next Demosthenes
resolved to attempt the counterwall first by
means of engines. As however the engines
that he brought up were burnt by the enemy
fighting from the wall, and the rest of the
forces repulsed after attacking at many differ-
ent points, he determined to delay no longer,
and having obtained the consent of Nicias and
his fellow commanders, proceeded to put in
execution his plan of attacking Epipolae. As
by day it seemed impossible to approach and
get up without being observed, he ordered
provisions for five days, took all the masons
and carpenters, and other things, such as ar-
rows, and everything else that they could
want for the work of fortification if success-
ful, and, after the first watch, set out with Eury-
medon and Menander and the whole army for

550

THUCYDIDES

Epipolae, Nicias being left behind in the lines.
Having come up by the hill of Euryelus (where
the former army had ascended at first) unob-
served by the enemy's guards, they went up to
the fort which the Syracusans had there, and
took it, and put to the sword part of the garri-
son. The greater number, however, escaped at
once and gave the alarm to the camps, of which
there were three upon Epipolae, defended by
outworks, one of the Syracusans, one of the
other Siceliots, and one of the allies; and also
to the six hundred Syracusans forming the
original garrison for this part of Epipolae.
These at once advanced against the assailants
and, falling in with Demosthenes and the Athe-
nians, were routed by them after a sharp re-
sistance, the victors immediately pushing on,
eager to achieve the objects of the attack with-
out giving time for their ardour to cool; mean-
while others from the very beginning were
taking the counterwall of the Syracusans,
which was abandoned by its garrison, and
pulling down the battlements. The Syracusans
and the allies, and Gylippus with the troops
under his command, advanced to the rescue
from the outworks, but engaged in some con-
sternation (a night attack being a piece of au-
dacity which they had never expected), and
were at first compelled to retreat. But while
the Athenians, flushed with their victory, now
advanced with less order, wishing to make
their way as quickly as possible through the
whole force of the enemy not yet engaged,
without relaxing their attack or giving them
time to rally, the Boeotians made the first stand
against them, attacked them, routed them, and
put them to flight.

[44] The Athenians now fell into great dis-
order and perplexity, so that it was not easy to
get from one side or the other any detailed ac-
count of the affair. By day certainly the com-
batants have a clearer notion, though even then
by no means of all that takes place, no one
knowing much of anything that does not go on
in his own immediate neighbourhood; but in
a night engagement (and this was the only one
that occurred between great armies during the
war) how could any one know anything for
certain? Although there was a bright moon
they saw each other only as men do by moon-
light, that is to say, they could distinguish the
form of the body, but could not tell for cer-
tain whether it was a friend or an enemy. Both
had great numbers of heavy infantry moving
about in a small space. Some of the Athenians
were already defeated, while others were com-

[BoOK VII

ing up yet unconquered for their first attack. A
large part also of the rest of their forces either
had only just got up, or were still ascending,
so that they did not know which way to march.
Owing to the rout that had taken place all in
front was now in confusion, and the noise
made it difficult to distinguish anything. The
victorious Syracusans and allies were cheering
each other on with loud cries, by night the
only possible means of communication, and
meanwhile receiving all who came against
them; while the Athenians were seeking for
one another, taking all in front of them for en-
emies, even although they might be some of
their now flying friends; and by constantly ask-
ing for the watchword, which was their only
means of recognition, not only caused great
confusion among themselves by asking all at
once, but also made it known to the enemy,
whose own they did not so readily discover, as
the Syracusans were victorious and not scat-
tered, and thus less easily mistaken. The result
was that if the Athenians fell in with a party
of the enemy that was weaker than they, it
escaped them through knowing their watch-
word; while if they themselves failed to answer
they were put to the sword. But what hurt
them as much, or indeed more than anything
else, was the singing of the paean, from the
perplexity which it caused by being nearly the
same on either side; the Argives and Corcyrae-
ans and any other Dorian peoples in the army,
struck terror into the Athenians whenever they
raised their paean, no less than did the enemy.
Thus, after being once thrown into disorder,
they ended by coming into collision with each
other in many parts of the field, friends with
friends, and citizens with citizens, and not only
terrified one another, but even came to blows
and could only be parted with difficulty. In the
pursuit many perished by throwing themselves
down the cliffs, the way down from Epipolae
being narrow; and of those who got down safe-
ly into the plain, although many, especially
those who belonged to the first armament, es-
caped through their better acquaintance with
the locality, some of the newcomers lost their
way and wandered over the country, and were
cut off in the morning by the Syracusan cav-
alry and killed.

[45] The next day the Syracusans set up two
trophies, one upon Epipolae where the ascent
had been made, and the other on the spot
where the first check was given by the Boeo-
tians; and the Athenians took back their dead
under truce. A great many of the Athenians

44-49]

and allies were killed, although still more arms
were taken than could be accounted for by the
number of the dead, as some of those who were
obliged to leap down from the cliffs without
their shields escaped with their lives and did
not perish like the rest.

[46] After this the Syracusans, recovering
their old confidence at such an unexpected
stroke of good fortune, dispatched Sicanus
with fifteen ships to Agrigentum where there
was a revolution, to induce if possible the city
to join them; while Gylippus again went by
land into the rest of Sicily to bring up rein-
forcements, being now in hope of taking the
Athenian lines bv storm, after the result of the
affair on Epipolae.

[47] In the meantime the Athenian generals
consulted upon the disaster which had hap-
pened, and upon the general weakness of the
army. They saw themselves unsuccessful in
their enterprises, and the soldiers disgusted
with their stay; disease being rife among them
owing to its being the sickly season of the year,
and to the marshy and unhealthy nature of the
spot in which they were encamped; and the
state of their affairs generally being thought
desperate. Accordingly, Demosthenes was of
opinion that they ought not to stay any longer;
but agreeably to his original idea in risking the
attempt upon Epipolae, now that this had
failed, he gave his vote for going away with-
out further loss of time, while the sea might
yet be crossed, and their late reinforcement
might give them the superiority at all events
on that element. He also said that it would be
more profitable for the state to carry on the war
against those who were building fortifications
in Attica, than against the Syracusans whom it
was no longer easy to subdue; besides which it
was not right to squander large sums of money
to no purpose by going on with the siege.

[48] This was the opinion of Demosthenes.
Nicias, without denying the bad state of their
affairs, was unwilling to avow their weakness,
or to have it reported to the enemy that the
Athenians in full council were openly voting
for retreat; for in that case they would be
much less likely to effect it when they wanted
without discovery. Moreover, his own particu-
lar information still gave him reason to hope
that the affairs of the enemy would soon be in
a worse state than their own, if the Athenians
persevered in the siege; as they would wear
out the Syracusans by want of money, especial-
ly with the more extensive command of the
sea now given them by their present navy. Be-

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

551

sides this, there was a party in Syracuse who
wished to betray the city to the Athenians, and
kept sending him messages and telling him
not to raise the siege. Accordingly, knowing
this and really waiting because he hesitated
between the two courses and wished to see his
way more clearly, in his public speech on this
occasion he refused to lead off the army, say-
ing he was sure the Athenians would never
approve of their returning without a vote of
theirs. Those who would vote upon their con-
duct, instead of judging the facts as eye-wit-
nesses like themselves and not from what they
might hear from hostile critics, would simply
be guided by the calumnies of the first clever
speaker; while many, indeed most, of the sol-
diers on the spot, who now so loudly pro-
claimed the danger of their position, when
they reached Athens would proclaim just as
loudly the opposite, and would say that their
generals had been bribed to betray them and
return. For himself, therefore, who knew the
Athenian temper, sooner than perish under a
dishonourable charge and by an unjust sen-
tence at the hands of the Athenians, he would
rather take his chance and die, if die he must,
a soldier's death at the hand of the enemy. Be-
sides, after all, the Syracusans were in a worse
case than themselves. What with paying mer-
cenaries, spending upon fortified posts, and
now for a full year maintaining a large navy,
they were already at a loss and would soon be
at a standstill: they had already spent two
thousand talents and incurred heavy debts be-
sides, and could not lose even ever so small a
fraction of their present force through not
paying it, without ruin to their cause; depend-
ing as they did more upon mercenaries than
upon soldiers obliged to serve, like their own.
He therefore said that they ought to stay and
carry on the siege, and not depart defeated in
point of money, in which they were much su-
perior.

[49] Nicias spoke positively because he had
exact information of the financial distress at
Syracuse, and also because of the strength of
the Athenian party there which kept sending
him messages not to raise the siege' besides
which he had more confidence than before in
his fleet, and felt sure at least of its success. De-
mosthenes, however, would not hear for a mo-
ment of continuing the siege, but said that if
they could not lead off the army without a de-
cree from Athens, and if they were obliged to
stay on, they ought to remove to Thapsus or
Catena; where their land forces would have a

552

THUCYDIDES

[BOOK vii

wide extent of country to overrun, and could
live by plundering the enemy, and would thus
do them damage; while the fleet would have
the open sea to fight in, that is to say, instead
of a narrow space which was all in the enemy's
favour, a wide sea-room where their science
would be of use, and where they could retreat
or advance without being confined or circum-
scribed either when they put out or put in. In
any case he was altogether opposed to their
staying on where they were, and insisted on re-
moving at once, as quickly and with as little
delay as possible; and in this judgment Eury-
medon agreed. Nicias however still objecting,
a certain diffidence and hesitation came over
them, with a suspicion that Nicias might have
some further information to make him so posi-
tive.

CHAPTER XXIII

Nineteenth Year of the War— Battles in the Great

Harbour — Retreat and Annihilation of

the Athenian Army

WHILE the Athenians lingered on in this
way without moving from where they were,
[5°] Gylippus and Sicanus now arrived at Syr-
acuse. Sicanus had failed to gain Agrigcntum,
the party friendly to the Syracusans having
been driven out while he was still at Gela; but
Gylippus was accompanied not only by a large
number of troops raised in Sicily, but by the
heavy infantry sent off in the spring from
Pcloponncsc in the merchantmen, who had ar-
rived at Selinus from Libya. They had been car-
ried to Libya by a storm, and having obtained
two galleys and pilots from the Cyrenians, on
their voyage alongshore had taken sides with
the Eucspcritae and had defeated the Libyans
who were besieging them, and from thence
coasting on to Neapolis, a Carthaginian mart,
and the nearest point to Sicily, from which it
is only two days' and a night's voyage, there
crossed over and came to Selinus. Immediately
upon their arrival the Syracusans prepared to
attack the Athenians again by land and sea at
once. The Athenian generals seeing a fresh
army come to the aid of the enemy, and that
their own circumstances, far from improving,
were becoming daily worse, and above all dis-
tressed by the sickness of the soldiers, now be-
gan to repent of not having removed before;
and Nicias no longer offering the same oppo-
sition, except by urging that there should be
no open voting, they gave orders as secretly as
possible for all to be prepared to sail out from

the camp at a given signal. All was at last
ready, and they were on the point of sailing
away, when an eclipse of the moon, which was
then at the full, took place. Most of the Athe-
nians, deeply impressed by this occurrence,
now urged die generals to wait; and Nicias,
who was somewhat over-addicted to divina-
tion and practices of that kind, refused from
that moment even to take the question of de-
parture into consideration, until they had wait-
ed the thrice nine days prescribed by the sooth-
sayers.

The besiegers were thus condemned to stay
in the country; [51] and the Syracusans, get-
ting wind of what had happened, became more
eager than ever to press the Athenians, who
had now themselves acknowledged that they
were no longer their superiors either by sea or
by land, as otherwise they would never have
planned to sail away. Besides which the Syra-
cusans did not wish them to settle in any other
part of Sicily, where they would be more diffi-
cult to deal with, but desired to force them to
fight at sea as quickly as possible, in a position
favourable to themselves. Accordingly they
manned their ships and practised for as many
days as they thought sufficient. When the mo-
ment arrived they assaulted on the first day
the Athenian lines, and upon a small force of
heavy infantry and horse sallying out against
them by certain gates, cut off some of the for-
mer and routed and pursued them to the lines,
where, as the entrance was narrow, the Athe-
nians lost seventy horses and some few of the
heavy infantry.

[52] Drawing off their troops for this day,
on the next the Syracusans went out with a
fleet of seventy-six sail, and at the same time
advanced with their land forces against the
lines. The Athenians put out to meet them
with eighty-six ships, came to close quarters,
and engaged. The Syracusans and their allies
first defeated the Athenian centre, and then
caught Eurymcdon, the commander of the
right wing, who was sailing out from the line
more towards the land in order to surround
the enemy, in the hollow and recess of the
harbour, and killed him and destroyed the
ships accompanying him; after which they now
chased the whole Athenian fleet before them
and drove them ashore.

/5j7 Gylippus seeing the enemy's fleet de-
feated and carried ashore beyond their stock-
ades and camp, ran down to the breakwater
with some of his troops, in order to cut off the
as they landed and make it easier for the

50-57]

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

553

Syracusans to tow off the vessels by the shore
being friendly ground. The Tyrrhenians who
guarded this point for the Athenians, seeing
them come on in disorder, advanced out
against them and attacked and routed their
van, hurling it into the marsh of Lysimelcia.
Afterwards the Syracusan and allied troops ar-
rived in greater numbers, and the Athenians
fearing for their ships came up also to the res-
cue and engaged them, and defeated and pur-
sued them to some distance and killed a few
of their heavy infantry. They succeeded in res-
cuing most of their ships and brought them
down by their camp; eighteen however were
taken by the Syracusans and their allies, and
all the men killed. The rest the enemy tried to
burn by means of an old merchantman which
they filled with faggots and pine-wood, set on
fire, and let drift down the wind which blew
full on the Athenians. The Athenians, how-
ever, alarmed for their ships, contrived means
for stopping it and putting it out, and checking
the flames and the nearer approach of the mer-
chantman, thus escaped the danger.

[54] After this the Syracusans set up a tro-
phy for the sea-fight and for the heavy infantry
whom they had cut off up at the lines, where
they took the horses; and the Athenians for
the rout of the foot driven by the Tyrrhenians
into the marsh, and for their own victory with
the rest of the army.

/557 The Syracusans had now gained a de-
cisive victory at sea, where until now they had
feared the reinforcement brought by Demos-
thenes, and deep, in consequence, was the des-
pondency of the Athenians, and great their
disappointment, and greater still their regret
for having come on the expedition. These were
the only cities that they had yet encountered,
similar to their own in character, under de-
mocracies like themselves, which had ships and
horses, and were of considerable magnitude.
They had been unable to divide and bring
them over by holding out the prospect of
changes in their governments, or to crush
them by their great superiority in force, but
had failed in most of their attempts, and being
already in perplexity, had now been defeated
at sea, where defeat could never have been ex-
pected, and were thus plunged deeper in em-
barrassment than ever.

[56] Meanwhile the Syracusans immediately
began to sail freely along the harbour, and de-
termined to close up its mouth, so that the
Athenians might not be able to steal out in fu-
ture, even if they wished. Indeed, the Syra-

cusans no longer thought only of saving them-
selves, but also how to hinder the escape of the
enemy; thinking, and thinking rightly, that
they were now much the stronger, and that to
conquer the Athenians and their allies by land
and sea would win them great glory in Hellas.
The rest of the Hellenes would thus immedi-
ately be either freed or released from appre-
hension, as the remaining forces of Athens
would be henceforth unable to sustain the war
that would be waged against her; while they,
the Syracusans, would be regarded as the au-
thors of this deliverance, and would be held in
high admiration, not only with all men now
living but also with posterity. Nor were these
the only considerations that gave dignity to the
struggle. They would thus conquer not only
the Athenians but also their numerous allies,
and conquer not alone, but with their com-
panions in arms, commanding side by side
with the Corinthians and Lacedaemonians,
having offered their city to stand in the van of
danger, and having been in a great measure
the pioneers of naval success.

Indeed, there were never so many peoples
assembled before a single city, if we except the
grand total gathered together in this war under
Athens and Lacedaemon. ^577 The following
were the states on cither side who came to
Syracuse to fight for or against Sicily, to help
to conquer or defend the island. Right or com-
munity of blood was not the bond of union be-
tween them, so much as interest or compulsion
as the case might be. The Athenians them-
selves being lonians went against the Dorians
of Syracuse of their own free will; and the peo-
ples still speaking Attic and using the Athe-
nian laws, the Lemnians, Imbrians, and Aegi-
netans, that is to say the then occupants of Ac-
gina, being their colonists, went with them. To
these must be also added the Hestiaeans dwell-
ing at Hestiaea in Euboea. Of the rest some
joined in the expedition as subjects of the
Athenians, others as independent allies, others
as mercenaries. To the number of the subjects
paying tribute belonged the Eretrians, Chal-
cidians, Styrians, and Carystians from Euboea;
the Ceans, Andrians, and Tenians from the is-
lands; and the Milesians, Samians, and Chians
from Ionia. The Chians, however, joined as in-
dependent allies, paying no tribute, but fur-
nishing ships. Most of these were lonians and
descended from the Athenians, except the Ca-
rystians, who are Dryopes, and although sub-
jects and obliged to serve, were still lonians
fighting against Dorians. Besides these there

554

THUCYDIDES

[BooK vn

were men of Aeolic race, the Methymnians,
subjects who provided ships, not tribute, and
the Tenedians and Aenians who paid tribute.
These Aeolians fought against their Aeolian
founders, the Boeotians in the Syracusan
army, because they were obliged, while the
Plataeans, the only native Boeotians opposed
to Boeotians, did so upon a just quarrel. Of the
Rhodians and Cytherians, both Dorians, the
latter, Lacedaemonian colonists, fought in the
Athenian ranks against their Lacedaemonian
countrymen with Gylippus; while the Rhodi-
ans, Argives by race, were compelled to bear
arms against the Dorian Syracusans and their
own colonists, the Geloans, serving with the
Syracusans. Of the islanders round Pelopon-
nese, the Cephallenians and Zacynthians ac-
companied the Athenians as independent al-
lies, although their insular position really left
them little choice in the matter, owing to the
maritime supremacy of Athens, while the Cor-
cyraeans, who were not only Dorians but Co-
rinthians, were openly serving against Corin-
thians and Syracusans, although colonists of
the former and of the same race as the latter,
under colour of compulsion, but really out of
free will through hatred of Corinth. The Mes-
senians, as they are now called in Naupactus
and from Pylos, then held by the Athenians,
were taken with them to the war. There were
also a few Megarian exiles, whose fate it was to
be now fighting against the Megarian Selinun-
tines.

The engagement of the rest was more of a
voluntary nature. It was less the league than
hatred of the Lacedaemonians and the immedi-
ate private advantage of each individual that
persuaded the Dorian Argives to join the Io-
nian Athenians in a war against Dorians; while
the Mantineans and other Arcadian merce-
naries, accustomed to go against the enemy
pointed out to them at the moment, were led
by interest to regard the Arcadians serving
with the Corinthians as just as much their en-
emies as any others. The Cretans and Aeto-
lians also served for hire, and the Cretans who
had joined the Rhodians in founding Gela,
thus came to consent to fight for pay against,
instead of for, their colonists. There were also
some Acarnanians paid to serve, although they
came chiefly for love of Demosthenes and out
of goodwill to the Athenians whose allies they
were. These all lived on the Hellenic side of
the Ionian Gulf. Of the Italiots, there were the
Thurians and Metapontines, dragged into the
quarrel by the stern necessities of a time of rev*

olution; of the Siceliots, the Naxians and the
Catanians; and of the barbarians, the Egestae-
ans, who called in the Athenians, most of the
Sicels, and outside Sicily some Tyrrhenian en-
emies of Syracuse and lapygian mercenaries.

Such were the peoples serving with the
Athenians. [58] Against these the Syracusans
had the Camarinaeans their neighbours, the
Geloans who live next to them; then passing
over the neutral Agrigentines, the Selinuntines
settled on the farther side of the island. These
inhabit the part of Sicily looking towards
Libya; the Himeraeans came from the side to-
wards the Tyrrhenian Sea, being the only Hel-
lenic inhabitants in that quarter, and the only
people that came from thence to the aid of the
Syracusans. Of the Hellenes in Sicily the above
peoples joined in the war, all Dorians and in-
dependent, and of the barbarians the Sicels
only, that is to say, such as did not go over to
the Athenians. Of the Hellenes outside Sicily
there were the Lacedaemonians, who provided
a Spartan to take the command, and a force of
Neodamodes or Freedmen, and of Helots; the
Corinthians, who alone joined with naval and
land forces, with their Leucadian and Am-
braciot kinsmen; some mercenaries sent by Co-
rinth from Arcadia; some Sicyonians forced to
serve, and from outside Peloponnese the Boeo-
tians. In comparison, however, with these for-
eign auxiliaries, the great Siceliot cities fur-
nished more in every department — numbers of
heavy infantry, ships, and horses, and an im-
mense multitude besides having been brought
together; while in comparison, again, one may
say, with all the rest put together, more was
provided by the Syracusans themselves, both
from the greatness of the city and from the fact
that they were in the greatest danger.

[59] Such were the auxiliaries brought to-
gether on either side, all of which had by this
time joined, neither party experiencing any
subsequent accession. It was no wonder, there-
fore, if the Syracusans and their allies thought
that it would win them great glory if they
could follow up their recent victory in the sea-
fight by the capture of the whole Athenian
armada, without letting it escape either by sea
or by land. They began at once to close up the
Great Harbour by means of boats, merchant
vessels, and galleys moored broadside across its
mouth, which is nearly a mile wide, and made
all their other arrangements for the event of
the Athenians again venturing to fight at sea.
There was, in fact, nothing little either in their
plans or their ideas.

58-63]

[60] The Athenians, seeing them closing up
the harbour and informed of their further de-
signs, called a council of war. The generals and
colonels assembled and discussed the difficul-
ties of the situation; the point which pressed
most being that they no longer had provisions
for immediate use (having sent on to Catana
to tell them not to send any, in the belief that
they were going away), and that they would
not have any in future unless they could com-
mand the sea. They therefore determined to
evacuate their upper lines, to enclose with a
cross wall and garrison a small space close to
the ships, only just sufficient to hold their
stores and sick, and manning all the ships, sea-
worthy or not, with every man that could be
spared from the rest of their land forces, to
fight it out at sea, and, if victorious, to go to
Catana, if not, to burn their vessels, form in
close order, and retreat by land for the nearest
friendly place they could reach, Hellenic or bar-
barian. This was no sooner settled than car-
ried into effect; they descended gradually from
the upper lines and manned all their vessels,
compelling all to go on board who were of age
to be in any way of use. They thus succeeded
in manning about one hundred and ten ships
in all, on board of which they embarked a
number of archers and darters taken from the
Acarnanians and from the other foreigners,
making all other provisions allowed by the na-
ture of their plan and by the necessities which
imposed it. All was now nearly ready, and
Nicias, seeing the soldiery disheartened by
their unprecedented and decided defeat at sea,
and by reason of the scarcity of provisions
eager to fight it out as soon as possible, called
them all together, and first addressed them,
speaking as follows:

[61] "Soldiers of the Athenians and of the
allies, we have all an equal interest in the com-
ing struggle, in which life and country are at
stake for us quite as much as they can be for
the enemy; since if our fleet wins the day, each
can see his native city again, wherever that city
may be. You must not lose heart, or be like
men without any experience, who fail in a first
essay and ever afterwards fearfully forebode
a future as disastrous. But let the Athenians
among you who have already had experience
of many wars, and the allies who have joined
us in so many expeditions, remember the sur-
prises of war, and with the hope that fortune
will not be always against us, prepare to fight
again in a manner worthy of the number
which you see yourselves to be.

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

555

[62] "Now, whatever we thought would be
of service against the crush of vessels in such a
narrow harbour, and against the force upon
the decks of the enemy, from which we suf-
fered before, has all been considered with the
helmsmen, and, as far as our means allowed,
provided. A number of archers and darters will
go on board, and a multitude that we should
not have employed in an action in the open
sea, where our science would be crippled by the
weight of the vessels; but in the present land-
fight that we are forced to make from ship-
board all this will be useful. We have also dis-
covered the changes in construction that we
must make to meet theirs; and against the
thickness of their cheeks, which did us the
greatest mischief, we have provided grappling-
irons, which will prevent an assailant backing
water after charging, if the soldiers on deck
here do their duty; since we are absolutely
compelled to fight a land battle from the fleet,
and it seems to be our interest neither to back
water ourselves, nor to let the enemy do so,
especially as the shore, except so much of it as
may be held by our troops, is hostile ground.

V 63] "You must remember this and fight on
as long as you can, and must not let yourselves
be driven ashore, but once alongside must
make up your minds not to part company un-
til you have swept the heavy infantry from the
enemy's deck. I say this more for the heavy in-
fantry than for the seamen, as it is more the
business of the men on deck; and our land
forces are even now on the whole the strongest.
The sailors I advise, and at the same time im-
plore, not to be too much daunted by their mis-
fortunes, now that we have our decks better
armed and a greater number of vessels. Bear
in mind how well worth preserving is the
pleasure felt by those of you who through your
knowledge of our language and imitation of
our manners were always considered Athe-
nians, even though not so in reality, and as
such were honoured throughout Hellas, and
had your full share of the advantages of our
empire, and more than your share in the re-
spect of our subjects and in protection from ill
treatment. You, therefore, with whom alone
we freely share our empire, we now justly re-
quire not to betray that empire in its extremity,
and in scorn of Corinthians, whom you have
often conquered, and of Siceliots, none of
whom so much as presumed to stand against
us when our navy was in its prime, we ask you
to repel them, and to show that even in sick-
ness and disaster your skill is more than a

556

THUCYDIDES

[BOOK vii

match for the fortune and vigour of any other.

[64] "For the Athenians among you I add
once more this reflection: You left behind you
no more such ships in your docks as these, no
more heavy infantry in their flower; if you do
aught but conquer, our enemies here will im-
mediately sail thither, and those that are left
of us at Athens will become unable to repel
their home assailants, reinforced by these new
allies. Here you will fall at once into the hands
of the Syracusans — I need not remind you of
the intentions with which you attacked them —
and your countrymen at home will fall into
those of the Lacedaemonians. Since the fate of
both thus hangs upon this single battle, now,
if ever, stand firm, and remember, each and all,
that you who are now going on board are the
army and navy of the Athenians, and all that
is left of the state and the great name of Ath-
ens, in whose defence if any man has any ad-
vantage in skill or courage, now is the time for
him to show it, and thus serve himself and save
all."

[65] After this address Nicias at once gave
orders to man the ships. Meanwhile Gylippus
and the Syracusans could perceive by the prep-
arations which they saw going on that the
Athenians meant to fight at sea. They had also
notice of the grappling-irons, against which
they specially provided by stretching hides over
the prows and much of the upper part of their
vessels, in order that the irons when thrown
might slip off without taking hold. All being
now ready, the generals and Gylippus ad-
dressed them in the following terms:

^667 "Syracusans and allies, the glorious
character of our past achievements and the no
less glorious results at issue in the coming bat-
tle arc, we think, understood by most of you,
or you would never have thrown yourselves
with such ardour into the struggle; and if there
be any one not as fully aware of the facts as he
ought to be, we will declare them to him. The
Athenians came to this country first to effect
the conquest of Sicily, and after that, if suc-
cessful, of Peloponnese and the rest of Hellas,
possessing already the greatest empire yet
known, of present or former times, among the
Hellenes. Here for the first time they found in
you men who faced their navy which made
them masters everywhere; you have already
defeated them in the previous sea-fights, and
will in all likelihood defeat them again now.
When men are once checked in what they con-
sider their special excellence, their whole opin-
ion of themselves suffers more than if they had

not at first believed in their superiority, the un-
expected shock to their pride causing them to
give way more than their real strength war-
rants; and this is probably now the case with
the Athenians.

[67] "With us it is different. The original
estimate of ourselves which gave us courage in
the days of our unskilf ulness has been strength-
ened, while the conviction superadded to it that
we must be the best seamen of the time, if we
have conquered the best, has given a double
measure of hope to every man among us; and,
for the most pan, where there is the greatest
hope, there is also the greatest ardour for ac-
tion. The means to combat us which they have
tried to find in copying our armament are fa-
miliar to our warfare, and will be met by
proper provisions; while they will never be able
to have a number of heavy infantry on their
decks, contrary to their custom, and a number
of darters (born landsmen, one may say, Acar-
nanians and others, embarked afloat, who will
not know how to discharge their weapons
when they have to keep still), without hamper-
ing their vessels and falling all into confusion
among themselves through fighting not ac-
cording to their own tactics. For they will gain
nothing by the number of their ships — I say
this to those of you who may be alarmed by
having to fight against odds — as a quantity of
ships in a confined space will only be slower in
executing the movements required, and most
exposed to injury from our means of offence.
Indeed, if you would know the plain truth, as
we are credibly informed, the excess of their
sufferings and the necessities of their present
distress have made them desperate; they have
no confidence in their force, but wish to try
their fortune in the only way they can, and
either to force their passage and sail out, or
after this to retreat by land, it being impossible
for them to be worse off than they are.

[68] "The fortune of our greatest enemies
having thus betrayed itself, and their disorder
being what I have described, let us engage in
anger, convinced that, as between adversaries,
nothing is more legitimate than to claim to
sate the whole wrath of one% soul in punish-
ing the aggressor, and nothing more sweet, as
the proverb has it, than the vengeance upon an
enemy, which it will now be ours to take. That
enemies they are and mortal enemies you all
know, since they came here to enslave our
country, and if successful had in reserve for our
men all that is most dreadful, and for our chil-
dren and wives all that is most dishonourable,

64-70]

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

557

and for the whole city the name which con-
veys the greatest reproach. None should there-
fore relent or think it gain if they go away
without further danger to us. This they will do
just the same, even if they get the victory;
while if we succeed, as we may expect, in chas-
tising them, and in handing down to all Sicily
her ancient freedom strengthened and con-
firmed, we shall have achieved no mean tri-
umph. And the rarest dangers are those in
which failure brings little loss and success the
greatest advantage."

[69] After the above address to the soldiers
on their side, the Syracusan generals and
Gylippus now perceived that the Athenians
were manning their ships, and immediately
proceeded to man their own also. Meanwhile
Nicias, appalled by the position of affairs, real-
izing the greatness and the nearness of the dan-
ger now that they were on the point of putting
out from shore, and thinking, as men are apt
to think in great crises, that when all has been
done they have still something left to do, and
when all has been said that they have not yet
said enough, again called on the captains one
by one, addressing each by his father's name
and by his own, and by that of his tribe, and
adjured them not to belie their own personal
renown, or to obscure the hereditary virtues
for which their ancestors were illustrious: he
reminded them of their country, the freest of
the free, and of the unfettered discretion al-
lowed in it to all to live as they pleased; and
added other arguments such as men would use
at such a crisis, and which, with little altera-
tion, are made to serve on all occasions alike —
appeals to wives, children, and national gods —
without caring whether they are thought com-
monplace, but loudly invoking them in the be-
lief that they will be of use in the consterna-
tion of the moment. Having thus admonished
them, not, he felt, as he would, but as he could,
Nicias withdrew and led the troops to the sea,
and ranged them in as long a line as he was
able, in order to aid as far as possible in sustain-
ing the courage of the men afloat; while De-
mosthenes, Menander, and Euthydemus, who
took the command on board, put out from their
own camp and sailed straight to the barrier
across the mouth of the harbour and to the pas-
sage left open, to try to force their way out.

[70] The Syracusans and their allies had al-
ready put out with about the same number of
ships as before, a part of which kept guard at
the outlet, and the remainder all round the rest
of the harbour, in order to attack the Athe-

nians on all sides at once; while the land forces
held themselves in readiness at the points at
which the vessels might put into the shore.
The Syracusan fleet was commanded by Si-
canus and Agatharchus, who had each a wing
of the whole force, with Pythen and the Co-
rinthians in the centre. When the rest of the
Athenians came up to the barrier, with the first
shock of their charge they overpowered the
ships stationed there, and tried to undo the
fastenings; after this, as the Syracusans and
allies bore down upon them from all quarters,
the action spread from the barrier over the
whole harbour, and was more obstinately dis-
puted than any of the preceding ones. On
either side the rowers showed great zeal in
bringing up their vessels at the boatswains' or-
ders, and the helmsmen great skill in manoeu-
vring, and great emulation one with another;
while the ships once alongside, the soldiers on
board did their best not to let the service on
deck be outdone by the others; in short, every
man strove to prove himself the first in his
particular department. And as many ships
were engaged in a small compass (for these
were the largest fleets fighting in the narrow-
est space ever known, being together little
short of two hundred), the regular attacks
with the beak were few, there being no oppor-
tunity of backing water or of breaking the line;
while the collisions caused by one ship chanc-
ing to run foul of another, either in flying from
or attacking a third, were more frequent. So
long as a vessel was coming up to the charge
the men on the decks rained darts and arrows
and stones upon her; but once alongside, the
heavy infantry tried to board each other's ves-
sel, fighting hand to hand. In many quarters it
happened, by reason of the narrow room, that
a vessel was charging an enemy on one side
and being charged herself on another, and that
two or sometimes more ships had perforce got
entangled round one, obliging the helmsmen
to attend to defence here, offence there, not to
one thing at once, but to many on all sides;
while the huge din caused by the number of
ships crashing together not only spread terror,
but made the orders of the boatswains inaudi-
ble. The boatswains on either side in the dis-
charge of their duty and in the heat of the con-
flict shouted incessantly orders and appeals to
their men; the Athenians they urged to force
the passage out, and now if ever to show their
mettle and lay hold of a safe return to their
country; to the Syracusans and their allies they
cried that it would be glorious to prevent the

558

THUCYDIDES

[BOOK vii

escape of the enemy, and, conquering, to exalt
the countries that were theirs. The generals,
moreover, on either side, if they saw any in any
part of the battle backing ashore without being
forced to do so, called out to the captain by
name and asked him — the Athenians, whether
they were retreating because they thought the
thrice hostile shore more their own than that
sea which had cost them so much labour to
win; the Syracusans, whether they were flying
from the flying Athenians, whom they well
knew to be eager to escape in whatever way
they could.

[yi] Meanwhile the two armies on shore,
while victory hung in the balance, were a prey
to the most agonizing and conflicting emo-
tions; the natives thirsting for more glory than
they had already won, while the invaders
feared to find themselves in even worse plight
than before. The all of the Athenians being set
upon their fleet, their fear for the event was like
nothing they had ever felt; while their view
of the struggle was necessarily as chequered as
the battle itself. Close to the scene of action and
not all looking at the same point at once, some
saw their friends victorious and took courage
and fell to calling upon heaven not to deprive
them of salvation, while others who had their
eyes turned upon the losers, wailed and cried
aloud, and, although spectators, were more
overcome than the actual combatants. Others,
again, were gazing at some spot where the bat-
tle was evenly disputed; as the strife was pro-
tracted without decision, their swaying bodies
reflected the agitation of their minds, and they
suffered the worst agony of all, ever just within
reach of safety or just on the point of destruc-
tion. In short, in that one Athenian army as
long as the sea-fight remained doubtful there
was every sound to be heard at once, shrieks,
cheers, "We win," "We lose," and all the other
manifold exclamations that a great host would
necessarily utter in great peril; and with the
men in the fleet it was nearly the same; until at
last the Syracusans and their allies, after the
battle had lasted a long while, put the Athe-
nians to flight, and with much shouting and
cheering chased them in open rout to the
shore. The naval force, one one way, one an-
other, as many as were not taken afloat now
ran ashore and rushed from on board their
ships to their camp; while the army, no more
divided, but carried away by one impulse, all
with shrieks and groans deplored the event,
and ran down, some to help the ships, others to
guard what was left of their wall, while the

remaining and most numerous part already be-
gan to consider how they should save them-
selves. Indeed, the panic of the present mo-
ment had never been surpassed. They now
suffered very nearly what they had inflicted at
Pylos; as then the Lacedaemonians with the
loss of their fleet lost also the men who had
crossed over to the island, so now the Athe-
nians had no hope of escaping by land, with-
out the help of some extraordinary accident.

[72] The sea-fight having been a severe one,
and many ships and lives having been lost on
both sides, the victorious Syracusans and their
allies now picked up their wrecks and dead,
and sailed off to the city and set up a trophy.
The Athenians, overwhelmed by their misfor-
tune, never even thought of asking leave to
take up their dead or wrecks, but wished to
retreat that very night. Demosthenes, however,
went to Nicias and gave it as his opinion that
they should man the ships they had left and
make another effort to force their passage out
next morning; saying that they had still left
more ships fit for service than the enemy, the
Athenians having about sixty remaining as
against less than fifty of their opponents.
Nicias was quite of his mind; but when they
wished to man the vessels, the sailors refused to
go on board, being so utterly overcome by their
defeat as no longer to believe in the possibility
of success.

Accordingly they all now made up their
minds to retreat by land. [73] Meanwhile the
Syracusan Hermocrates — suspecting their in-
tention, and impressed by the danger of allow-
ing a force of that magnitude to retire by land,
establish itself in some other part of Sicily, and
from thence renew the war — went and stated
his views to the authorities, and pointed out to
them that they ought not to let the enemy get
away by night, but that all the Syracusans and
their allies should at once march out and block
up the roads and seize and guard the passes.
The authorities were entirely of his opinion,
and thought that it ought to be done, but on
the other hand felt sure that the people, who
had given themselves over to rejoicing, and
were taking their ease after a great battle at
sea, would not be easily brought to obey; be-
sides, they were celebrating a festival, having
on that day a sacrifice to Heracles, and most of
them in their rapture at the victory had fallen
to drinking at the festival, and would probably
consent to anything sooner than to take up
their arms and march out at that moment. For
these reasons the thing appeared impracticable

7176]

to the magistrates; and Hcrmocrates, finding
himself unable to do anything further with
them, had now recourse to the following strat-
agem of his own. What he feared was that the
Athenians might quietly get the start of them
by passing the most difficult places during the
night; and he therefore sent, as soon as it was
dusk, some friends of his own to the camp with
some horsemen who rode up within earshot
and called out to some of the men, as though
they were well-wishers of the Athenians, and
told them to tell Nicias (who had in fact some
correspondents who informed him of what
went on inside the town) not to lead off the
army by night as the Syracusans were guard-
ing the roads, but to make his preparations at
his leisure and to retreat by day. After saying
this they departed; and their hearers informed
the Athenian generals, [74] who put off going
for that night on the strength of this message,
not doubting its sincerity.

Since after all they had not set out at once,
they now determined to stay also the following
day to give time to the soldiers to pack up as
well as they could the most useful articles, and,
leaving everything else behind, to start only
with what was strictly necessary for their per-
sonal subsistence. Meanwhile the Syracusans
and Gylippus marched out and blocked up the
roads through the country by which the Athe-
nians were likely to pass, and kept guard at
the fords of the streams and rivers, posting
themselves so as to receive them and stop the
army where they thought best; while their fleet
sailed up to the beach and towed off the ships
of the Athenians. Some few were burned by
the Athenians themselves as they had intended;
the rest the Syracusans lashed on to their own
at their leisure as they had been thrown up on
shore, without any one trying to stop them, and
conveyed to the town.

/"757 After this, Nicias and Demosthenes
now thinking that enough had been done in
the way of preparation, the removal of the
army took place upon the second day after the
sea-fight. It was a lamentable scene, not merely
from the single circumstance that they were
retreating after having lost all their ships, their
great hopes gone, and themselves and the state
in peril; but also in leaving the camp there
were things most grievous for every eye and
heart to contemplate. The dead lay unburied,
and each man as he recognized a friend among
them shuddered with grief and horror; while
the living whom they were leaving behind,
wounded or sick, were to the living far more

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

559

shocking than the dead, and more to be pitied
than those who had perished. These fell to en-
treating and bewailing until their friends
knew not what to do, begging them to take
them and loudly calling to each individual
comrade or relative whom they could see,
hanging upon the necks of their tent-fellows
in the act of departure, and following as far
as they could, and, when their bodily strength
failed them, calling again and again upon
heaven and shrieking aloud as they were left
behind. So that the whole army being filled
with tears and distracted after this fashion
found it not easy to go, even from an enemy's
land, where they had already suffered evils too
great for tears and in the unknown future be-
fore them feared to suffer more. Dejection and
self-condemnation were also rife among them.
Indeed they could only be compared to a
starved-out town, and that no small one, escap-
ing; the whole multitude upon the march be-
ing not less than forty thousand men. All car-
ried anything they could which might be of
use, and the heavy infantry and troopers, con-
trary to their wont, while under arms carried
their own victuals, in some cases for want of
servants, in others through not trusting them;
as they had long been deserting and now did
so in greater numbers than ever. Yet even thus
they did not carry enough, as there was no
longer food in the camp. Moreover their dis-
grace generally, and the universality of their
sufferings, however to a certain extent allevi-
ated by being borne in company, were still felt
at the moment a heavy burden, especially when
the'y contrasted the splendour and glory of
their setting out with the humiliation in which
it had ended. For this was by far the greatest
reverse that ever befell an Hellenic army. They
had come to enslave others, and were depart-
ing in fear of being enslaved themselves: they
had sailed out with prayer and paeans, and
now started to go back with omens directly
contrary; travelling by land instead of by sea,
and trusting not in their fleet but in their
heavy infantry. Nevertheless the greatness of
the danger still impending made all this appear
tolerable.

[76] Nicias seeing the army dejected and
greatly altered, passed along the ranks and en-
couraged and comforted them as far as was
possible under the circumstances, raising his
voice still higher and higher as he went from
one company to another in his earnestness, and
in his anxiety that the benefit of his words
might reach as many as possible:

560

THUCYDIDES

[BOOK vii

[??] "Athenians and allies, even in our pres-
ent position we must still hope on, since men
have ere now been saved from worse straits
than this; and you must not condemn your-
selves too severely either because of your dis-
asters or because of your present unmerited
sufferings. I myself who am not superior to
any of you in strength — indeed you see how I
am in my sickness — and who in the gifts of
fortune am, I think, whether in private life or
otherwise, the equal of any, am now exposed
to the same danger as the meanest among you;
and yet my life has been one of much devotion
toward the gods, and of much justice and with-
out offence toward men. I have, therefore, still
a strong hope for the future, and our mis-
fortunes do not terrify me as much as they
might. Indeed we may hope that they will be
lightened: our enemies have had good fortune
enough; and if any of the gods was offended
at our expedition, we have been already amply
punished. Others before us have attacked their
neighbours and have done what men will do
without suffering more than they could bear;
and we may now justly expect to find the gods
more kind, for we have become fitter objects
for their pity than their jealousy. And then
look at yourselves, mark the numbers and
efficiency of the heavy infantry marching in
your ranks, and do not give way too much to
despondency, but reflect that you arc your-
selves at once a city wherever you sit down,
and that there is no other in Sicily that could
easily resist your attack, or expel you when
once established. The safety and order of the
march is for yourselves to look to; the one
thought of each man being that the spot on
which he may be forced to fight must be con-
quered and held as his country and stronghold.
Meanwhile we shall hasten on our way night
and day alike, as our provisions are scanty;
and if we can reach some friendly place of the
Sicels, whom fear of the Syracusans still keeps
true to us, you may forthwith consider your-
selves safe. A message has been sent on to them
with directions to meet us with supplies of
food. To sum up, be convinced, soldiers, that
you must be brave, as there is no place near for
your cowardice to take refuge in, and that if
you now escape from the enemy, you may all
see again what your hearts desire, while those
of you who are Athenians will raise up again
the great power of the state, fallen though it
be. Men make the city and not walls or ships
without men in them."
[78] As he made this address, Nicias went

along the ranks, and brought back to their
place any of the troops that he saw straggling
out of the line; while Demosthenes did as
much for his part of the army, addressing them
in words very similar. The army marched in
a hollow square, the division under Nicias
leading, and that of Demosthenes following,
the heavy infantry being outside and the bag-
gage-carriers and the bulk of the army in the
middle. When they arrived at the ford of the
river Anapus there they found drawn up a
body of the Syracusans and allies, and routing
these, made good their passage and pushed on,
harassed by the charges of the Syracusan horse
and by the missiles of their light troops. On
that day they advanced about four miles and
a half, halting for the night upon a certain
hill. On the next they started early and got on
about two miles further, and descended into
a place in the plain and there encamped, in
order to procure some eatables from the
houses, as the place was inhabited, and to carry
on with them water from thence, as for many
furlongs in front, in the direction in which
they were going, it was not plentiful. The
Syracusans meanwhile went on and fortified
the pass in front, whe^e there was a steep hill
with a rocky ravine A1S each side of it, called
the Acraean cliff. TPcls*t day the Athenians
advancing found the&tt(;r*es impeded by the
missiles and charges of thlv£6rse and darters,
both very numerous, of the Syracusans and
allies; and after fighting for a long while, at
length retired to tne same camp, where they
had no longer provisions as before, it being
impossible to leave their position by reason of
the cavalry.

[79] Early next morning they started afresh
and forced their way to the hill, which had
been fortified, where they found before them
the enemy's infantry drawn up many shields
deep to defend the fortification, the pass being
narrow. The Athenians assaulted the work,
but were greeted by a storm of missiles from
the hill, which told with the greater effect
through its being a steep one, and unable to
force the passage, retreated again and rested.
Meanwhile occurred some claps of thunder
and rain, as often happens towards autumn,
which still further disheartened the Athenians,
who thought all these things to be omens of
their approaching ruin. While they were rest-
ing, Gylippus and the Syracusans sent a part of
their army to throw up works in their rear on
the way by which they had advanced; how-
ever, the Athenians immediately sent some of

77-82]

their men and prevented them; after which
they retreated more towards the plain and
halted for the night. When they advanced the
next day the Syracusans surrounded and at-
tacked them on every side, and disabled many
of them, falling back if the Athenians ad-
vanced and coming on if they retired, and in
particular assaulting their rear, in the hope of
routing them in detail, and thus striking a
panic into the whole army. For a long while
the Athenians persevered in this fashion, but
after advancing for four or five furlongs halted
to rest in the plain, the Syracusans also with-
drawing to their own camp.

[80] During the night Nicias and Demos-
thenes, seeing the wretched condition of their
troops, now in want of every kind of necessary,
and numbers of them disabled in the numer-
ous attacks of the enemy, determined to light
as many fires as possible, and to lead off the
army, no longer by the same route as they had
intended, but towards the sea in the opposite
direction to that guarded by the Syracusans.
The whole of this route was leading the army
not to Catana but to the other side of Sicily,
towards Camarina, Gela, and the other Hel-
lenic and barbarian towns in that quarter.
They accordingly lit a number of fires and set
out by night. Now all armies, and the greatest
most of all, are liable to fears and alarms,
especially when they are marching by night
through an enemy's country and with the
enemy near; and the Athenians falling into
one of these panics, the leading division, that
of Nicias, kept together and got on a good
way in front, while that of Demosthenes, com-
prising rather more than half the army, got
separated and marched on in some disorder.
By morning, however, they reached the sea,
and getting into the Helorine road, pushed on
in order to reach the river Cacyparis, and to
follow the stream up through the interior,
where they hoped to be met by the Sicels
whom they had sent for. Arrived at the river,
they found there also a Syracusan party en-
gaged in barring the passage of the ford with
a wall and a palisade, and forcing this guard,
crossed the river and went on to another called
the Erineus, according to the advice of their
guides.

[Si] Meanwhile, when day came and the
Syracusans and allies found that the Athenians
were gone, most of them accused Gylippus of
having let them escape on purpose, and hastily
pursuing by the road which they had no dif-
ficulty in finding that they had taken, over-

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

561

took them about dinner-time. They first came
up with the troops under Demosthenes, who
were behind and marching somewhat slowly
and in disorder, owing to the night panic
above referred to, and at once attacked and
engaged them, the Syracusan horse surround-
ing them with more ease now that they were
separated from the rest, and hemming them in
on one spot. The division of Nicias was five
or six miles on in front, as he led them more
rapidly, thinking that under the circumstances
their safety lay not in staying and fighting,
unless obliged, but in retreating as fast as pos-
sible, and only fighting when forced to do so.
On the other hand, Demosthenes was, general-
ly speaking, harassed more incessantly, as his
post in the rear left him the first exposed to
the attacks of the enemy; and now, finding
that the Syracusans were in pursuit, he omit-
ted to push on, in order to form his men for
battle, and so lingered until he was surround-
ed by his pursuers and himself and the Athe-
nians with him placed in the most distressing
position, being huddled into an enclosure with
a wall all round it, a road on this side and on
that, and olive-trees in great number, where
missiles were showered in upon them from
every quarter. This mode of attack the Syra-
cusans had with good reason adopted in pref-
erence to fighting at close quarters, as to risk
a struggle with desperate men was now more
for the advantage of the Athenians than for
their own; besides, their success had now be-
come so certain that they began to spare them-
selves a little in order not to be cut off in the
moment of victory, thinking too that, as it
was, they would be able in this way to subdue
and capture the enemy.

[82] In fact, after plying the Athenians and
allies all day long from every side with mis-
siles, they at length saw that they were worn
out with their wounds and other sufferings;
and Gylippus and the Syracusans and their al-
lies made a proclamation, offering their liberty
to any of the islanders who chose to come over
to them; and some few cities went over. After-
wards a capitulation was agreed upon for all
the rest with Demosthenes, to lay down their
arms on condition that no one was to be put
to death either by violence or imprisonment or
want of the necessaries of life. Upon this they
surrendered to the number of six thousand
in all, laying down all the money in their pos-
session, which filled the hollows of four shields,
and were immediately conveyed by the Syra-
cusans to the town.

562

THUCYDIDES

[BOOK vii

Meanwhile Nicias with his division arrived
that day at the river Erineus, crossed over, and
posted his army upon some high ground upon
the other side. [83] The next day the Syra-
cusans overtook him and told him that the
troops under Demosthenes had surrendered,
and invited him to follow their example. In-
credulous of the fact, Nicias asked for a truce
to send a horseman to see, and upon the return
of the messenger with the tidings that they had
surrendered, sent a herald to Gylippus and the
Syracusans, saying that he was ready to agree
with them on behalf of the Athenians to repay
whatever money the Syracusans had spent
upon the war if they would let his army go;
and offered until the money was paid to give
Athenians as hostages, one for every talent.
The Syracusans and Gylippus rejected this
proposition, and attacked this division as they
had the other, standing all round and plying
them with missiles until the evening. Food and
necessaries were as miserably wanting to the
troops of Nicias as they had been to their com-
rades; nevertheless they watched for the quiet
of the night to resume their march. But as they
were taking up their arms the Syracusans per-
ceived it and raised their paean, upon which
the Athenians, finding that they were discov-
ered, laid them down again, except about three
hundred men who forced their way through
the guards and went on during the night as
they were able.

[84] As soon as it was day Nicias put his
army in motion, pressed, as before, by the Syr-
acusans and their allies, pelted from every side
by their missiles, and struck down by their
javelins. The Athenians pushed on for the
Assinarus, impelled by the attacks made upon
them from every side by a numerous cavalry
and the swarm of other arms, fancying that
they should breathe more freely if once across
the river, and driven on also by their exhaus-
tion and craving for water. Once there they
rushed in, and all order was at an end, each
man wanting to cross first, and the attacks of
the enemy making it difficult to cross at all;
forced to huddle together, they fell against and
trod down one another, some dying immedi-
ately upon the javelins, others getting en-
tangled together and stumbling over the arti-
cles of baggage, without being able to rise
again. Meanwhile the opposite bank, which
was steep, was lined by the Syracusans, who
showered missiles down upon the Athenians,
most of them drinking greedily and heaped
together in disorder in the hollow bed of the

river. The Peloponnesians also came down and
butchered them, especially those in the water,
which was thus immediately spoiled, but
which they went on drinking just the same,
mud and all, bloody as it was, most even fight-
ing to have it.

[85] At last, when many dead now lay piled
one upon another in the stream, and part of
the army had been destroyed at the river, and
the few that escaped from thence cut off by the
cavalry, Nicias surrendered himself to Gylip-
pus, whom he trusted more than he did the
Syracusans, and told him and the Lacedae-
monians to do what they liked with him, but
to stop the slaughter of the soldiers. Gylippus,
after this, immediately gave orders to make
prisoners; upon which the rest were brought
together alive, except a large number secreted
by the soldiery, and a party was sent in pur-
suit of the three hundred who had got through
the guard during the night, and who were
now taken with the rest. The number of the
enemy collected as public property was not
considerable; but that secreted was very large,
and all Sicily was filled with them, no con-
vention having been made in their case as for
those taken with Demosthenes. Besides this, a
large portion were killed outright, the carnage
being very great, and not exceeded by any in
this Sicilian war. In the numerous other en-
counters upon the march, not a few also had
fallen. Nevertheless many escaped, some at the
moment, others served as slaves, and then ran
away subsequently. These found refuge at
Catana.

[86] The Syracusans and their allies now
mustered and took up the spoils and as many
prisoners as they could, and went back to the
city. The rest of their Athenian and allied
captives were deposited in the quarries, this
seeming the safest way of keeping them; but
Nicias and Demosthenes were butchered,
against the will of Gylippus, who thought that
it would be the crown of his triumph if he
could take the enemy's generals to Lacedae-
mon. One of them, as it happened, Demos-
thenes, was one of her greatest enemies, on
account of the affair of the island and of Pylos;
while the other, Nicias, was for the same rea-
sons one of her greatest friends, owing to his
exertions to procure the release of the prison-
ers by persuading the Athenians to make
peace. For these reasons the Lacedaemonians
felt kindly towards him; and it was in this that
Nicias himself mainly confided when he sur-
rendered to Gylippus. But some of the Syra-

83-87]

cusans who had been in correspondence with
him were afraid, it was said, of his being put
to the torture and troubling their success by
his revelations; others, especially the Corin-
thians, of his escaping, as he was wealthy, by
means of bribes, and living to do them further
mischief; and these persuaded the allies and
put him to death. This or the like was the
cause of the death of a man who, of all the
Hellenes in my time, least deserved such a
fate, seeing that the whole course of his life
had been regulated with strict attention to
virtue.

[8j] The prisoners in the quarries were at
first hardly treated by the Syracusans. Crowd-
ed in a narrow hole, without any roof to cover
them, the heat of the sun and the stifling close-
ness of the air tormented them during the day,
and then the nights, which came on autumnal
and chilly, made them ill by the violence of
the change; besides, as they had to do every-
thing in the same place for want of room, and
the bodies of those who died of their wounds
or from the variation in the temperature, or

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

563

from similar causes, were left heaped together
one upon another, intolerable stenches arose;
while hunger and thirst never ceased to afflict
them, each man during eight months having
only half a pint of water and a pint of corn
given him daily. In short, no single suffering
to be apprehended by men thrust into such a
place was spared them. For some seventy days
they thus lived all together, after which all,
except the Athenians and any Siceliots or Itali-
ots who had joined in the expedition, were
sold. The total number of prisoners taken it
would be difficult to state exactly, but it could
not have been less than seven thousand.

This was the greatest Hellenic achievement
of any in this war, or, in my opinion, in Hel-
lenic history; at once most glorious to the
victors, and most calamitous to the conquered.
They were beaten at all points and altogether;
all that they suffered was great; they were
destroyed, as the saying is, with a total destruc-
tion, their fleet, their army, everything was
destroyed, and few out of many returned
home. Such were the events in Sicily.

The Eighth Book

CHAPTER XXIV

'Nineteenth and Twentieth Years of the War —

Revolt of Ionia — Intervention of Persia — The War

in Ionia

[i] WHEN the news was brought to Athens, for
a long while they disbelieved even the most re-
spectable of the soldiers who had themselves es-
caped from the scene of action and clearly re-
ported the matter, a destruction so complete not
being thought credible. When the conviction
was forced upon them, they were angry with
the orators who had joined in promoting the
expedition, just as if they had not themselves
voted it, and were enraged also with the re-
citers of oracles and soothsayers, and all other
omen-mongers of the time who had encour-
aged them to hope that they should conquer
Sicily. Already distressed at all points and in
all quarters, after what had now happened,
they were seized by a fear and consternation
quite without example. It was grievous
enough for the state and for every man in his
proper person to lose so many heavy infantry,
cavalry, and able-bodied troops, and to see
none left to replace them; but when they saw,
also, that they had not sufficient ships in their
docks, or money in the treasury, or crews for
the ships, they began to despair of salvation.
They thought that their enemies in Sicily
would immediately sail with their fleet against
Piraeus, inflamed by so signal a victory; while
their adversaries at home, redoubling all their
preparations, would vigorously attacK them by
sea and land at once, aided by their own re-
volted confederates. Nevertheless, with such
means as they had, it was determined to resist
to the last, and to provide timber and money,
and to equip a fleet as they best could, to take
steps to secure their confederates and above all
Euboea, to reform things in the city upon a
more economical footing, and to elect a board

of elders to advise upon the state of affairs as
occasion should arise. In short, as is the way of
a democracy, in the panic of the moment they
were ready to be as prudent as possible.

These resolves were at once carried into
effect. Summer was now over. [2] The winter
ensuing saw all Hellas stirring under the im-
pression of the great Athenian disaster in
Sicily. Neutrals now felt that even if uninvited
they ought no longer to stand aloof from the
war, but should volunteer to march against the
Athenians, who, as they severally reflected,
would probably have come against them if the
Sicilian campaign had succeeded. Besides,
they considered that the war would now be
short, and that it would be creditable for them
to take part in it. Meanwhile the allies of the
Lacedaemonians felt all more anxious than
ever to see a speedy end to their heavy labours.
But above all, the subjects of the Athenians
showed a readiness to revolt even beyond their
ability, judging the circumstances with pas-
sion, and refusing even to hear of the Athe-
nians being able to last out the coming sum-
mer. Beyond all this, Lacedaemon was en-
couraged by the near prospect of being joined
in great force in the spring by her allies in Sic-
ily, lately forced by events to acquire their
navy. With these reasons for confidence in ev-
ery quarter, the Lacedaemonians now resolved
to throw themselves without reserve into the
war, considering that, once it was happily
terminated, they would be finally delivered
from such dangers as that which would have
threatened them from Athens, if she had
become mistress of Sicily, and that the over-
throw of the Athenians would leave them in
quiet enjoyment of the supremacy over all
Hellas.

[3] Their king, Agis, accordingly set out at
once during this winter with some troops from
Decelea, and levied from the allies contribu-

564

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

565

tions for the fleet, and turning towards the
Malian Gulf exacted a sum of money from the
Oetaeans by carrying off most of their cattle in
reprisal for their old hostility, and, in spite of
the protests and opposition of the Thessalians,
forced the Achaeans of Phthiotis and the other
subjects of the Thessalians in those parts to
give him money and hostages, and deposited
the hostages at Corinth, and tried to bring
their countrymen into the confederacy. The
Lacedaemonians now issued a requisition to
the cities for building a hundred ships, fixing
their own quota and that of the Boeotians at
twenty-five each; that of the Phocians and Lo-
crians together at fifteen; that of the Corinthi-
ans at fifteen; that of the Arcadians, Pellenians,
and Sicyonians together at ten; and that of the
Megarians, Troezenians, Epidaurians, and
Hermionians together at ten also; and mean-
while made every other preparation for com-
mencing hostilities by the spring.

[4] In the meantime the Athenians were not
idle. During this same winter, as they had de-
termined, they contributed timber and pushed
on their ship-building, and fortified Sunium
to enable their corn-ships to round it in safety,
and evacuated the fort in Laconia which they
had built on their way to Sicily; while they
also, for economy, cut down any other ex-
penses that seemed unnecessary, and above all
kept a careful look-out against the revolt of
their confederates.

[5] While both parties were thus engaged,
and were as intent upon preparing for the war
as they had been at the outset, the Euboeans
first of all sent envoys during this winter to
Agis to treat of their revolting from Athens.
Agis accepted their proposals, and sent for Al-
camenes, son of Sthenelaidas, and Melanthus
from Lacedaemon, to take the command in
Euboea. These accordingly arrived with some
three hundred Neodamodes, and Agis began
to arrange for their crossing over. But in the
meanwhile arrived some Lesbians, who also
wished to revolt; and these being supported by
the Boeotians, Agis was persuaded to defer
acting in the matter of Euboea, and made ar-
rangements for the revolt of the Lesbians, giv-
ing them Alcamenes, who was to have sailed
to Euboea, as governor, and himself promising
them ten ships, and the Boeotians the same
number. All this was done without instruc-
tions from home, as Agis while at Decelea with
the army that he commanded had power to
send troops to whatever quarter he pleased, and
to levy men and money. During this period,

one might say, the allies obeyed him much
more than they did the Lacedaemonians in the
city, as the force he had with him made him
feared at once wherever he went. While Agis
was engaged with the Lesbians, the Chians
and Erythraeans, who were also ready to re-
volt, applied, not to him but at Lacedaemon;
where they arrived accompanied by an am-
bassador from Tissaphernes, the commander
of King Darius, son of Artaxerxes, in the mari-
time districts, who invited the Peloponnesians
to come over, and promised to maintain their
army. The King had lately called upon him for
the tribute from his government, for which he
was in arrears, being unable to raise it from
the Hellenic towns by reason of the Athenians;
and he therefore calculated that by weakening
the Athenians he should get the tribute better
paid, and should also draw the Lacedaemoni-
ans into alliance with the King; and by this
means, as the King had commanded him, take
alive or dead Amorges, the bastard son of Pis-
suthnes, who was in rebellion on the coast of
Caria.

While the Chians and Tissaphernes thus
joined to effect the same object, [6] about the
same time Calligeitus, son of Laophon, a Me-
garian, and Timagoras, son of Athenagoras, a
Cyzicene, both of them exiles from their coun-
try and living at the court of Pharnabazus, son
of Pharnaces, arrived at Lacedaemon upon a
mission from Pharnabazus, to procure a fleet
for the Hellespont; by means of which, if pos-
sible, he might himself effect the object of Tis-
saphernes' ambition and cause the cities in his
government to revolt from the Athenians, and
so get the tribute, and by his own agency ob-
tain for the King the alliance of the Lacedae-
monians.

The emissaries of Pharnabazus and Tissa-
phernes treating apart, a keen competition now
ensued at Lacedaemon as to whether a fleet
and army should be sent first to Ionia and Chi-
os, or to the Hellespont. The Lacedaemonians,
however, decidedly favoured the Chians and
Tissaphernes, who were seconded by Alcibia-
des, the family friend of Endius, one of the
ephors for that year. Indeed, this is how their
house got its Laconic name, Alcibiades being
the family name of Endius. Nevertheless the
Lacedaemonians first sent to Chios Phrynis,
one of the Periocci, to see whether they had as
many ships as they said, and whether their
city generally was as great as was reported;
and upon his bringing word that they had been
told the truth, immediately entered into alii-

566

THUCYDIDES

[BOOK vin

ance with the Chians and Erythraeans, and
voted to send them forty ships, there being al-
ready, according to the statement of the Chi-
ans, not less than sixty in the island. At first
the Lacedaemonians meant to send ten of
these forty themselves, with Melanchridas
their admiral; but afterwards, an earthquake
having occurred, they sent Chalcideus instead
of Melanchridas, and instead of the ten ships
equipped only five in Laconia. And the winter
ended, and with it ended also the nineteenth
year of this war of which Thucydides is the
historian.

[j] At the beginning of the next summer
the Chians were urging that the fleet should be
sent off, being afraid that the Athenians, from
whom all these embassies were kept a secret,
might find out what was going on, and the
Lacedaemonians at once sent three Spartans to
Corinth to haul the ships as quickly as possible
across the Isthmus from the other sea to that
on the side of Athens, and to order them all to
sail to Chios, those which Agis was equipping
for Lesbos not excepted. The number of ships
from the allied states was thirty-nine in all.

[8] Meanwhile Calligeitus and Timagoras
did not join on behalf of Pharnabazus in the
expedition to Chios or give the money — twen-
ty-five talents — which they had brought with
them to help in dispatching a force, but deter-
mined to sail afterwards with another force
by themselves. Agis, on the other hand, seeing
the Lacedaemonians bent upon going to Chios
first, himself came in to their views; and the
allies assembled at Corinth and held a council,
in which they decided to sail first to Chios un-
der the command of Chalcideus, who was
equipping the five vessels in Laconia, then to
Lesbos, under the command of Alcamcnes, the
same whom Agis had fixed upon, and lastly to
go to the Hellespont, where the command was
given to Clearchus, son of Ramphias. Mean-
while they would take only half the ships
across the Isthmus first, and let those sail off at
once, in order that the Athenians might attend
less to the departing squadron than to those
to be taken across afterwards, as no care had
been taken to keep this voyage secret through
contempt of the impotence of the Athenians,
who had as yet no fleet of any account upon the
sea. Agreeably to this determination, twenty-
one vessels were at once conveyed across the
Isthmus.

[9] They were now impatient to set sail, but
the Corinthians were not willing to accompany
them until they had celebrated the Isthmian

festival, which fell at that time. Upon this Agis
proposed to them to save their scruples about
breaking the Isthmian truce by taking the ex-
pedition upon himself. The Corinthians not
consenting to this, a delay ensued, during
which the Athenians conceived suspicions of
what was preparing at Chios, and sent Aris-
tocrates, one of their generals, and charged
them with the fact, and, upon the denial of the
Chians, ordered them to send with them a con-
tingent of ships, as faithful confederates. Sev-
en were sent accordingly. The reason of the
dispatch of the ships lay in the fact that the
mass of the Chians were not privy to the nego-
tiations, while the few who were in the secret
did not wish to break with the multitude until
they had something positive to lean upon, and
no longer expected the Peloponnesians to ar-
rive by reason of their delay.

[10] In the meantime the Isthmian games
took place, and the Athenians, who had been
also invited, went to attend them, and now
seeing more clearly into the designs of the
Chians, as soon as they returned to Athens
took measures to prevent the fleet putting out
from Cenchreae without their knowledge. Af-
ter the festival the Peloponnesians set sail with
twenty-one ships for Chios, under the com-
mand of Alcamenes. The Athenians first sailed
against them with an equal number, drawing
off towards the open sea. The enemy, however,
turning back before he had followed them far,
the Athenians returned also, not trusting the
seven Chian ships which formed part of their
number, and afterwards manned thirty-seven
vessels in all and chased him on his passage
alongshore into Spiraeum, a desert Corinthian
port on the edge of the Epidaurian frontier.
After losing one ship out at sea, the Pelopon-
nesians got the rest together and brought them
to anchor. The Athenians now attacked not
only from the sea with their fleet, but also dis-
embarked upon the coast; and a mSlee ensued
of the most confused and violent kind, in
which the Athenians disabled most of the en-
emy's vessels and killed Alcamenes their com-
mander, losing also a few of their own men.

[u] After this they separated, and the Athe-
nians, detaching a sufficient number of ships
to blockade those of the enemy, anchored with
the rest at the islet adjacent, upon which they
proceeded to encamp, and sent to Athens for
reinforcements; the Peloponnesians having
been joined on the day after the battle by the
Corinthians, who came to help the ships, and
by the other inhabitants in the vicinity not

THE PELQPONNESIAN WAR

567

long afterwards. These saw the difficulty of
keeping guard in a desert place, and in their
perplexity at first thought of burning the ships,
but finally resolved to haul them up on shore
and sit down and guard them with their land
forces until a convenient opportunity for es-
caping should present itself. Agis also, on being
informed of the disaster, sent them a Spartan
of the name of Thermon. The Lacedaemoni-
ans first received the news of the fleet having
put out from the Isthmus, Alcamenes having
been ordered by the ephors to send off a horse-
man when this took place, and immediately
resolved to dispatch their own five vessels un-
der Chalcideus, and Alcibiades with him. But
while they were full of this resolution came the
second news of the fleet having taken refuge
in Spiraeum; and disheartened at their first
step in the Ionian war proving a failure, they
laid aside the idea of sending the ships from
their own country, and even wished to recall
some that had already sailed.

[12] Perceiving this, Alcibiades again per-
suaded Endius and the other ephors to perse-
vere in the expedition, saying that the voyage
would be made before the Chians heard of the
fleet's misfortune, and that as soon as he set
foot in Ionia, he should, by assuring them of
the weakness of the Athenians and the zeal of
Lacedaemon, have no difficulty in persuading
the cities to revolt, as they would readily be-
lieve his testimony. He also represented to En-
dius himself in private that it would be glori-
ous for him to be the means of making Ionia
revolt and the King become the ally of Lacedae-
mon, instead of that honour being left to Agis
(Agis, it must be remembered, was the enemy
of Alcibiades); and Endius and his colleagues
thus persuaded, he put to sea with the five
ships and the Lacedaemonian Chalcideus, and
made all haste upon the voyage.

[13] About this time the sixteen Pelopon-
nesian ships from Sicily, which had served
through the war with Gylippus, were caught
on their return off Leucadia and roughly han-
dled by the twenty-seven Athenian vessels un-
der Hippocles, son of Menippus, on the look-
out for the ships from Sicily. After losing one
of their number, the rest escaped from the
Athenians and sailed into Corinth.

[14] Meanwhile Chalcideus and Alcibiades
seized all they met with on their voyage, to
prevent news of their coming, and let them go
at Corycus, the first point which they touched
at in the continent. Here they were visited by
some of their Chian correspondents and, being

urged by them to sail up to the town without
announcing their coming, arrived suddenly
before Chios. The many were amazed and con-
founded, while the few had so arranged that
the council should be sitting at the time; and
after speeches from Chalcideus and Alcibia-
des stating that many more ships were sailing
up, but saying nothing of the fleet being block-
aded in Spiraeum, the Chians revolted from
the Athenians, and the Erythraeans immedi-
ately afterwards. After this three vessels sailed
over to Clazomenae, and made that city revolt
also; and the Clazomenians immediately
crossed over to the mainland and began to for-
tify Polichna, in order to retreat there, in case
of necessity, from the island where they dwelt.

While the revolted places were all en-
gaged in fortifying and preparing for the war,
/ /57 news of Chios speedily reached Athens.
The Athenians thought the danger by which
they were now menaced great and unmistaka-
ble, and that the rest of their allies would not
consent to keep quiet after the secession of the
greatest of their number. In the consternation
of the moment they at once took off the pen-
alty attaching to whoever proposed or put to
the vote a proposal for using the thousand tal-
ents which they had jealously avoided touch-
ing throughout the whole war, and voted to
employ them to man a large number of ships,
and to send off at once under Strombichides,
son of Diotimus, the eight vessels, forming
part of the blockading fleet at Spiraeum, which
had left the blockade and had returned after
pursuing and failing to overtake the vessels
with Chalcideus. These were to be followed
shortly afterwards by twelve more under
Thrasycles, also taken from the blockade. They
also recalled the seven Chian vessels, forming
part of their squadron blockading the fleet in
Spiraeum, and giving the slaves on board their
liberty, put the freemen in confinement, and
speedily manned and sent out ten fresh ships
to blockade the Peloponnesians in the place of
all those that had departed, and decided to
man thirty more. Zeal was not wanting, and
no effort was spared to send relief to Chios.

[16] In the meantime Strombichides with
his eight ships arrived at Samos, and, taking
one Samian vessel, sailed to Teos and required
them to remain quiet. Chalcideus also set sail
with twenty-three ships for Teos from Chios,
the land forces of the Clazomenians and Ery-
thraeans moving alongshore to support him.
Informed of this in time, Strombichides put
out from Teos before their arrival, and while

568

THUCYDIDES

[BooK vin

out at sea, seeing the number of the ships from
Chios, fled towards Samos, chased by the en-
emy. The Teians at first would not receive the
land forces, but upon the flight of the Atheni-
ans took them into the town. There they wait-
ed for some time for Chalcideus to return from
the pursuit, and as time went on without his
appearing, began themselves to demolish the
wall which the Athenians had built on the land
side of the city of the Teians, being assisted by
a few of the barbarians who had come up un-
der the command of Stages, the lieutenant of
Tissaphernes.

[17] Meanwhile Chalcideus and Alcibiades,
after chasing Strombichides into Samos, armed
the crews of the ships from Peloponnese and
left them at Chios, and filling their places with
substitutes from Chios and manning twenty
others, sailed off to effect the revolt of Miletus.
The wish of Alcibiades, who had friends
among the leading men of the Milesians, was
to bring over the town before the arrival of the
ships from Peloponnese, and thus, by causing
the revolt of as many cities as possible with the
help of the Chian power and of Chalcideus, to
secure the honour for the Chians and himself
and Chalcideus, and, as he had promised, for
Endius who had sent them out. Not discov-
ered until their voyage was nearly completed,
they arrived a little before Strombichides and
Thrasycles (who had just come with twelve
ships from Athens, and had joined Strombi-
chides in pursuing them), and occasioned the
revolt of Miletus. The Athenians sailing up
close on their heels with nineteen ships found
Miletus closed against them, and took up their
station at the adjacent island of Lade. The first
alliance between the King and the Lacedaemo-
nians was now concluded immediately upon
the revolt of the Milesians, by Tissaphernes
and Chalcideus, and was as follows:
[18] The Lacedaemonians and their allies
made a treaty with the King and Tissaphernes
upon the terms following:

1. Whatever country or cities the King has,
or the King's ancestors had, shall be the King's:
and whatever came in to the Athenians from
these cities, either money or any other thing,
the King and the Lacedaemonians and their
allies shall jointly hinder the Athenians from
receiving either money or any other thing.

2. The war with the Athenians shall be car-
ried on jointly by the King and by the Lacedae-
monians and their allies: and it shall not be
lawful to ma\e peace with the Athenians ex-
cept both agree, the King on his side and the

Lacedaertonians and their allies on theirs.

3. // any revolt from the King, they shall be
the enemies of the Lacedaemonians and their
allies. And if any revolt from the Lacedaemo-
nians and their allies, they shall be the enemies
of the King in li\e manner.

[19] This was the alliance. After this the
Chians immediately manned ten more vessels
and sailed for Anaia, in order to gain intelli-
gence of those in Miletus, and also to make the
cities revolt. A message, however, reaching
them from Chalcideus to tell them to go back
again, and that Amorges was at hand with an
army by land, they sailed to the temple of Zeus,
and there sighting ten more ships sailing up
with which Diomedon had started from Ath-
ens after Thrasycles, fled, one ship to Ephesus,
the rest to Teos. The Athenians took four oi
their ships empty, the men finding time to es-
cape ashore; the rest took refuge in the city of
the Teians; after which the Athenians sailed
off to Samos, while the Chians put to sea with
their remaining vessels, accompanied by the
land forces, and caused Lebedos to revolt, and
after it Erae. After this they both returned
home, the fleet and the army.

[20] About the same time the twenty ships
of the Peloponnesians in Spiraeum, which we
left chased to land and blockaded by an equal
number of Athenians, suddenly sallied out and
defeated the blockading squadron, took four
of their ships, and, sailing back to Cenchreae,
prepared again for the voyage to Chios and
Ionia. Here they were joined by Astyochus as
high admiral from Lacedaemon, henceforth
invested with the supreme command at sea.
The land forces now withdrawing from Teos,
Tissaphernes repaired thither in person with
an army and completed the demolition of any-
thing that was left of the wall, and so departed.
Not long after his departure Diomedon ar-
rived with ten Athenian ships, and, having
made a convention by which the Teians admit-
ted him as they had the enemy, coasted along
to Erae, and, failing in an attempt upon the
town, sailed back again.

[21] About this time took place the rising
of the commons at Samos against the upper
classes, in concert with some Athenians, who
were there in three vessels. The Samian com-
mons put to death some two hundred in all of
the upper classes, and banished four hundred
more, and themselves took their land and
houses; after which the Athenians decreed
their independence, being now sure of their
fidelity, and the commons henceforth gov-

17-24]

crncd the city, excluding the landholders from
all share in affairs, and forbidding any of the
commons to give his daughter in marriage to
them or to take a wife from them in future.

[22] After this, during the same summer,
the Chians, whose zeal continued as active as
ever, and who even without the Peloponnesi-
ans found themselves in sufficient force to ef-
fect the revolt of the cities and also wished to
have as many companions in peril as possible,
made an expedition with thirteen ships of their
own to Lesbos; the instructions from Lacedae-
mon being to go to that island next, and from
thence to the Hellespont. Meanwhile the land
forces of the Peloponnesians who were with
the Chians and of the allies on the spot, moved
alongshore for Clazomenac and Cuma, under
the command of Eualas, a Spartan; while the
fleet under Diniadas, one of the Perioeci, first
sailed up to Methymna and caused it to revolt,
and, leaving four ships there, with the rest pro-
cured the revolt of Mitylene.

[ 23] In the meantime Astyochus, the Lace-
daemonian admiral, set sail from Cenchreae
with four ships, as he had intended, and ar-
rived at Chios. On the third day after his ar-
rival, the Athenian ships, twenty-five in num-
ber, sailed to Lesbos under Diomedon and
Leon, who had lately arrived with a reinforce-
ment of ten ships from Athens. Late in the
same day Astyochus put to sea, and taking one
Chian vessel with him sailed to Lesbos to ren-
der what assistance he could. Arrived at Pyr-
rha, and from thence the next day at Eresus, he
there learned that Mitylene had been taken, al-
most without a blow, by the Athenians, who
had sailed up and unexpectedly put into the
harbour, had beaten the Chian ships, and
landing and defeating the troops opposed to
them had become masters of the city. In-
formed of this by the Eresians and the Chian
ships, which had been left with Eubulus at
Methymna, and had fled upon the capture of
Mitylene, and three of which he now fell in
with, one having been taken by the Athenians,
Astyochus did not go on to Mitylene, but
raised and armed Eresus, and, sending the
heavy infantry from his own ships by land un-
der Eteonicus to Antissa and Methymna, him-
self proceeded alongshore thither with the
ships which he had with him and with the
three Chians, in the hope that the Mcthymni-
ans upon seeing them would be encouraged to
persevere in their revolt. As, however, every-
thing went against him in Lesbos, he took up
his own force and sailed back to Chios; the

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

569

land forces on board, which were to have gone
to the Hellespont, being also conveyed back
to their different cities. After this six of the
allied Peloponnesian ships at Cenchreae joined
the forces at Chios. The Athenians, after re-
storing matters to their old state in Lesbos, set
sail from thence and took Polichna, the place
that the Clazomenians were fortifying on the
continent, and carried the inhabitants back to
their town upon the island, except the authors
of the revolt, who withdrew to Daphnus; and
thus Clazomenae became once more Athenian.
[24] The same summer the Athenians in the
twenty ships at Lade, blockading Miletus,
made a descent at Panormus in the Milesian
territory, and killed Chalcideus the Lacedae-
monian commander, who had come with a few
men against them, and the third day after
sailed over and set up a trophy, which, as they
were not masters of the country, was however
pulled down by the Milesians. Meanwhile
Leon and Diomedon with the Athenian fleet
from Lesbos issuing from the Oenussae, the
isles off Chios, and from their forts of Sidussa
and Pteleum in the Erythracid, and from Les-
bos, carried on the war against the Chians
from the ships, having on board heavy infan-
try from the rolls pressed to serve as marines.
Landing in Cardamyle and in Bolissus they
defeated with heavy loss the Chians that took
the field against them and, laying desolate the
places in that neighbourhood, defeated the
Chians again in another battle at Phanac, and
in a third at Leuconium. After this the Chians
ceased to meet them in the field, while the
Athenians devastated the country, which was
beautifully stocked and had remained unin-
jured ever since the Median wars. Indeed, after
the Lacedaemonians, the Chians are the only
people that I have known who knew how to
be wise in prosperity, and who ordered their
city the more securely the greater it grew. Nor
was this revolt, in which they might seem to
have erred on the side of rashness, ventured
upon until they had numerous and gallant al-
lies to share the danger with them, and until
they perceived the Athenians after the Sicilian
disaster themselves no longer denying the
thoroughly desperate state of their affairs. And
if they were thrown out by one of the sur-
prises which upset human calculations, they
found out their mistake in company with
many others who believed, like them, in the
speedy collapse of the Athenian power. While
they were thus blockaded from the sea and
plundered by land, some of the citizens under-

570

THUCYDIDES

took to bring the city over to the Athenians.
Apprised of this the authorities took no action
themselves, but brought Astyochus, the admi-
ral, from Erythrae, with four ships that he had
with him, and considered how they could most
quietly, either by taking hostages or by some
other means, put an end to the conspiracy.

While the Chians were thus engaged, [25]
a thousand Athenian heavy infantry and fif-
teen hundred Argivcs (five hundred of whom
were light troops furnished with armour by
the Athenians), and one thousand of the
allies, towards the close of the same summer
sailed from Athens in forty-eight ships, some
of which were transports, under the com-
mand of Phrynichus, Onomacles, and Sciro-
nides, and putting into Samos crossed over and
encamped at Miletus. Upon this the Milesians
came out to the number of eight hundred
heavy infantry, with the Peloponnesians who
had come with Chalcideus, and some foreign
mercenaries of Tissaphernes, Tissaphernes
himself and his cavalry, and engaged the Athe-
nians and their allies. While the Argives
rushed forward on their own wing with the
careless disdain of men advancing against lo-
nians who would never stand their charge, and
were defeated by the Milesians with a loss lit-
tle short of three hundred men, the Athenians
first defeated the Peloponnesians, and driving
before them the barbarians and the ruck of the
army, without engaging the Milesians, who af-
ter the rout of the Argives retreated into the
town upon seeing their comrades worsted,
crowned their victory by grounding their arms
under the very walls of Miletus. Thus, in this
battle, the lonians on both sides overcame the
Dorians, the Athenians defeating the Pelopon-
nesians opposed to them, and the Milesians the
Argives. After setting up a trophy, the Athe-
nians prepared to draw a wall round the place,
which stood upon an isthmus; thinking that, if
they could gain Miletus, the other towns also
would easily come over to them.

[26] Meanwhile about dusk tidings reached
them that the fifty-five ships from Peloponncse
and Sicily might be instantly expected. Of
these the Siceliots, urged principally by the
Syracusan Hermocrates to join in giving the
finishing blow to the power of Athens, fur-
nished twenty-two — twenty from Syracuse,
and two from Silenus; and the ships that we
left preparing in Peloponnese being now ready,
both squadrons had been entrusted to Theri-
mencs, a Lacedaemonian, to take to Astyochus,
the admiral. They now put in first at Leros the

[Boon vin

island off Miletus, and from thence, discover-
ing that the Athenians were before the town,
sailed into the lasic Gulf, in order to learn how
matters stood at Miletus. Meanwhile Alcibia-
des came on horseback to Teichiussa in the
Milesian territory, the point of the gulf at
which they had put in for the night, and told
them of the battle in which he had fought in
person by the side of the Milesians and Tissa-
phernes, and advised them, if they did not wish
to sacrifice Ionia and their cause, to fly to the
relief of Miletus and hinder its investment.

[27] Accordingly they resolved to relieve it
the next morning. Meanwhile Phrynichus, the
Athenian commander, had received precise in-
telligence of the fleet from Leros, and when his
colleagues expressed a wish to keep the sea
and fight it out, flatly refused either to stay
himself or to let them or any one else do so if
he could help it. Where they could hereafter
contend, after full and undisturbed prepara-
tion, with an exact knowledge of the number
of the enemy 's fleet and of the force which they
could oppose to him, he would never allow the
reproach of disgrace to drive him into a risk
that was unreasonable. It was no disgrace for
an Athenian fleet to retreat when it suited
them: put it as they would, it would be more
disgraceful to be beaten, and to expose the city
not only to disgrace, but to the most serious
danger. After its late misfortunes it could
hardly be justified in voluntarily taking the
offensive even with the strongest force, except
in a case of absolute necessity: much less then
without compulsion could it rush upon peril
of its own seeking. He told them to take up
their wounded as quickly as they could and
the troops and stores which they had brought
with them, and leaving behind what they had
taken from the enemy's country, in order to
lighten the ships, to sail off to Samos, and
there concentrating all their ships to attack as
opportunity served. As he spoke so he acted;
and thus not now more than afterwards, nor
in this alone but in all that he had to do with,
did Phrynichus show himself a man of sense.
In this way that very evening the Athenians
broke up from before Miletus, leaving their
victory unfinished, and the Argives, mortified
at their disaster, promptly sailed off home from
Samos.

[28] As soon as it was morning the Pelopon-
nesians weighed from Teichiussa and put into
Miletus after the departure of the Athenians;
they stayed one day, and on the next took with
them the Chian vessels originally chased into

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

571

port with Chalcidcus, and resolved to sail back
for the tackle which they had put on shore at
Teichiussa. Upon their arrival Tissaphernes
came to them with his land forces and induced
them to sail to lasus, which was held by his en-
emy Amorges. Accordingly they suddenly at-
tacked and took lasus, whose inhabitants nev-
er imagined that the ships could be other than
Athenian. The Syracusans distinguished them-
selves most in the action. Amorges, a bastard
of Pissuthnes and a rebel from the King, was
taken alive and handed over to Tissaphernes,
to carry to the King, if he chose, according to
his orders: lasus was sacked by the army, who
found a very great booty there, the place being
wealthy from ancient date. The mercenaries
serving with Amorges the Peloponnesians re-
ceived and enrolled in their army without do-
ing them any harm, since most of them came
from Peloponnese, and handed over the town
to Tissaphernes with all the captives, bond or
free, at the stipulated price of one Doric stater
a head; after which they returned to Miletus.
Pedaritus, son of Leon, who had been sent by
the Lacedaemonians to take the command at
Chios, they dispatched by land as far as Ery-
thrae with the mercenaries taken from Amorg-
es; appointing Philip to remain as governor of
Miletus.

Summer was now over. [29] The winter
following, Tissaphernes put lasus in a state of
defence, and passing on to Miletus distributed
a month's pay to all the ships as he had prom-
ised at Lacedaemon, at the rate of an Attic
drachma a day for each man. In future, how-
ever, he was resolved not to give more than
three obols, until he had consulted the King;
when if the King should so order he would
give, he said, the full drachma. However, upon
the protest of the Syracusan general Hermoc-
rates (for as Therimenes was not admiral, but
only accompanied them in order to hand over
the ships to Astyochus, he made little diffi-
culty about the pay), it was agreed that the
amount of five ships' pay should be given over
and above the three obols a day for each man;
Tissaphernes paying thirty talents a month for
fifty-five ships, and to the rest, for as many
ships as they had beyond that number, at the
same rate.

[30] The same winter the Athenians in Sa-
mos, having been joined by thirty-five more
vessels from home under Charminus, Strom-
bichides, and Euctemon, called in their squad-
ron at Chios and all the rest, intending to
blockade Miletus with their navy, and to send

a fleet and an army against Chios; drawing
lots for the respective services. This intention
they carried into effect; Strombichides, Ona-
macles, and Euctemon sailing against Chios,
which fell to their lot, with thirty ships and a
part of the thousand heavy infantry, who had
been to Miletus, in transports; while the rest
remained masters of the sea with seventy-four
ships at Samos, and advanced upon Miletus.

/ 31] Meanwhile Astyochus, whom we left
at Chios collecting the hostages required in
consequence of the conspiracy, stopped upon
learning that the fleet with Therimenes had ar-
rived, and that the affairs of the league were
in a more flourishing condition, and putting
out to sea with ten Peloponnesian and as many
Chian vessels, after a futile attack upon Ptclc-
um, coasted on to Clazomenae, and ordered
the Athenian party to remove inland to Daph-
nus, and to join the Peloponnesians, an order
in which also joined Tamos the king's lieu-
tenant in Ionia. This order being disregarded,
Astyochus made an attack upon the town,
which was unwalled, and having failed to take
it was himself carried off by a strong gale to
Phocaea and Cuma, while the rest of the ships
put in at the islands adjacent to Clazomenae —
Marathussa, Pele, and Drymussa. Here they
were detained eight days by the winds, and,
plundering and consuming all the property of
the Clazomenians there deposited, put the rest
on shipboard and sailed off to Phocaea and
Cuma to join Astyochus.

[32] While he was there, envoys arrived
from the Lesbians who wished to revolt again.
With Astyochus they were successful; but the
Corinthians and the other allies being averse
to it by reason of their former failure, he
weighed anchor and set sail for Chios, where
they eventually arrived from different quar-
ters, the fleet having been scattered by a storm.
After this Pedaritus, whom we left marching
along the coast from Miletus, arrived at Ery-
thrae, and thence crossed over with his army to
Chios, where he found also about five hundred
soldiers who had been left there by Chalcideus
from the five ships with their arms. Mean-
while some Lesbians making offers to revolt,
Astyochus urged upon Pedaritus and the Chi-
ans that they ought to go with their ships and
effect the revolt of Lesbos, and so increase the
number of their allies, or, if not successful, at
all events harm the Athenians. The Chians,
however, turned a deaf ear to this, and Pedari-
tus flatly refused to give up to him the Chian
vessels.

572

THUCYDIDES

[33] Upon this Astyochus took five Corin-
thian and one Megarian vessel, with another
from Hermionc, and the ships which had
come with him from Laconia, and set sail for
Miletus to assume his command as admiral;
after telling the Chians with many threats that
he would certainly not come and help them
if they should be in need. At Corycus in the
Erythraeid he brought to for the night; the
Athenian armament sailing from Samos
against Chios being only separated from him
by a hill, upon the other side of which it
brought to; so that neither perceived the other.
But a letter arriving in the night from Pedari-
tus to say that some liberated Erythraean pris-
oners had come from Samos to betray Ery-
thrac, Astyochus at once put back to Erythrae,
and so just escaped falling in with the Atheni-
ans. Here Pedaritus sailed over to join him;
and after inquiry into the pretended treach-
ery, rinding that the whole story had been
made up to procure the escape of the men from
Samos, they acquitted them of the charge, and
sailed away, Pedaritus to Chios and Astyochus
to Miletus as he had intended.

[34] Meanwhile the Athenian armament
sailing round Corycus fell in with three Chian
men-of-war off Arginus, and gave immediate
chase. A great storm coming on, the Chians
with difficulty took refuge in the harbour; the
three Athenian vessels most forward in the
pursuit being wrecked and thrown up near the
city of Chios, and the crews slain or taken
prisoners. The rest of the Athenian fleet took
refuge in the harbour called Phoenicus, under
Mount Mimas, and from thence afterwards put
into Lesbos and prepared for the work of for-
tification.

[35] The same winter the Lacedaemonian
Hippocrates sailed out from Peloponnese with
ten Thurian ships under the command of Do-
rieus, son of Diagoras, and two colleagues, one
Laconian and one Syracusan vessel, and ar-
rived at Cnidus, which had already revolted at
the instigation of Tissaphcrncs. When their ar-
rival was known at Miletus, orders came to
them to leave half their squadron to guard
Cnidus, and with the rest to cruise round Tri-
opium and seize all the merchantmen arriving
from Egypt. Triopium is a promontory of
Cnidus and sacred to Apollo. This cdming to
the knowledge of the Athenians, they sailed
from Samos and captured the six ships on the
watch at Triopium, the crews escaping out of
them. After this the Athenians sailed into
Cnidus and made an assault upon the town,

[BooK vm

which was unfortified, and all but took it; and
the next day assaulted it again, but with less
effect, as the inhabitants had improved their
defences during the night, and had been rein-
forced by the crews escaped from the ships at
Triopium. The Athenians now withdrew, and
after plundering the Cnidian territory sailed
back to Samos.

[36] About the same time Astyochus came
to the fleet at Miletus. The Peloponnesian camp
was still plentifully supplied, being in receipt
of sufficient pay, and the soldiers having still
in hand the large booty taken at lasus. The
Milesians also showed great ardour for the
war. Nevertheless the Peloponnesians thought
the first convention with Tissaphernes, made
with Chalcideus, defective, and more advan-
tageous to him than to them, and consequent-
ly while Therimenes was still there concluded
another, which was as follows:
[37] The convention of the Lacedaemonians
and the allies with King Darius and the sons
of the King, and with Tissaphernes for a treaty
and friendship, as follows:

1. Neither the Lacedaemonians nor the al-
lies of the Lacedaemonians shall mafe war
against or otherwise injure any country or cit-
ies that belong to King Darius or did belong to
his father or to his ancestors; neither shall the
Lacedaemonians nor the allies of the Lacedae-
monians exact tribute from such cities. Neither
shall King Darius nor any of the subjects of
the King ma\e war against or otherwise injure
the Lacedaemonians or their allies.

2. // the Lacedaemonians or their allies
should require any assistance from the King,
or the King from the Lacedaemonians or their
allies, whatever they both agree upon they shall
be right in doing.

3. Both shall carry on jointly the war against
the Athenians and their allies: and if they
mal(c peace, both shall do so jointly.

4. The expense of all troops in the King's
country, sent for by the Kingt shall be borne by
the King.

5. // any of the states comprised in this con-
vention with the King attacl^ the King's coun-
try, the rest shall stop them and aid the King to
the best of their power. And if any in the
King's country or in the countries under the
King's rule attack^ the country of the Lacedae-
monians or their allies, the King shall stop it
and help them to the best of his power.

[38] After this convention Therimenes
handed over the fleet to Astyochus, sailed off in
a small boat, and was lost. The Athenian ar-

33-41]

mament had now crossed over from Lesbos to
Chios, and being master by sea and land began
to fortify Delphinium, a place naturally strong
on the land side, provided with more than one
harbour, and also not far from the city of Chios.
Meanwhile the Chians remained inactive. Al-
ready defeated in so many battles, they were
now also at discord among themselves; the ex-
ecution of the party of Tydeus, son of Ion, by
Pedaritus upon the charge of Atticism, fol-
lowed by the forcible imposition of an oli-
garchy upon the rest of the city, having made
them suspicious of one another; and they there-
fore thought neither themselves not the mer-
cenaries under Pedaritus a match for the en-
emy. They sent, however, to Miletus to beg
Astyochus to assist them, which he refused to
do, and was accordingly denounced at Lace-
daemon by Pedaritus as a traitor. Such was
the state of the Athenian affairs at Chios;
while their fleet at Samos kept sailing out
against the enemy in Miletus, until they found
that he would not accept their challenge, and
then retired again to Samos and remained
quiet.

[39] In the same winter the twenty-seven
ships equipped by the Lacedaemonians for
Pharnabazus through the agency of the Me-
garian Calligeitus, and the Cyzicene Tima-
goras, put out from Peloponnese and sailed for
Ionia about the time of the solstice, under the
command of Antisthenes, a Spartan. With
them the Lacedaemonians also sent eleven
Spartans as advisers to Astyochus; Lichas, son
of Arcesilaus, being among the number. Ar-
rived at Miletus, their orders were to aid in
generally superintending the good conduct of
the war; to send off the above ships or a greater
or less number to the Hellespont to Pharna-
bazus, if they thought proper, appointing
Clearchus, son of Ramphias, who sailed with
them, to the command; and further, if they
thought proper, to make Antisthenes admiral,
dismissing Astyochus, whom the letters of Pe-
daritus had caused to be regarded with suspi-
cion. Sailing accordingly from Malea across
the open sea, the squadron touched at Melos
and there fell in with ten Athenian ships, three
of which they took empty and burned. After
this, being afraid that the Athenian vessels es-
caped from Melos might, as they in fact did,
give information of their approach to the
Athenians at Samos, they sailed to Crete, and
having lengthened their voyage by way of pre-
caution made land at Caunus in Asia, from
whence considering themselves in safety they

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

573

sent a message to the fleet at Miletus for a con-
voy along the coast.

/ 40] Meanwhile the Chians and Pedaritus,
undeterred by the backwardness of Astyochus,
went on sending messengers pressing him to
come with all the fleet to assist them against
their besiegers, and not to leave the greatest of
the allied states in Ionia to be shut up by sea
and overrun and pillaged by land. There were
more slaves at Chios than in any one other
city except Lacedaemon, and being also by
reason of their numbers punished more rigor-
ously when they offended, most of them, when
they saw the Athenian armament firmly es-
tablished in the island with a fortified position,
immediately deserted to the enemy, and
through their knowledge of the country did
the greatest mischief. The Chians therefore
urged upon Astyochus that it was his duty to
assist them, while there was still a hope and a
possibility of stopping the enemy's progress,
while Delphinium was still in process of forti-
fication and unfinished, and before the com-
pletion of a higher rampart which was being
added to protect the camp and fleet of their be-
siegers. Astyochus now saw that the allies also
wished it and prepared to go, in spite of his in-
tention to the contrary owing to the threat al-
ready referred to.

[41] In the meantime news came from Cau-
nus of the arrival of the twenty-seven ships
with the Lacedaemonian commissioners; and
Astyochus, postponing everything to the duty
of convoying a fleet of that importance, in or-
der to be more able to command the sea, and to
the safe conduct of the Lacedaemonians sent
as spies over his behaviour, at once gave up
going to Chios and set sail for Caunus. As he
coasted along he landed at the Meropid Cos
and sacked the city, which was unfortified and
had been lately laid in ruins by an earthquake,
by far the greatest in living memory, and, as
the inhabitants had fled to the mountains,
overran the country and made booty of all it
contained, letting go, however, the free men.
From Cos arriving in the night at Cnidus he
was constrained by the representations of the
Cnidians not to disembark the sailors, but to
sail as he was straight against the twenty Athe-
nian vessels, which with Charminus, one of the
commanders at Samos, were on the watch for
the very twenty-seven ships from Peloponnese
which Astyochus was himself sailing to join;
the Athenians in Samos having heard from
Melos of their approach, and Charminus being
on the look-out off Syme, Chalce, Rhodes, and

574

THUCYDIDES

[BOOK vm

Lycia, as he now heard that they were at
Caunus.

[42] Astyochus accordingly sailed as he was
to Syme, before he was heard of, in the hope of
catching the enemy somewhere out at sea.
Rain, however, and foggy weather encountered
him, and caused his ships to straggle and get
into disorder in the dark. In the morning his
fleet had parted company and was most of it
still straggling round the island, and the left
wing only in sight of Charminus and the Athe-
nians, who took it for the squadron which they
were watching for from Caunus, and hastily
put out against it with part only of their twenty
vessels, and attacking immediately sank three
ships and disabled others, and had the advan-
tage in the action until the main body of the
fleet unexpectedly hove in sight, when they
were surrounded on every side. Upon this they
took to flight, and after losing six ships with
the rest escaped to Teutlussa or Beet Island,
and from thence to Halicarnassus. After this
the Peloponnesians put into Cnidus and, being
joined by the twenty-seven ships from Caunus,
sailed all together and set up a trophy in Syme,
and then returned to anchor at Cnidus.

[43] As soon as the Athenians knew of the
sea-fight, they sailed with all the ships at Samos
to Syme, and, without attacking or being at-
tacked by the fleet at Cnidus, took the ships'
tackle left at Syme, and touching at Lorymi
on the mainland sailed back to Samos. Mean-
while the Peloponnesian ships, being now all
at Cnidus, underwent such repairs as were
needed; while the eleven Lacedaemonian com-
missioners conferred with Tissaphernes, who
had come to meet them, upon the points which
did not satisfy them in the past transactions,
and upon the best and mutually most advan-
tageous manner of conducting the war in fu-
ture. The severest critic of the present proceed-
ings was Lichas, who said that neither of the
treaties could stand, neither that of Chalcideus,
nor that of Therimenes; it being monstrous
that the King should at this date pretend to the
possession of all the country formerly ruled by
himself or by his ancestors — a pretension which
implicitly put back under the yoke all the is-
lands— Thessaly, Locris, and everything as far
as Boeotia — and made the Lacedaemonians give
to the Hellenes instead of liberty a Median
master. He therefore invited Tissaphernes to
conclude another and a better treaty, as they
certainly would not recognize those existing
and did not want any of his pay upon such con-
ditions. This offended Tissaphernes so much

that he went away in a rage without settling
anything.

CHAPTER XXV

Twentieth and Twenty-first Years of the War —

Intrigues of Alcibiades — Withdrawal of the Per-

sian Subsidies — Oligarchical Coup d'Etat at

Athens — Patriotism of the Army at Samos

THE Peloponnesians now determined
to sail to Rhodes, upon the invitation of some
of the principal men there, hoping to gain an
island powerful by the number of its seamen
and by its land forces, and also thinking that
they would be able to maintain their fleet from
their own confederacy, without having to ask
for money from Tissaphernes. They accord-
ingly at once set sail that same winter from
Cnidus, and first put in with ninety-four ships
at Camirus in the Rhodian country, to the
great alarm of the mass of the inhabitants, who
were not privy to the intrigue, and who conse-
quently fled, especially as the town was un-
fortified. They were afterwards, however, as-
sembled by the Lacedaemonians together with
the inhabitants of the two other towns of Lin-
dus and lalysus; and the Rhodians were per-
suaded to revolt from the Athenians and the
island went over to the Peloponnesians. Mean-
while the Athenians had received the alarm
and set sail with the fleet from Samos to fore-
stall them, and came within sight of the island,
but being a little too late sailed off for the mo-
ment to Chalce, and from thence to Samos,
and subsequently waged war against Rhodes,
issuing from Chalce, Cos, and Samos.

The Peloponnesians now levied a contribu-
tion of thirty-two talents from the Rhodians,
after which they hauled their ships ashore and
for eighty days remained inactive. [45] Dur-
ing this time, and even earlier, before they
removed to Rhodes, the following intrigues
took place. After the death of Chalcideus
and the battle at Miletus, Alcibiades began to
be suspected by the Peloponnesians; and As-
tyochus received from Lacedaemon an order
from them to put him to death, he being the
personal enemy of Agis, and in other respects
thought unworthy of confidence. Alcibiades in
his alarm first withdrew to Tissaphernes, and
immediately began to do all he could with him
to injure the Peloponnesian cause. Henceforth
becoming his adviser in everything, he cut
down the pay from an Attic drachma to three
obols a day, and even this not paid too regular-
ly; and told Tissaphernes to say to the Pelopon-

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

575

nesians that the Athenians, whose maritime
experience was of an older date than their
own, only gave their men three obols, not so
much from poverty as to prevent their seamen
being corrupted by being too well off, and in-
juring their condition by spending money
upon enervating indulgences, and also paid
their crews irregularly in order to have a secur-
ity against their deserting in the arrears which
they would leave behind them. He also told
Tissaphernes to bribe the captains and generals
of the cities, and so to obtain their connivance
— an expedient which succeeded with all ex-
cept the Syracusans, Hermocrates alone oppos-
ing him on behalf of the whole confederacy.
Meanwhile the cities asking for money Alcibi-
ades sent off, by roundly telling them in the
name of Tissaphernes that it was great impu-
dence in the Chians, the richest people in Hel-
las, not content with being defended by a for-
eign force, to expect others to risk not only
their lives but their money as well in behalf of
their freedom; while the other cities, he said,
had had to pay largely to Athens before their
rebellion, and could not justly refuse to con-
tribute as much or even more now for their
own selves. He also pointed out that Tissapher-
nes was at present carrying on the war at his
own charges, and had good cause for economy,
but that as soon as he received remittances
from the king he would give them their pay in
full and do what was reasonable for the cities.
[46] Alcibiades further advised Tissapher-
nes not to be in too great a hurry to end the
war, or to let himself be persuaded to bring up
the Phoenician fleet which he was equipping,
or to provide pay for more Hellenes, and thus
put the power by land and sea into the same
hands; but to leave each of the contending par-
ties in possession of one element, thus enabling
the king when he found one troublesome to
call in the other. For if the command of the sea
and land were united in one hand, he would
not know where to turn for help to overthrow
the dominant power; unless he at last chose to
stand up himself, and go through with the
struggle at great expense and hazard. The
cheapest plan was to let the Hellenes wear each
other out, at a small share of the expense and
without risk to himself. Besides, he would find
the Athenians the most convenient partners in
empire as they did not aim at conquests on
shore, and carried on the war upon principles
and with a practice most advantageous to the
King; being prepared to combine to conquer
the sea for Athens, and for the King all the

Hellenes inhabiting his country, whom the
Peloponncsians, on the contrary, had come to
liberate. Now it was not likely that the Lace-
daemonians would free the Hellenes from the
Hellenic Athenians, without freeing them also
from the barbarian Mede, unless overthrown
by him in the meanwhile. Alcibiades therefore
urged him to wear them both out at first, and,
after docking the Athenian power as much as
he could, forthwith to rid the country of the
Peloponnesians. In the main Tissaphernes ap-
proved of this policy, so far at least as could be
conjectured from his behaviour; since he now
gave his confidence to Alcibiades in recogni-
tion of his good advice, and kept the Pelopon-
nesians short of money, and would not let
them fight at sea, but ruined their cause by pre-
tending that the Phoenician fleet would arrive,
and that they would thus be enabled to contend
with the odds in their favour, and so made their
navy lose its efficiency, which had been very
remarkable, and generally betrayed a coolness
in the war that was too plain to be mistaken.

[47] Alcibiades gave this advice to Tissa-
phernes and the King, with whom he then was,
not merely because he thought it really the
best, but because he was studying means to ef-
fect his restoration to his country, well know-
ing that if he did not destroy it he might one
day hope to persuade the Athenians to recall
him, and thinking that his best chance of per-
suading them lay in letting them see that he
possessed the favour of Tissaphernes. The
event proved him to be right. When the Athe-
nians at Samos found that he had influence
with Tissaphernes, principally of their own
motion (though partly also through Alcibiades
himself sending word to their chief men to tell
the best men in the army that, if there were
only an oligarchy in the place of the rascally
democracy that had banished him, he would
be glad to return to his country and to make
Tissaphernes their friend), the captains and
chief men in the armament at once embraced
the idea of subverting the democracy.

[48] The design was first mooted in the
camp, and afterwards from thence reached the
city. Some persons crossed over from Samos
and had an interview with Alcibiades, who
immediately offered to make first Tissapher-
nes, and afterwards the King, their friend, if
they would give up the democracy and make
it possible for the King to trust them. The
higher class, who also suffered most severely
from the war,now conceived great hopes of get-
ting the government into their own hands, and

576

of triumphing over the enemy. Upon their re-
turn to Samos the emissaries formed their par-
tisans into a club, and openly told the mass of
the armament that the King would be their
friend, and would provide them with money,
if Alcibiades were restored and the democracy
abolished. The multitude, if at first irritated by
these intrigues, were nevertheless kept quiet
by the advantageous prospect of the pay from
the King; and the oligarchical conspirators,
after making this communication to the peo-
ple, now re-examined the proposals of Alcibia-
des among themselves, with most of their as-
sociates. Unlike the rest, who thought them
advantageous and trustworthy, Phrynichus,
who was still general, by no means approved of
the proposals. Alcibiades, he rightly thought,
cared no more for an oligarchy than for a de-
mocracy, and only sought to change the insti-
tutions of his country in order to get himself
recalled by his associates; while for themselves
their one object should be to avoid civil dis-
cord. It was not the King's interest, when the
Peloponnesians were now their equals at sea,
and in possession of some of the chief cities in
his empire, to go out of his way to side with
the Athenians whom he did not trust, when he
might make friends of the Peloponnesians who
had never injured him. And as for the allied
states to whom oligarchy was now offered, be-
cause the democracy was to be put down at
Athens, he well knew that this would not make
the rebels come in any the sooner, or confirm
the loyal in their allegiance; as the allies would
never prefer servitude with an oligarchy or de-
mocracy to freedom with the constitution
which they actually enjoyed, to whichever
type it belonged. Besides, the cities thought
tnat the so-called better classes would prove
just as oppressive as the commons, as being
those who originated, proposed, and for the
most part benefited from the acts of the com-
mons injurious to the confederates. Indeed, if
it depended on the better classes, the confeder-
ates would be put to death without trial and
with violence; while the commons were their
refuge and the chastiser of these men. This he
positively knew that the cities had learned by
experience, and that such was their opinion.
The propositions of Alcibiades, and the in-
trigues now in progress, could therefore never
meet with his approval.

[49] However, the members of the club as-
sembled, agreeably to their original determina-
tion, accepted what was proposed, and pre-
pared to send Pisander and others on an em-

THUCYDIDES [BOOK vm

bassy to Athens to treat for the restoration of

Alcibiades and the abolition of the democracy
in the city, and thus to make Tissaphernes the
friend of the Athenians.

[5°] Phrynichus now saw that there would
be a proposal to restore Alcibiades, and that
the Athenians would consent to it; and fearing
after what he had said against it that Alcibia-
des, if restored, would revenge himself upon
him for his opposition, had recourse to the fol-
lowing expedient. He sent a secret letter to the
Lacedaemonian admiral Astyochus, who was
still in the neighbourhood of Miletus, to tell
him that Alcibiades was ruining their cause by
making Tissaphernes the friend of the Athe-
nians, and containing an express revelation of
the rest of the intrigue, desiring to be excused
if he sought to harm his enemy even at the ex-
pense of the interests of his country. However,
Astyochus, instead of thinking of punishing
Alcibiades, who, besides, no longer ventured
within his reach as formerly, went up to him
and Tissaphernes at Magnesia, communicated
to them the letter from Samos, and turned in-
former, and, if report may be trusted, became
the paid creature of Tissaphernes, undertaking
to inform him as to this and all other matters;
which was also the reason why he did not re-
monstrate more strongly against the pay not
being given in full. Upon this Alcibiades in-
stantly sent to the authorities at Samos a letter
against Phrynichus, stating what he had done,
and requiring that he should be put to death.
Phrynichus distracted, and placed in the ut-
most peril by the denunciation, sent again to
Astyochus, reproaching him with having so ill
kept the secret of his previous letter, and say-
ing that he was now prepared to give them an
opportunity of destroying the whole Athenian
armament at Samos; giving a detailed account
of the means which he should employ, Samos
being unfortified, and pleading that, being in
danger of his life on their account, he could not
now be blamed for doing this or anything else
to escape being destroyed by his mortal en-
emies. This also Astyochus revealed to Alci-
biades.

[51] Meanwhile Phrynichus having had
timely notice that he was playing him false,
and that a letter on the subject was on the
point of arriving from Alcibiades, himself an-
ticipated the news, and told the army that the
enemy, seeing that Samos was unfortified and
the fleet not all stationed within the harbour,
meant to attack the camp, that he could be cer-
tain of this intelligence, and that they must

49-55]

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

577

fortify Samos as quickly as posible, and gener-
ally look to their defences. It will be remem-
bered that he was general, and had himself
authority to carry out these measures. Accord-
ingly they addressed themselves to the work of
fortification, and Samos was thus fortified
sooner than it would otherwise have been. Not
long afterwards came the letter from Alcibia-
des, saying that the army was betrayed by
Phrynichus, and the enemy about to attack it.
Alcibiades, however, gained no credit, it being
thought that he was in the secret of the en-
emy's designs, and had tried to fasten them
upon Phrynichus, and to make out that he was
their accomplice, out of hatred; and conse-
quently far from hurting him he rather bore
witness to what he had said by this intelligence.

[$2] After this Alcibiades set to work to per-
suade Tissaphernes to become the friend of
the Athenians. Tissaphernes, although afraid
of the Peloponnesians because they had more
ships in Asia than the Athenians, was yet dis-
posed to be persuaded if he could, especially
after his quarrel with the Peloponnesians at
Cnidus about the treaty of Therimenes. The
quarrel had already taken place, as the Pelo-
ponnesians were by this time actually at
Rhodes; and in it the original argument of Al-
cibiades touching the liberation of all the
towns by the Lacedaemonians had been veri-
fied by the declaration of Lichas that it was
impossible to submit to a convention which
made the King master of all the states at any
former time ruled by himself or by his fathers.

While Alcibiades was besieging the favour
of Tissaphernes with an earnestness propor-
tioned to the greatness of the issue, [53] the
Athenian envoys who had been dispatched
from Samos with Pisander arrived at Athens,
and made a speech before the people, giving a
brief summary of their views, and particularly
insisting that, if Alcibiades were recalled and
the democratic constitution changed, they
could have the King as their ally, and would be
able to overcome the Peloponnesians. A num-
ber of speakers opposed them on the question
of the democracy, the enemies of Alcibiades
cried out against the scandal of a restoration
to be effected by a violation of the constitution,
and the Eumolpidae and Ceryces protested in
behalf of the mysteries, the cause of his ban-
ishment, and called upon the gods to avert his
recall; when Pisander, in the midst of much
opposition and abuse, came forward, and tak-
ing each of his opponents aside asked him the
following question: In the face of the fact that

the Peloponnesians had as many ships as their
own confronting them at sea, more cities in al-
liance with them, and the King and Tissapher-
nes to supply them with money, of which the
Athenians had none left, had he any hope of
saving the state, unless someone could induce
the King to come over to their side ? Upon their
replying that they had not, he then plainly
said to them: "This we cannot have unless we
have a more moderate form of government,
and put the offices into fewer hands, and so
gain the King's confidence, and forthwith re-
store Alcibiades, who is the only man living
that can bring this about. The safety of the
state, not the form of its government, is for the
moment the most pressing question, as we can
always change afterwards whatever we do not
like."

[54] The people were at first highly irri-
tated at the mention of an oligarchy, but upon
understanding clearly from Pisander that this
was the only resource left, they took counsel of
their fears, and promised themselves some day
to change the government again, and gave
way. They accordingly voted that Pisandcr
should sail with ten others and make the best
arrangement that they could with Tissapher-
ncs and Alcibiades. At the same time the peo-
ple, upon a false accusation of Pisander, dis-
missed Phrynichus from his post together with
his colleague Scironides, sending Diomedon
and Leon to replace them in the command of
the fleet. The accusation was that Phrynichus
had betrayed lasus and Amorges; and Pisan-
der brought it because he thought him a man
unfit for the business now in hand with Al-
cibiades. Pisander also went the round of all
the clubs already existing in the city for help in
lawsuits and elections, and urged them to
draw together and to unite their efforts for the
overthrow of the democracy; and after taking
all other measures required by the circum-
stances, so that no time might be lost, set off
with his ten companions on his voyage to Tis-
saphernes.

/557 In the same winter Leon and Dio-
medon, who had by this time joined the fleet,
made an attack upon Rhodes. The ships of the
Peloponnesians they found hauled up on shore,
and, after making a descent upon the coast and
defeating the Rhodians who appeared in the
field against them, withdrew to Chalce and
made that place their base of operations in-
stead of Cos, as they could better observe from
thence if the Pcloponnesian fleet put out to sea.
Meanwhile Xenophantes, a Laconian, came to

578

THUCYDIDES

[ BOOK vin

Rhodes from Pedaritus at Chios, with the news
that the fortification of the Athenians was now
finished, and that, unless the whole Pelopon-
nesian fleet came to the rescue, the cause in
Chios must be lost. Upon this they resolved to
go to his relief. In the meantime Pedaritus,
with the mercenaries that he had with him
and the whole force of the Chians, made an as-
sault upon the work round the Athenian ships
and took a portion of it, and got possession of
some vessels that were hauled up on shore,
when the Athenians sallied out to the rescue,
and first routing the Chians, next defeated the
remainder of the force round Pedaritus, who
was himself killed, with many of the Chians,
a great number of arms being also taken.

[56] After this the Chians were besieged
even more straitly than before by land and sea,
and the famine in the place was great. Mean-
while the Athenian envoys with Pisander ar-
rived at the court of Tissaphernes, and con-
ferred with him about the proposed agree-
ment. However, Alcibiadcs, not being alto-
gether sure of Tissaphernes (who feared the
Peloponnesians more than the Athenians, and
besides wished to wear out both parties, as Al-
cibiades himself had recommended), had re-
course to the following stratagem to make the
treaty between the Athenians and Tissaphernes
miscarry by reason of the magnitude of his de-
mands. In my opinion Tissaphernes desired
this result, fear being his motive; while Alci-
biades, who now saw that Tissaphernes was
determined not to treat on any terms, wished
the Athenians to think, not that he was unable
to persuade Tissapherncs, but that after the lat-
ter had been persuaded and was willing to join
them, they had not conceded enough to him.
For the demands of Alcibiades, speaking for
Tissaphernes, who was present, were so extrav-
agant that the Athenians, although for a long
while they agreed to whatever he asked, yet
had to bear the blame of failure: he required
the cession of the whole of Ionia, next of the
islands adjacent, besides other concessions, and
these passed without opposition; at last, in the
third interview, Alcibiades, who now feared a
complete discovery of his inability, required
them to allow the King to build ships and sail
along his own coast wherever and with as
many as he pleased. Upon this the Athenians
would yield no further, and concluding that
there was nothing to be done, but that they
had been deceived by Alcibiades, went away in
a passion and proceeded to Samos.

[57] Tissaphernes immediately after this, in

the same winter, proceeded along shore to
Caunus, desiring to bring the Peloponnesian
fleet back to Miletus, and to supply them with
pay, making a fresh convention upon such
terms as he could get, in order not to bring
matters to an absolute breach between them.
He was afraid that if many of their ships were
left without pay they would be compelled to
engage and be defeated, or that their vessels be-
ing left without hands the Athenians would
attain their objects without his assistance. Still
more he feared that the Peloponnesians might
ravage the continent in search of supplies. Hav-
ing calculated and considered all this, agree-
ably to his plan of keeping the two sides equal,
he now sent for the Peloponnesians and gave
them pay, and concluded with them a third
treaty in words following:
[58] In the thirteenth year of the reign of Da-
rius, while Alexippidas was ephor at Lace dae-
mon, a convention was concluded in the plain
of the Maeander by the Lacedaemonians and
their allies with Tissaphernes, Hieramenes,
and the sons of Pharnaces, concerning the af-
fairs of the King and of the Lacedaemonians
and their allies.

1. The country of the King in Asia shall be
the King's, and the King shall treat his own
country as he pleases.

2. The Lacedaemonians and their allies
shall not invade or injure the King's country:
neither shall the King invade or injure that of
the Lacedaemonians or of their allies. If any of
the Lacedaemonians or of their allies invade or
injure the King's country, the Lacedaemonians
and their allies shall prevent it: and if any from
the King's country invade or injure the country
of the Lacedaemonians or of their allies, the
King shall prevent it.

3. Tissaphernes shall provide pay for the
ships now present, according to the agreement,
until the arrival of the King's vessels: but after
the arrival of the King's vessels the Lacedae-
monians and their allies may pay their own
ships if they wish it. If, however, they choose
to receive the pay from Tissaphernes, Tissa-
phernes shall furnish it: and the Lacedaemo-
nians and their allies shall repay him at the end
of the war such moneys as they shall have re-
ceived.

4. After the King's vessels have arrived, the
ships of the Lacedaemonians and of their allies
and those of the King shall carry on the war
jointly, according as Tissaphernes and the
Lacedaemonians and their allies shall thinly
best. If they wish to ma\c peace with the Athc-

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

579

mans, they shall make peace also jointly.

[59] This was the treaty. After this Tissa-
phernes prepared to bring up the Phoenician
fleet according to agreement, and to make good
his other promises, or at all events wished to
make it appear that he was so preparing.

[60] Winter was now drawing towards its
close, when the Boeotians took Oropus by
treachery, though held by an Athenian garri-
son. Their accomplices in this were some of the
Eretrians and of the Oropians themselves, who
were plotting the revolt of Euboea, as the place
was exactly opposite Eretria, and while in
Athenian hands was necessarily a source of
great annoyance to Eretria and the rest of Eu-
boea. Oropus being in their hands, the Eretri-
ans now came to Rhodes to invite the Pelopon-
nesians into Euboea. The latter, however, were
rather bent on the relief of the distressed Chi-
ans, and accordingly put out to sea and sailed
with all their ships from Rhodes. Off Tri-
opium they sighted the Athenian fleet out at
sea sailing from Chalce, and, neither attacking
the other, arrived, the latter at Samos, the Pel-
oponnesians at Miletus, seeing that it was no
longer possible to relieve Chios without a bat-
tle. And this winter ended, and with it ended
the twentieth year of this war of which Thu-
cydides is the historian.

[61] Early in the spring of the summer fol-
lowing, Dercyllidas, a Spartan, was sent with a
small force by land to the Hellespont to effect
the revolt of Abydos, which is a Milesian col-
ony; and the Chians, while Astyochus was at a
loss how to help them, were compelled to fight
at sea by the pressure of the siege. While As-
tyochus was still at Rhodes they had received
from Miletus, as their commander after the
death of Pedaritus, a Spartan named Leon,
who had come out with Antisthenes, and
twelve vessels which had been on guard at
Miletus, five of which were Thurian, four Syr-
acusans, one from Anaia, one Milesian, and
one Leon's own. Accordingly the Chians
marched out in mass and took up a strong
position, while thirty-six of their ships put out
and engaged thirty-two of the Athenians; and
after a tough fight, in which the Chians and
their allies had rather the best of it, as it was
now late, retired to their city.

[62] Immediately after this Dercyllidas ar-
rived by land from Miletus; and Abydos in the
Hellespont revolted to him and Pharnabazus,
and Lampsacus two days later. Upon receipt of
this news Strombichides hastily sailed from
Chios with twenty-four Athenian ships, some

transports carrying heavy infantry being of the
number, and defeating the Lampsacenes who
came out against him, took Lampsacus, which
was unfortified, at the first assault, and mak-
ing prize of the slaves and goods restored the
freemen to their homes, and went on to Aby-
dos. The inhabitants, however, refusing to
capitulate, and his assaults failing to take the
place, he sailed over to the coast opposite, and
appointed Sestos, the town in the Chersonese
held by the Medes at a former period in this
history, as the centre for the defence of the
whole Hellespont.

[63] In the meantime the Chians com-
manded the sea more than before; and the
Peloponnesians at Miletus and Astyochus, hear-
ing of the sea-fight and of the departure of the
squadron with Strombichides, took fresh cour-
age. Coasting along with two vessels to Chios,
Astyochus took the ships from that place, and
now moved with the whole fleet upon Samos,
from whence, however, he sailed back to Mile-
tus, as the Athenians did not put out against
him, owing to their suspicions of one another.
For it was about this time, or even before, that
the democracy was put down at Athens. When
Pisander and the envoys returned from Tissa-
phernes to Samos they at once strengthened
still further their interest in the army itself,
and instigated the upper class in Samos to join
them in establishing an oligarchy, the very
form of government which a party of them
had lately risen to avoid. At the same time the
Athenians at Samos, after a consultation
among themselves, determined to let Alci-
biades alone, since he refused to join them, and
besides was not the man for an oligarchy; and
now that they were once embarked, to sec for
themselves how they could best prevent the
ruin of their cause, and meanwhile to sustain
the war, and to contribute without stint money
and all else that might be required from their
own private estates, as they would henceforth
labour for themselves alone.

[64] After encouraging each other in these
resolutions, they now at once sent off half the
envoys and Pisander to do what was necessary
at Athens (with instructions to establish oli-
garchies on their way in all the subject cities
which they might touch at), and dispatched
the other half in different directions to the oth-
er dependencies. Diitrephes also, who was in
the neighbourhood of Chios, and had been
elected to the command of the Thracian towns,
was sent off to his government, and arriving
at Thasos abolished the democracy there. Two

580

THUCYDIDES

months, however, had not elapsed after his de-
parture before the Thasians began to fortify
their town, being already tired of an aristoc-
racy with Athens, and in daily expectation of
freedom from Lacedaemon. Indeed there was
a party of them (whom the Athenians had
banished), with the Pcloponnesians, who with
their friends in the town were already making
every exertion to bring a squadron, and to
effect the revolt of Thasos; and this party thus
saw exactly what they most wanted done, that
is to say, the reformation of the government
without risk, and the abolition of the democ-
racy which would have opposed them. Things
at Thasos thus turned out just the contrary to
what the oligarchical conspirators at Athens
expected; and the same in my opinion was the
case in many of the other dependencies; as the
cities no sooner got a moderate government
and liberty of action, than they went on to ab-
solute freedom without being at all seduced by
the show of reform offered by the Athenians.

[65] Pisander and his colleagues on their
voyage alongshore abolished, as had been de-
termined, the democracies in the cities, and
also took some heavy infantry from certain
places as their allies, and so came to Athens.
Here they found most of the work already
done by their associates. Some of the younger
men had banded together, and secretly assassi-
nated one Androcles, the chief leader of the
commons, and mainly responsible for the ban-
ishment of Alcibiades; Androcles being singled
out both because he was a popular leader and
because they sought by his death to recommend
themselves to Alcibiades, who was, as they
supposed, to be recalled, and to make Tissa-
phernes their friend. There were also some
other obnoxious persons whom they secretly
did away with in the same manner. Meanwhile
their cry in public was that no pay should be
given except to persons serving in the war, and
that not more than five thousand should share
in the government, and those such as were
most able to serve the state in person and in
purse.

[66] But this was a mere catchword for the
multitude, as the authors of the revolution
were really to govern. However, the Assembly
and the Council of the Bean still met notwith-
standing, although they discussed nothing that
was not approved of by the conspirators, who
both supplied the speakers and reviewed in
advance what they were to say. Fear, and the
sight of the numbers of the conspirators, closed
the mouths of the rest; or if any ventured to

[BooK vin

rise in opposition, he was presently put to death
in some convenient way, and there was neither
search for the murderers nor justice to be had
against them if suspected; but the people re-
mained motionless, being so thoroughly cowed
that men thought themselves lucky to escape
violence, even when they held their tongues.
An exaggerated belief in the numbers of the
conspirators also demoralized the people, ren-
dered helpless by the magnitude of the city,
and by their want of intelligence with each
other, and being without means of finding out
what those numbers really were. For the same
reason it was impossible for any one to open
his grief to a neighbour and to concert mea-
sures to defend himself, as he would have had
to speak either to one whom he did not know,
or whom he knew but did not trust. Indeed all
the popular party approached each other with
suspicion, each thinking his neighbour con-
cerned in what was going on, the conspirators
having in their ranks persons whom no one
could ever have believed capable of joining an
oligarchy; and these it was who made the many
so suspicious, and so helped to procure impu-
nity for the few, by confirming the commons
in their mistrust of one another.

^677 At this juncture arrived Pisander and
his colleagues, who lost no time in doing the
rest. First they assembled the people, and
moved to elect ten commissioners with full
powers to frame a constitution, and that when
this was done they should on an appointed day
lay before the people their opinion as to the
best mode of governing the city. Afterwards,
when the day arrived, the conspirators enclosed
the assembly in Colonus, a temple of Poseidon,
a little more than a mile outside the city; when
the commissioners simply brought forward
this single motion, that any Athenian might
propose with impunity whatever measure he
pleased, heavy penalties being imposed upon
any who should indict for illegality, or other-
wise molest him for so doing. The way thus
cleared, it was now plainly declared that all
tenure of office and receipt of pay under the
existing institutions were at an end, and that
five men must be elected as presidents, who
should in their turn elect one hundred, and
each of the hundred three apiece; and that this
body thus made up to four hundred should en-
ter the council chamber with full powers and
govern as they judged best, and should con-
vene the five thousand whenever they pleased.

[68] The man who moved this resolution
was Pisander, who was throughout the chief

65-71]

ostensible agent in putting down the democ-
racy. But he who concerted the whole affair,
and prepared the way for the catastrophe, and
who had given the greatest thought to the mat-
ter, was Antiphon, one of the best men of his
day in Athens; who, with a head to contrive
measures and a tongue to recommend them,
did not willingly come forward in the assem-
bly or upon any public scene, being ill looked
upon by the multitude owing to his reputation
for talent; and who yet was the one man best
able to aid in the courts, or before the assem-
bly, the suitors who required his opinion. In-
deed, when he was afterwards himself tried
for his life on the charge of having been con-
cerned in setting up this very government,
when the Four Hundred were overthrown
and hardly dealt with by the commons, he
made what would seem to be the best defence
of any known up to my time. Phrynichus also
went beyond all others in his zeal for the oli-
garchy. Afraid of Alcibiades, and assured that
he was no stranger to his intrigues with Astyo-
chus at Samos, he held that no oligarchy was
ever likely to restore him, and once embarked
in the enterprise, proved, where danger was to
be faced, by far the staunchest of them all.
Theramenes, son of Hagnon, was also one
of the foremost of the subverters of the de-
mocracy— a man as able in council as in de-
bate. Conducted by so many and by such saga-
cious heads, the enterprise, great as it was, not
unnaturally went forward; although it was no
light matter to deprive the Athenian people of
its freedom, almost a hundred years after the
deposition of the tyrants, when it had been not
only not subject to any during the whole of
that period, but accustomed during more than
half of it to rule over subjects of its own.

^697 The assembly ratified the proposed con-
stitution, without a single opposing voice, and
was then dissolved; after which the Four Hun-
dred were brought into the council chamber in
the following way. On account of the enemy at
Decelea, all the Athenians were constantly on
the wall or in the ranks at the various military
posts. On that day the persons not in the secret
were allowed to go home as usual, while or-
ders were given to the accomplices of the con-
spirators to hang about, without making any
demonstration, at some little distance from the
posts, and in case of any opposition to what
was being done, to seize the arms and put it
down. There were also some Andrians and
Tenians, three hundred Carystians, and some
of the settlers in Aegina come with their own

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

581

arms for this very purpose, who had received
similar instructions. These dispositions com-
pleted, the Four Hundred went, each with a
dagger concealed about his person, accompa-
nied by one hundred and twenty Hellenic
youths, whom they employed wherever vio-
lence was needed, and appeared before the
Councillors of the Bean in the council cham-
ber, and told them to take their pay and be
gone; themselves bringing it for the whole of
the residue of their term of office, and giving
it to them as they went out.

[70] Upon the Council withdrawing in this
way without venturing any objection, and the
rest of the citizens making no movement, the
Four Hundred entered the council chamber,
and for the present contented themselves with
drawing lots for their Prytanes, and making
their prayers and sacrifices to the gods upon
entering office, but afterwards departed wide-
ly from the democratic system of government,
and except that on account of Alcibiades they
did not recall the exiles, ruled the city by force;
putting to death some men, though not many,
whom they thought it convenient to remove,
and imprisoning and banishing others. They
also sent to Agis, the Lacedaemonian king, at
Decelea, to say that they desired to make peace,
and that he might reasonably be more disposed
to treat now that he had them to deal with in-
stead of the inconstant commons.

[?*] Agis, however, did not believe in the
tranquillity of the city, or that the commons
would thus in a moment give up their ancient
liberty, but thought that the sight of a large
Lacedaemonian force would be sufficient to
excite them if they were not already in com-
motion, of which he was by no means certain.
He accordingly gave to the envoys of the Four
Hundred an answer which held out no hopes
of an accommodation, and sending for large
reinforcements from Peloponnesc, not long af-
terwards, with these and his garrison from
Decelea, descended to the very walls of Ath-
ens; hoping either that civil disturbances might
help to subdue them to his terms, or that, in
the confusion to be expected within and with-
out the city, they might even surrender with-
out a blow being struck; at all events he
thought he would succeed in seizing the Long
Walls, bared of their defenders. However, the
Athenians saw him come close up, without
making the least disturbance within the city;
and sending out their cavalry, and a number of
their heavy infantry, light troops, and archers,
shot down some of his soldiers who approached

582

THUCYDIDES

[BOOK vin

too near, and got possession of some arms and
dead. Upon this Agis, at last convinced, led
his army back again and, remaining with his
own troops in the old position at Decelea, sent
the reinforcement back home, after a few days'
stay in Attica. After this the Four Hundred
persevering sent another embassy to Agis, and
now meeting with a better reception, at his
suggestion dispatched envoys to Lacedaemon
to negotiate a treaty, being desirous of making
peace.

^727 They also sent ten men to Samos to
reassure the army, and to explain that the oli-
garchy was not established for the hurt of the
city or the citizens, but for the salvation of the
country at large; and that there were five thou-
sand, not four hundred only, concerned; al-
though, what with their expeditions and em-
ployments abroad, the Athenians had never yet
assembled to discuss a question important
enough to bring five thousand of them to-
gether. The emissaries were also told what to
say upon all other points, and were so sent off
immediately after the establishment of the new
government, which feared, as it turned out
justly, that the mass of seamen would not be
willing to remain under the oligarchical con-
stitution, and, the evil beginning there, might
be the means of their overthrow.

[73] Indeed at Samos the question of the
oligarchy had already entered upon a new
phase, the following events having taken place
just at the time that the Four Hundred were
conspiring. That part of the Samian popula-
tion which has been mentioned as rising
against the upper class, and as being the demo-
cratic party, had now turned round, and yield-
ing to the solicitations of Pisander during his
visit, and of the Athenians in the conspiracy at
Samos, had bound themselves by oaths to the
number of three hundred, and were about to
fall upon the rest of their fellow citizens,
whom they now in their turn regarded as the
democratic party. Meanwhile they put to death
one Hyperbolus, an Athenian, a pestilent fel-
low that had been ostracized, not from fear of
his influence or position, but because he was a
rascal and a disgrace to the city; being aided
in this by Charminus, one of the generals, and
by some of the Athenians with them, to whom
they had sworn friendship, and with whom
they perpetrated other acts of the kind, and
now determined to attack the people. The lat-
ter got wind of what was coming, and told
two of the generals, Leon and Diomedon, who,
on account of the credit which they enjoyed

with the commons, were unwilling supporters
of the oligarchy; and also Thrasybulus and
Thrasyllus, the former a captain of a galley, the
latter serving with the heavy infantry, besides
certain others who had ever been thought most
opposed to the conspirators, entreating them
not to look on and see them destroyed, and
Samos, the sole remaining stay of their empire,
lost to the Athenians. Upon hearing this, the
persons whom they addressed now went round
the soldiers one by one, and urged them to re-
sist, especially the crew of the Paralus, which
was made up entirely of Athenians and free-
men, and had from time out of mind been en-
emies of oligarchy, even when there was no
such thing existing; and Leon and Diomedon
left behind some ships for their protection in
case of their sailing away anywhere them-
selves. Accordingly, when the Three Hundred
attacked the people, all these came to the res-
cue, and foremost of all the crew of the Paralus;
and the Samian commons gained the victory,
and putting to death some thirty of the Three
Hundred, and banishing three others of the
ringleaders, accorded an amnesty to the rest,
and lived together under a democratic govern-
ment for the future.

[74] The ship Paralus, with Chaereas, son
of Archestratus, on board, an Athenian who
had taken an active part in the revolution, was
now without loss of time sent off by the Sa-
mians and the army to Athens to report what
had occurred; the fact that the Four Hundred
were in power not being yet known. When
they sailed into harbour the Four Hundred im-
mediately arrested two or three of the Parali
and, taking the vessel from the rest, shifted
them into a troopship and set them to keep
guard round Euboea. Chaereas, however, man-
aged to secrete himself as soon as he saw how
things stood, and returning to Samos, drew a
picture to the soldiers of the horrors enacting
at Athens, in which everything was exagger-
ated; saying that all were punished with
stripes, that no one could say a word against
the holders of power, that the soldiers' wives
and children were outraged, and that it was
intended to seize and shut up the relatives of
all in the army at Samos who were not of the
government's way of thinking, to be put to
death in case of their disobedience; besides a
host of other injurious inventions.

[75] On hearing this the first thought of the
army was to fall upon the chief authors of the
oligarchy and upon all the rest concerned.
Eventually, however, they desisted from this

72-79]

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

583

idea upon the men of moderate views opposing
it and warning them against ruining their
cause, with the enemy close at hand and ready
for battle. After this, Thrasybulus, son of Lycus,
and Thrasyllus, the chief leaders in the revolu-
tion, now wishing in the most public manner
to change the government at Samos to a de-
mocracy, bound all the soldiers by the most tre-
mendous oaths, and those of the oligarchical
party more than any, to accept a democratic
government, to be united, to prosecute active-
ly the war with the Peloponnesians, and to be
enemies of the Four Hundred, and to hold no
communication with them. The same oath was
also taken by all the Samians of full age; and
the soldiers associated the Samians in all their
affairs and in the fruits of their dangers, hav-
ing the conviction that there was no way of es-
cape for themselves or for them, but that the
success of the Four Hundred or of the enemy
at Miletus must be their ruin.

/^67 The struggle now was between the
army trying to force a democracy upon the
city, and the Four Hundred an oligarchy upon
the camp. Meanwhile the soldiers forthwith
held an assembly, in which they deposed the
former generals and any of the captains whom
they suspected, and chose new captains and
generals to replace them, besides Thrasybulus
and Thrasyllus, whom they had already. They
also stood up and encouraged one another, and
among other things urged that they ought not
to lose heart because the city had revolted from
them, as the party seceding was smaller and in
every way poorer in resources than themselves.
They had the whole fleet with which to com-
pel the other cities in their empire to give them
money just as if they had their base in the capi-
tal, having a city in Samos which, so far from
wanting strength, had when at war been within
an ace of depriving the Athenians of the com-
mand of the sea, while as far as the enemy was
concerned they had the same base of opera-
tions as before. Indeed, with the fleet in their
hands, they were better able to provide them-
selves with supplies than the government at
home. It was their advanced position at Samos
which had throughout enabled the home au-
thorities to command the entrance into Pirae-
us; and if they refused to give them back the
constitution, they would now find that the
army was more in a position to exclude them
from the sea than they were to exclude the
army. Besides, the city was of little or no use
towards enabling them to overcome the en-
emy; and they had lost nothing in losing those

who had no longer either money to send them
(the soldiers having to find this for them-
selves), or good counsel, which entitles cities
to direct armies. On the contrary, even in this
the home government had done wrong in abol-
ishing the institutions of their ancestors, while
the army maintained the said institutions, and
would try to force the home government to do
so likewise. So that even in point of good coun-
sel the camp had as good counsellors as the
city. Moreover, they had but to grant him se-
curity for his person and his recall, and Alci-
biades would be only too glad to procure them
the alliance of the King. And above all, if they
failed altogether, with the navy which they
possessed, they had numbers of places to retire
to in which they would find cities and lands.

^777 Debating together and comforting
themselves after this manner, they pushed on
their war measures as actively as ever; and the
ten envoys sent to Samos by the Four Hun-
dred, learning how matters stood while they
were still at Delos, stayed quiet there.

[j8] About this time a cry arose among the
soldiers in the Peloponnesian fleet at Miletus
that Astyochus and Tissaphernes were ruining
their cause. Astyochus had not been willing to
fight at sea — either before, while they were
still in full vigour and the fleet of the Atheni-
ans small, or now, when the enemy was, as
they were informed, in a state of sedition and
his ships not yet united — but kept them waiting
for the Phoenician fleet from Tissaphernes,
which had only a nominal existence, at the
risk of wasting away in inactivity. While Tis-
saphernes not only did not bring up the fleet
in question, but was ruining their navy by pay-
ments made irregularly, and even then not
made in full. They must therefore, they insist-
ed, delay no longer, but fight a decisive naval
engagement. The Syracusans were the most
urgent of any.

/797 The confederates and Astyochus,
aware of these murmurs, had already decided
in council to fight a decisive battle; and when
the news reached them of the disturbance at
Samos, they put to sea with all their ships, one
hundred and ten in number, and, ordering the
Milesians to move by land upon Mycalc, set
sail thither. The Athenians with the eighty-
two ships from Samos were at the moment
lying at Glauce in Mycale, a point where Sa-
mos approaches near to the continent; and, see-
ing the Peloponnesian fleet sailing against
them, retired into Samos, not thinking them-
selves numerically strong enough to stake their

584

THUCYDIDES

[BOOK viii

all upon a battle. Besides, they had notice from
Miletus of the wish of the enemy to engage,
and were expecting to be joined from the Hel-
lespont by Strombichides, to whom a messen-
ger had been already dispatched, with the
ships that had gone from Chios to Abydos.
The Athenians accordingly withdrew to Sa-
mos, and the Peloponnesians put in at Mycale,
and encamped with the land forces of the Mi-
lesians and the people of the neighbourhood.
The next day they were about to sail against
Samos, when tidings reached them of the ar-
rival of Strombichides with the squadron from
the Hellespont, upon which they immediately
sailed back to Miletus. The Athenians, thus re-
inforced, now in their turn sailed against Mi-
letus with a hundred and eight ships, wishing
to right a decisive battle, but, as no one put out
to meet them, sailed back to Samos.

CHAPTER XXVI

Twenty-first Year of the War — Recall of Aid-

blades to Samos — Revolt of Euboea and Downfall

of the Four Hundred — Battle of Cynossema

[80] IN the same summer, immediately after
this, the Peloponnesians having refused to
fight with their fleet united, through not think-
ing themselves a match for the enemy, and be-
ing at a loss where to look for money for such
a number of ships, especially as Tissaphernes
proved so bad a paymaster, sent off Clearchus,
son of Ramphias, with forty ships to Pharna-
bazus, agreeably to the original instructions
from Peloponnese; Pharnabazus inviting them
and being prepared to furnish pay, and Byzan-
tium besides sending offers to revolt to them.
These Pcloponnesian ships accordingly put out
into the open sea, in order to escape the obser-
vation of the Athenians, and being overtaken
by a storm, the majority with Clearchus got
into Delos, and afterwards returned to Miletus,
whence Clearchus proceeded by land to the
Hellespont to take the command: ten, how-
ever, of their number, under the Megarian
Helixus, made good their passage to the Hel-
lespont, and effected the revolt of Byzantium.
After this, the commanders at Samos were in-
formed of it, and sent a squadron against them
to guard the Hellespont; and an encounter
took place before Byzantium between eight
vessels on either side.

[81] Meanwhile the chiefs at Samos, and
especially Thrasybulus, who from the moment
that he had changed the government had re-
mained firmly resolved to recall Alcibiadcs, at

last in an assembly brought over the mass of
the soldiery, and upon their voting for his re-
call and amnesty, sailed over to Tissaphernes
and brought Alcibiades to Samos, being con-
vinced that their only chance of salvation lay
in his bringing over Tissaphernes from the
Peloponnesians to themselves. An assembly
was then held in which Alcibiades complained
of and deplored his private misfortune in hav-
ing been banished, and speaking at great
length upon public affairs, highly incited their
hopes for the future, and extravagantly magni-
fied his own influence with Tissaphernes. His
object in this was to make the oligarchical gov-
ernment at Athens afraid of him, to hasten
the dissolution of the clubs, to increase his
credit with the army at Samos and heighten
their own confidence, and lastly to prejudice
the enemy as strongly as possible against Tissa-
phernes, and blast the hopes which they en-
tertained. Alcibiades accordingly held out to
the army such extravagant promises as the fol-
lowing: that Tissaphernes had solemnly as-
sured him that if he could only trust the Athe-
nians they should never want for supplies
while he had anything left, no, not even if he
should have to coin his own silver couch, and
that he would bring the Phoenician fleet now
at Aspendus to the Athenians instead of to the
Peloponnesians; but that he could only trust
the Athenians if Alcibiades were recalled to be
his security for them.

[82] Upon hearing this and much more be-
sides, the Athenians at once elected him gener-
al together with the former ones, and put all
their affairs into his hands. There was now
not a man in the army who would have ex-
changed his present hopes of safety and ven-
geance upon the Four Hundred for any consid-
eration whatever; and after what they had
been told they were now inclined to disdain
the enemy before them, and to sail at once for
Piraeus. To the plan of sailing for Piraeus,
leaving their more immediate enemies behind
them, Alcibiades opposed the most positive re-
fusal, in spite of the numbers that insisted
upon it, saying that now that he had been
elected general he would first sail to Tissa-
phernes and concert with him measures for
carrying on the war. Accordingly, upon leav-
ing this assembly, he immediately took his de-
parture in order to have it thought that there
was an entire confidence between them, and
also wishing to increase his consideration with
Tissaphernes, and to show that he had now
been elected general and was in a position to

8o-86]

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

585

do him good or evil as he chose; thus manag-
ing to frighten the Athenians with Tissapher-
nes and Tissaphernes with the Athenians.

[83] Meanwhile the Peloponnesians at Mi-
letus heard of the recall of Alcibiades and, al-
ready distrustful of Tissaphernes, now became
far more disgusted with him than ever. Indeed
after their refusal to go out and give battle to
the Athenians when they appeared before Mi-
letus, Tissaphernes had grown slacker than
ever in his payments; and even before this, on
account of Alcibiades, his unpopularity had
been on the increase. Gathering together, just
as before, the soldiers and some persons of con-
sideration besides the soldiery began to reck*
on up how they had never yet received their
pay in full; that what they did receive was
small in quantity, and even that paid irregu-
larly, and that unless they fought a decisive
battle or removed to some station where they
could get supplies, the ships' crews would de-
sert; and that it was all the fault of Astyochus,
who humoured Tissaphernes for his own priv-
ate advantage.

[84] The army was engaged in these reflec-
tions, when the following disturbance took
place about the person of Astyochus. Most of
the Syracusan and Thurian sailors were free-
men, and these the freest crews in the arma-
ment were likewise the boldest in setting upon
Astyochus and demanding their pay. The lat-
ter answered somewhat stiffly and threatened
them, and when Dorieus spoke up for his own
sailors even went so far as to lift his baton
against him; upon seeing which the mass of
men, in sailor fashion, rushed in a fury to
strike Astyochus. He, however, saw them in
time and fled for refuge to an altar; and they
were thus parted without his being struck.
Meanwhile the fort built by Tissaphernes in
Miletus was surprised and taken by the Milesi-
ans, and the garrison in it turned out — an act
which met with the approval of the rest of the
allies, and in particular of the Syracusans, but
which found no favour with Lichas, who said
moreover that the Milesians and the rest in the
King's country ought to show a reasonable sub-
mission to Tissaphernes and to pay him court,
until the war should be happily settled. The
Milesians were angry with him for this and
for other things of the kind, and upon his af-
terwards dying of sickness, would not allow
him to be buried where the Lacedaemonians
with the army desired.

[85] The discontent of the army with As-
tyochus and Tissaphernes had reached this

pitch, when Mindarus arrived from Lacedae-
mon to succeed Astyochus as admiral, and as-
sumed the command. Astyochus now set sail
for home; and Tissaphernes sent with him one
of his confidants, Gaulites, a Carian, who spoke
the two languages, to complain of the Milesi-
ans for the affair of the fort, and at the same
time to defend himself against the Milesians,
who were, as he was aware, on their way to
Sparta chiefly to denounce his conduct, and
had with them Hermocrates, who was to ac-
cuse Tissaphernes of joining with Alcibiades to
ruin the Peloponnesian cause and of playing
a double game. Indeed Hermocrates had al-
ways been at enmity with him about the pay
not being restored in full; and eventually when
he was banished from Syracuse, and new com-
manders— Potamis, Myscon, and Demarchus
— had come out to Miletus to the ships of the
Syracusans, Tissaphernes, pressed harder than
ever upon him in his exile, and among other
charges against him accused him of having
once asked him for money, and then given
himself out as his enemy because he failed to
obtain it.

While Astyochus and the Milesians and
Hermocrates made sail for Lacedaemon, Alci-
biades had now crossed back from Tissapher-
nes to Samos. [86] After his return the envoys
of the Four Hundred sent, as has been men-
tioned above, to pacify and explain matters to
the forces at Samos, arrived from Delos; and
an assembly was held in which they attempted
to speak. The soldiers at first would not hear
them, and cried out to put to death the sub-
verters of the democracy, but at last, after some
difficulty, calmed down and gave them a hear-
ing. Upon this the envoys proceeded to inform
them that the recent change had been made to
save the city, and not to ruin it or to deliver it
over to the enemy, for they had already had
an opportunity of doing this when he invaded
the country during their government; that all
the Five Thousand would have their proper
share in the government; and that their hear-
ers' relatives had neither outrage, as Chaereas
had slanderously reported, nor other ill treat-
ment to complain of, but were all in undis-
turbed enjoyment of their property just as they
had left them. Besides these they made a num-
ber of other statements which had no better
success with their angry auditors; and amid a
host of different opinions the one which found
most favour was that of sailing to Piraeus.
Now it was that Alcibiades for the first time
did the state a service, and one of the most

586

THUCYDIDES

signal kind. For when the Athenians at Sa-
mos were bent upon sailing against their coun-
trymen, in which case Ionia and the Helles-
pont would most certainly at once have passed
into possession of the enemy, Alcibiades it was
who prevented them. At that moment, when
no other man would have been able to hold
back the multitude, he put a stop to the in-
tended expedition, and rebuked and turned
aside the resentment felt, on personal grounds,
against the envoys; he dismissed them with an
answer from himself, to the effect that he did
not object to the government of the Five Thou-
sand, but insisted that the Four Hundred
should be deposed and the Council of Five
Hundred reinstated in power: meanwhile any
retrenchments for economy, by which pay
might be better found for the armament, met
with his entire approval. Generally, he bade
them hold out and show a bold face to the en-
emy, since if the city were saved there was
good hope that the two parties might some day
be reconciled, whereas if either were once de-
stroyed, that at Samos, or that at Athens, there
would no longer be any one to be reconciled
to. Meanwhile arrived envoys from the Ar-
gives, with offers of support to the Athenian
commons at Samos: these were thanked by Al-
cibiades, and dismissed with a request to come
when called upon. The Argives were accom-
panied by the crew of the Paralus, whom we
left placed in a troopship by the Four Hundred
with orders to cruise round Euboea, and who
being employed to carry to Lacedaemon some
Athenian envoys sent by the Four Hundred —
Laespodias, Aristophon, and Melesias — as they
sailed by Argos laid hands upon the envoys,
and delivering them over to the Argives as the
chief subverters of the democracy, themselves,
instead of returning to Athens, took the Ar-
give envoys on board, and came to Samos in
the galley which had been confided to them.

[8j] The same summer at the time that the
return of Alcibiades coupled with the general
conduct of r Tissaphernes had carried to its
height the discontent of the Peloponnesians,
who no longer entertained any doubt of his
having joined the Athenians, Tissaphernes
wishing, it would seem, to clear himself to
them of these charges, prepared to go after
the Phoenician fleet to Aspendus, and invited
Lichas to go with him; saying that he would
appoint Tamos as his lieutenant to provide
pay for the armament during his own ab-
sence. Accounts differ, and it is not easy to as-
certain with what intention he went to Aspen-

[BooK viii

dusj and did not bring the fleet after all. That
one hundred and forty-seven Phoenician ships
came as far as Aspendus is certain; but why
they did not come on has been variously ac-
counted for. Some think that he went away
in pursuance of his plan of wasting the Pelo-
ponnesian resources, since at any rate Tamos,
his lieutenant, far from being any better,
proved a worse paymaster than himself: oth-
ers that he brought the Phoenicians to Aspen-
dus to exact money from them for their dis-
charge, having never intended to employ them:
others again that it was in view of the outcry
against him at Lacedaemon, in order that it
might be said that he was not in fault, but that
the ships were really manned and that he had
certainly gone to fetch them. To myself it
seems only too evident that he did not bring
up the fleet because he wished to wear out and
paralyse the Hellenic forces, that is, to waste
their strength by the time lost during his jour-
ney to Aspendus, and to keep them evenly bal-
anced by not throwing his weight into either
scale. Had he wished to finish the war, he
could have done so, assuming of course that he
made his appearance in a way which left no
room for doubt; as by bringing up the fleet he
would in all probability have given the victory
to the Lacedaemonians, whose navy, even as it
was, faced the Athenian more as an equal than
as an inferior. But what convicts him most
clearly, is the excuse which he put forward for
not bringing the ships. He said that the num-
ber assembled was less than the King had or-
dered; but surely it would only have enhanced
his credit if he spent little of the King's money
and effected the same end at less cost. In any
case, whatever was his intention, Tissaphernes
went to Aspendus and saw the Phoenicians;
and the Peloponnesians at his desire sent a
Lacedaemonian called Philip with two galleys
to fetch the fleet.

[88] Alcibiades finding that Tissaphernes
had gone to Aspendus, himself sailed thither
with thirteen ships, promising to do a great
and certain service to the Athenians at Samos,
as he would either bring the Phoenician fleet
to the Athenians, or at all events prevent its
joining the Peloponnesians. In all probability
he had long known that Tissaphernes never
meant to bring the fleet at all, and wished to
compromise him as much as possible in the
eyes of the Peloponnesians through his appar-
ent friendship for himself and the Athenians,
and thus in a manner to oblige him to join
their side.

87*9*]

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

587

While Alcibiadcs weighed anchor and sailed
eastward straight for Phaselis and Caunus,
[89] the envoys sent by the Four Hundred to
Samos arrived at Athens. Upon their deliver-
ing the message from Alcibiades, telling them
to hold out and to show a firm front to the en-
emy, and saying that he had great hopes of
reconciling them with the army and of over-
coming the Peloponnesians, the majority of the
members of the oligarchy, who were already
discontented and only too much inclined to be
quit of the business in any safe way that they
could, were at once greatly strengthened in
their resolve. These now banded together and
strongly criticized the administration, their
leaders being some of the principal generals
and men in office under the oligarchy, such as
Theramenes, son of Hagnon, Aristocratcs, son
of Sccllias, and others; who, although among
the most prominent members of the govern-
ment (being afraid, as they said, of the army at
Samos, and most especially of Alcibiades, and
also lest the envoys whom they had sent to
Lacedaemon might do the state some harm
without the authority of the people), without
insisting on objections to the excessive concen-
tration of power in a few hands, yet urged that
the Five Thousand must be shown to exist not
merely in name but in reality, and the consti-
tution placed upon a fairer basis. But this was
merely their political cry; most of them being
driven by private ambition into the line of con-
duct so surely fatal to oligarchies that arise out
of democracies. For all at once pretend to be
not only equals but each the chief and master
of his fellows; while under a democracy a dis-
appointed candidate accepts his defeat more
easily, because he has not the humiliation of
being beaten by his equals. But what most
clearly encouraged the malcontents was the
power of Alcibiades at Samos, and their own
disbelief in the stability of the oligarchy; and
it was now a race between them as to which
should first become the leader of the commons.

[go] Meanwhile the leaders and members of
the Four Hundred most opposed to a demo-
cratic form of government — Phrynichus who
had had the quarrel with Alcibiades during
his command at Samos, Aristarchus the bitter
and inveterate enemy of the commons, and
Pisander and Antiphon and others of the chiefs
who already as soon as they entered upon
power, and again when the army at Samos se-
ceded from them and declared for a democracy,
had sent envoys from their own body to Lace-
daemon and made every effort for peace, and

had built the wall in Eetionia — now redoubled
their exertions when their envoys returned
from Samos, and they saw not only the people
but their own most trusted associates turning
against them. Alarmed at the state of things
at Athens as at Samos, they now sent off in
haste Antiphon and Phrynichus and ten oth-
ers with injunctions to make peace with Lace-
daemon upon any terms, no matter what, that
should be at all tolerable. Meanwhile they
pushed on more actively than ever with the
wall in Eetionia. Now the meaning of this
wall, according to Theramenes and his sup-
porters, was not so much to keep out the army
of Samos, in case of its trying to force its way
into Piraeus, as to be able to let in, at pleasure,
the fleet and army of the enemy. For Eetionia
is a mole of Piraeus, close alongside of the en-
trance of the harbour, and was now fortified
in connection with the wall already existing on
the land side, so that a few men placed in it
might be able to command the entrance; the
old wall on the land side and the new one now
being built within on the side of the sea, both
ending in one of the two towers standing at
the narrow mouth of the harbour. They also
walled off the largest porch in Piraeus which
was in immediate connection with this wall,
and kept it in their own hands, compelling all
to unload there the corn that came into the
harbour, and what they had in stock, and to
take it out from thence when they sold it.

[ 9/7 These measures had long provoked the
murmurs of Theramenes, and when the en-
voys returned from Lacedaemon without hav-
ing effected any general pacification, he af-
firmed that this wall was like to prove the ruin
of the state. At this moment forty-two ships
from Peloponnese, including some Siceliot and
Italiot vessels from Locri and Tarentum, had
been invited over by the Euboeans and were
already riding off Las in Laconia preparing for
the voyage to Euboea, under the command of
Agesandridas, son of Agesander, a Spartan,
Theramenes now affirmed that this squadron
was destined not so much to aid Euboea as the
party fortifying Eetionia, and that unless pre-
cautions were speedily taken the city would be
surprised and lost. This was no mere calumny,
there being really some such plan entertained
by the accused. Their first wish was to have
the oligarchy without giving up the empire;
failing this to keep their ships and walls and
be independent; while, if this also were denied
them, sooner than be the first victims of the
restored democracy, they were resolved to call

588

THUCYDIDES

[BOOK vin

in the enemy and make peace, give up their
walls and ships, and at all costs retain posses-
sion of the government, if their lives were only
assured to them.

[92] For this reason they pushed forward
the construction of their work with posterns
and entrances and means of introducing the
enemy, being eager to have it finished in time.
Meanwhile the murmurs against them were at
first confined to a few persons and went on in
secret, until Phrynichus, after his return from
the embassy to Lacedaemon, was laid wait for
and stabbed in full market by one of the Peri-
poli, falling down dead before he had gone
far from the council chamber. The assassin es-
caped; but his accomplice, an Argive, was tak-
en and put to the torture by the Four Hun-
dred, without their being able to extract from
him the name of his employer, or anything
further than that he knew of many men who
used to assemble at the house of the com-
mander of the Peripoli and at other houses.
Here the matter was allowed to drop. This so
emboldened Theramenes and Aristocrates
and the rest of their partisans in the Four
Hundred and out of doors, that they now re-
solved to act. For by this time the ships had
sailed round from Las, and anchoring at Epi-
daurus had overrun Aegina; and Thera-
menes asserted that, being bound for Euboea,
they would never have sailed in to Aegina and
come back to anchor at Epidaurus, unless they
had been invited to come to aid in the designs
of which he had always accused the govern-
ment. Further inaction had therefore now be-
come impossible. In the end, after a great many
seditious harangues and suspicions, they set
to work in real earnest. The heavy infantry in
Piraeus building the wall in Eetionia, among
whom was Aristocrates, a colonel, with his
own tribe, laid hands upon Alexicles, a gen-
eral under the oligarchy and the devoted ad-
herent of the cabal, and took him into a house
and confined him there. In this they were as-
sisted by one Hermon, commander of the Peri-
poli in Munychia, and others, and above all
had with them the great bulk of the heavy in-
fantry. As soon as the news reached the Four
Hundred, who happened to be sitting in the
council chamber, all except the disaffected
wished at once to go to the posts where the
arms were, and menaced Theramenes and his
party. Theramenes defended himself, and said
that he was ready immediately to go and help
to rescue Alexicles; and taking with him one
of the generals belonging to his party, went

down to Piraeus, followed by Aristarchus and
some young men of the cavalry. All was now
panic and confusion. Those in the city im-
agined that Piraeus was already taken and the
prisoner put to death, while those in Piraeus
expected every moment to be attacked by the
party in the city. The older men, however,
stopped the persons running up and down the
town and making for the stands of arms; and
Thucydides the Pharsalian, proxenus of the
city, came forward and threw himself in the
way of the rival factions, and appealed to them
not to ruin the state, while the enemy was still
at hand waiting for his opportunity, and so at
length succeeded in quieting them and in keep-
ing their hands off each other. Meanwhile
Theramenes came down to Piraeus, being him-
self one of the generals, and raged and stormed
against the heavy infantry, while Aristarchus
and the adversaries of the people were angry
in right earnest. Most of the heavy infantry,
however, went on with the business without
faltering, and asked Theramenes if he thought
the wall had been constructed for any good
purpose, and whether it would not be better
that it should be pulled down. To this he an-
swered that if they thought it best to pull it
down, he for his part agreed with them. Upon
this the heavy infantry and a number of the
people in Piraeus immediately got up on the
fortification and began to demolish it. Now
their cry to the multitude was that all should
join in the work who wished the Five Thou-
sand to govern instead of the Four Hundred.
For instead of saying in so many words "all
who wished the commons to govern," they still
disguised themselves under the name of the
Five Thousand; being afraid that these might
really exist, and that they might be speaking
to one of their number and get into trouble
through ignorance. Indeed this was why the
Four Hundred neither wished the Five Thou-
sand to exist, nor to have it known that they
did not exist; being of opinion that to give
themselves so many partners in empire would
be downright democracy, while the mystery in
question would make the people afraid of one
another.

[93] The next day the Four Hundred, al-
though alarmed, nevertheless assembled in the
council chamber, while the heavy infantry in
Piraeus, after having released their prisoner
Alexicles and pulled down the fortification,
went with their arms to the theatre of Diony-
sus, close to Munychia, and there held an as-
sembly in which they decided to march into

92-96]

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

589

the city, and setting forth accordingly halted in
the Anaceum. Here they were joined by some
delegates from the Four Hundred, who rea-
soned with them one by one, and persuaded
those whom they saw to be the most moderate
to remain quiet themselves, and to keep in the
rest; saying that they would make known the
Five Thousand, and have the Four Hundred
chosen from them in rotation, as should be de-
cided by the Five Thousand, and meanwhile
entreated them not to ruin the state or drive
it into the arms of the enemy. After a great
many had spoken and had been spoken to, the
whole body of heavy infantry became calmer
than before, absorbed by their fears for the
country at large, and now agreed to hold upon
an appointed day an assembly in the theatre
of Dionysus for the restoration of concord.

[94] When the day came for the assembly
in the theatre, and they were upon the point of
assembling, news arrived that the forty-two
ships under Agesandridas were sailing from
Megara along the coast of Salamis. The people
to a man now thought that it was just what
Theramenes and his party had so often said,
that the ships were sailing to the fortification,
and concluded that they had done well to de-
molish it. But though it may possibly have
been by appointment that Agesandridas hov-
ered about Epidaurus and the neighbourhood,
he would also naturally be kept there by the
hope of an opportunity arising out of the trou-
bles in the town. In any case the Athenians, on
receipt of the news, immediately ran down in
mass to Piraeus, seeing themselves threatened
by the enemy with a worse war than their war
among themselves, not at a distance, but close
to the harbour of Athens. Some went on board
the ships already afloat, while others launched
fresh vessels, or ran to defend the walls and
the mouth of the harbour.

[95] Meanwhile the Peloponnesian vessels
sailed by, and rounding Sunium anchored be-
tween Thoricus and Prasiae, and afterwards
arrived at Oropus. The Athenians, with revo-
lution in the city, and unwilling to lose a mo-
ment in going to the relief of their most im-
portant possession (for Euboea was everything
to them now that they were shut out from At-
tica), were compelled to put to sea in haste and
with untrained crews, and sent Thymochares
with some vessels to Eretria. These upon their
arrival, with the ships already in Euboea, made
up a total of thirty-six vessels, and were im-
mediately forced to engage. For Agesandridas,
after his crews had dined, put out from Oro-

>us, which is about seven miles from Eretria
sea; and the Athenians, seeing him sailing
up, immediately began to man their vessels.
The sailors, however, instead of being by their
ships, as they supposed, were gone away to
purchase provisions for their dinner in the
houses in the outskirts of the town; the Eretri-
ans having so arranged that there should be
nothing on sale in the marketplace, in order
that the Athenians might be a long time in
manning their ships, and, the enemy's attack
taking them by surprise, might be compelled
to put to sea just as they were. A signal also
was raised in Eretria to give them notice in
Oropus when to put to sea. The Athenians,
forced to put out so poorly prepared, engaged
off the harbour of Eretria, and after holding
their own for some little while notwithstand-
ing, were at length put to flight and chased to
the shore. Such of their number as took refuge
in Eretria, which they presumed to be friendly
to them, found their fate in that city, being
butchered by the inhabitants; while those who
fled to the Athenian fort in the Eretrian terri-
tory, and the vessels which got to Chalcis, were
saved. The Peloponnesians, after taking twen-
ty-two Athenian ships, and killing or making
prisoners of the crews, set up a trophy, and not
long afterwards effected the revolt of the whole
of Euboea (except Oreus, which was held by
the Athenians themselves), and made a gen-
eral settlement of the affairs of the island.

^967 When the news of what had happened
m Euboea reached Athens, a panic ensued such
as they had never before known. Neither the
disaster in Sicily, great as it seemed at the time,
nor any other had ever so much alarmed them.
The camp at Samos was in revolt; they had no
more ships or men to man them; they were at
discord among themselves and might at any
moment come to blows; and a disaster of this
magnitude coming on the top of all, by which
they lost their fleet, and worst of all Euboea,
which was of more value to them than Attica,
could not occur without throwing them into
the deepest despondency. Meanwhile their
greatest and most immediate trouble was the
possibility that the enemy, emboldened by his
victory, might make straight for them and sail
against Piraeus, which they had no longer
ships to defend; and every moment they ex-
pected him to arrive. This, with a little more
courage, he might easily have done, in which
case he would either have increased the dissen-
sions of the city by his presence, or, if he had
stayed to besiege it, have compelled the fleet

590

THUCYDIDES

[BOOK vm

from Ionia, although the enemy of the oli-
garchy, to come to the rescue of their country
and of their relatives, and in the meantime
would have become master of the Hellespont,
Ionia, the islands, and of everything as far as
Euboea, or, to speak roundly, of the whole
Athenian empire. But here, as on so many oth-
er occasions, the Lacedaemonians proved the
most convenient people in the world for the
Athenians to be at war with. The wide differ-
ence between the two characters, the slowness
and want of energy of the Lacedaemonians as
contrasted with the dash and enterprise of
their opponents, proved of the greatest service,
especially to a maritime empire like Athens.
Indeed this was shown by the Syracusans, who
were most like the Athenians in character, and
also most successful in combating them.

[97] Nevertheless, upon receipt of the news,
the Athenians manned twenty ships and called
immediately a first assembly in the Pnyx,
where they had been used to meet formerly,
and deposed the Four Hundred and voted to
hand over the government to the Five Thou-
sand, of which body all who furnished a suit
of armour were to be members, decreeing also
that no one should receive pay for the dis-
charge of any office, or if he did should be held
accursed. Many other assemblies were held af-
terwards, in which law-makers were elected
and all other measures taken to form a consti-
tution. It was during the first period of this
constitution that the Athenians appear to have
enjoyed the best government that they ever
did, at least in my time. For the fusion of the
high and the low was effected with judgment,
and this was what first enabled the state to
raise up her head after her manifold disasters.
They also voted for the recall of Alcibiades
and of other exiles, and sent to him and to the
camp at Samos, and urged them to devote
themselves vigorously to the war.

[ 9#7 Upon this revolution taking place, the
party of Pisander and Alexicles and the chiefs
of the oligarchs immediately withdrew to Dc-
celea, with the single exception of Aristarchus,
one of the generals, who hastily took some of
the most barbarian of the archers and marched
to Oenoe. This was a fort of the Athenians
upon the Boeotian border, at that moment be-
sieged by the Corinthians, irritated by the loss
of a party returning from Decelea, who had
been cut off by the garrison. The Corinthians
had volunteered for this service, and had called
upon the Boeotians to assist them. After com*
municating with them, Aristarchus deceived

the garrison in Oenoc by telling them that their
countrymen in the city had compounded with
the Lacedaemonians, and that one of the terms
of the capitulation was that they must surren-
der the place to the Boeotians. The garrison
believed him as he was general, and besides
knew nothing of what had occurred owing to
the siege, and so evacuated the fort under
truce. In this way the Boeotians gained posses-
sion of Oenoe, and the oligarchy and the trou-
bles at Athens ended.

[99] To return to the Peloponnesians in Mi-
letus. No pay was forthcoming from any of the
agents deputed by Tissaphernes for that pur-
pose upon his departure for Aspendus; neither
the Phoenician fleet nor Tissaphernes showed
any signs of appearing, and Philip, who had
been sent with him, and another Spartan, Hip-
pocrates, who was at Phaselis, wrote word to
Mindarus, the admiral, that the ships were not
coming at all, and that they were being grossly
abused by Tissaphernes. Meanwhile Pharna-
bazus was inviting them to come, and making
every effort to get the fleet and, like Tissa-
phernes, to cause the revolt of the cities in his
government still subject to Athens, founding
great hopes on his success; until at length, at
about the period of the summer which we
have now reached, Mindarus yielded to his
importunities, and, with great order and at a
moment's notice, in order to elude the enemy
at Samos, weighed anchor with seventy-three
ships from Miletus and set sail for the Helles-
pont. Thither sixteen vessels had already pre-
ceded him in the same summer, and had over-
run part of the Chersonese. Being caught in a
storm, Mindarus was compelled to run in to
Icarus and, after being detained five or six
days there by stress of weather, arrived at
Chios.

[wo] Meanwhile Thrasyllus had heard of
his having put out from Miletus, and immedi-
ately set sail with fifty-five ships from Samos,
in haste to arrive before him in the Hellespont.
But learning that he was at Chios, and expect-
ing that he would stay there, he posted scouts
in Lesbos and on the continent opposite to pre-
vent the fleet moving without his knowing it,
and himself coasted along to Methymna, and
gave orders to prepare meal and other neces-
saries, in order to attack them from Lesbos in
the event of their remaining for any length of
time at Chios. Meanwhile he resolved to sail
against Ere$us, a town in Lesbos which had re-
volted, and, if he could, to take it. For some of
the principal Mcthymnian exiles had carried

97-104]

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

591

over about fifty heavy infantry, their sworn as-
sociates, from Cuma, and hiring others from
the continent, so as to make up three hundred
in all, chose Anaxander, a Theban, to com-
mand them, on account of the community of
blood existing between the Thebans and the
Lesbians, and first attacked Methymna. Balked
in this attempt by the advance of the Athenian
guards from Mitylcnc, and repulsed a second
time in a battle outside the city, they then
crossed the mountain and effected the revolt of
Eresus. Thrasyllus accordingly determined to
go there with all his ships and to attack the
place. Meanwhile Thrasybulus had preceded
him thither with five ships from Samos, as
soon as he heard that the exiles had crossed
over, and coming too late to save Eresus, went
on and anchored before the town. Here they
were joined also by two vessels on their way
home from the Hellespont, and by the ships of
the Methymnians, making a grand total of
sixty-seven vessels; and the forces on board
now made ready with engines and every other
means available to do their utmost to storm
Eresus.

[101] In the meantime Mindarus and the
Peloponnesian fleet at Chios, after taking pro-
visions for two days and receiving three Chian
pieces of money for each man from the Chians,
on the third day put out in haste from the is-
land; in order to avoid falling in with the ships
at Eresus, they did not make for the open sea,
but keeping Lesbos on their left, sailed for the
continent. After touching at the port of Car-
teria, in the Phocaeid, and dining, they went
on along the Cumaean coast and supped at Ar-
ginusae, on the continent over against Mity-
lene. From thence they continued their voyage
along the coast, although it was late in the
night, and arriving at Harmatus on the conti-
nent opposite Methymna, dined there; and
swiftly passing Lectum, Larisa, Hamaxitus,
and the neighbouring towns, arrived a little be-
fore midnight at Rhoeteum. Here they were
now in the Hellespont. Some of the ships also
put in at Sigeum and at other places in the
neighbourhood.

[102] Meanwhile the warnings of the fire
signals and the sudden increase in the number
of fires on the enemy's shore informed the
eighteen Athenian ships at Sestos of the ap-
proach of the Peloponnesian fleet. That very
night they set sail in haste just as they were,
and, hugging the shore of the Chersonese,
coasted along to Elaeus, in order to sail out into
the open sea away from the fleet of the enemy.

After passing unobserved the sixteen ships at
Abydos, which had nevertheless been warned
by their approaching friends to be on the alert
to prevent their sailing out, at dawn they
sighted the fleet of Mindarus, which immedi-
ately gave chase. All had not time to get away;
the greater number however escaped to Imbros
and Lemnos, while four of the hindmost were
overtaken off Elaeus. One of these was stranded
opposite to the temple of Protesilaus and taken
with its crew, two others without their crews;
the fourth was abandoned on the shore of Im-
bros and burned by the enemy.

jf/oj7 After this the Pcloponnesians were
joined by the squadron from Abydos, which
made up their fleet to a grand total of eighty-
six vessels; they spent the day in unsuccessfully
besieging Elaeus, and then sailed back to Aby-
dos. Meanwhile the Athenians, deceived by
their scouts, and never dreaming of the en-
emy's fleet getting by undetected, were tran-
quilly besieging Eresus. As soon as they heard
the news they instantly abandoned Eresus, and
made with all speed for the Hellespont, and
after taking two of the Peloponnesian ships
which had been carried out too far into the
open sea in the ardour of the pursuit and now
fell in their way, the next day dropped anchor
at Elaeus, and, bringing back the ships that had
taken refuge at Imbros, during five days pre-
pared for the coming engagement.

[104] After this they engaged in the follow-
ing way. The Athenians formed in column
and sailed close alongshore to Sestos; upon per-
ceiving which the Peloponnesians put out from
Abydos to meet them. Realizing that a battle
was now imminent, both combatants extended
their flank; the Athenians along the Cherso-
nese from Idacus to Arrhiani with seventy-six
ships; the Peloponnesians from Abydos to Dar-
danus with eighty-six. The Peloponnesian
right wing was occupied by the Syracusans,
their left by Mindarus in person with the best
sailers in the navy; the Athenian left by Thra-
syllus, their right by Thrasybulus, the other
commanders being in different parts of the
fleet. The Peloponnesians hastened to engage
• first, and outflanking with their left the Athe-
nian right sought to cut them off, if possible,
from sailing out of the straits, and to drive
their centre upon the shore, which was not far
off. The Athenians perceiving their intention
extended their own wing and outsailed them,
while their left had by this time passed the
point of Cynossema. This, however, obliged
them to thin and weaken their centre, espe-

592

THUCYDIDES

[BOOK vm

cially as they had fewer ships than the enemy,
and as the coast round Point Cynossema
formed a sharp angle which prevented their
seeing what was going on on the other side of
it.

[105] The Peloponnesians now attacked
their centre and drove ashore the ships of the
Athenians, and disembarked to follow up their
victory. No help could be given to the centre
either by the squadron of Thrasybulus on the
right, on account of the number of ships at-
tacking him, or by that of Thrasyllus on the
left, from whom the point of Cynossema hid
what was going on, and who was also hin-
dered by his Syracusan and other opponents,
whose numbers were fully equal to his own. At
length, however, the Peloponnesians in the
confidence of victory began to scatter in pur-
suit of the ships of the enemy, and allowed a
considerable part of their fleet to get into dis-
order. On seeing this the squadron of Thra-
sybulus discontinued their lateral movement
and, facing about, attacked and routed the
ships opposed to them, and next fell roughly
upon the scattered vessels of the victorious
Peloponnesian division, and put most of them
to flight without a blow. The Syracusans also
had by this time given way before the squad-
ron of Thrasyllus, and now openly took to
flight upon seeing the flight of their comrades.
[106] The rout was now complete. Most of
the Peloponnesians fled for refuge first to the
river Midius, and afterwards to Abydos. Only
a few ships were taken by the Athenians; as
owing to the narrowness of the Hellespont the
enemy had not far to go to be in safety. Never-
theless nothing could have been more oppor-
tune for them than this victory. Up to this
time they had feared the Peloponnesian fleet,
owing to a number of petty losses and to the
disaster in Sicily; but they now ceased to mis-
trust themselves or any longer to think their
enemies good for anything at sea. Meanwhile
they took from the enemy eight Chian vessels,
five Corinthian, two Ambraciot, two Boeotian,
one Leucadian, Lacedaemonian, Syracusan,
and Pellenian, losing fifteen of their own.
After setting up a trophy upon Point Cynos-
sema, securing the wrecks, and restoring to the
enemy his dead under truce, they sent off a gal-
ley to Athens with the news of their victory.
The arrival of this vessel with its unhoped-for
good news, after the recent disasters of Eu-
boea, and in the revolution at Athens, gave
fresh courage to the Athenians, and caused
them to believe that if they put their shoulders

to the wheel their cause might yet prevail.

[toy] On the fourth day after the sea-fight
the Athenians in Sestos having hastily refitted
their ships sailed against Cyzicus, which had
revolted. Off Harpagium and Priapus they
sighted at anchor the eight vessels from Byzan-
tium, and, sailing up and routing the troops on
shore, took the ships, and then went on and
recovered the town of Cyzicus, which was un-
fortified, and levied money from the citizens.
In the meantime the Peloponnesians sailed
from Abydos to Elaeus, and recovered such of
their captured galleys as were still uninjured,
the rest having been burned by the Elaeusians,
and sent Hippocrates and Epicles to Euboea to
fetch the squadron from that island.

[108] About the same time Alcibiades re-
turned with his thirteen ships from Caunus
and Phaselis to Samos, bringing word that he
had prevented the Phoenician fleet from join-
ing the Peloponnesians, and had made Tissa-
phernes more friendly to the Athenians than
before. Alcibiades now manned nine more
ships, and levied large sums of money from
the Halicarnassians, and fortified Cos. After
doing this and placing a governor in Cos, he
sailed back to Samos, autumn being now at
hand. Meanwhile Tissaphernes, upon hearing
that the Peloponnesian fleet had sailed from
Miletus to the Hellespont, set of! again back
from Aspendus, and made all sail for Ionia.
While the Peloponnesians were in the Helles-
pont, the Antandrians, a people of Aeolic ex-
traction, conveyed by land across Mount Ida
some heavy infantry from Abydos, and intro-
duced them into the town; having been ill-
treated by Arsaces, the Persian lieutenant of
Tissaphernes. This same Arsaces had, upon
pretence of a secret quarrel, invited the chief
men of the Delians to undertake military serv-
ice (these were Delians who had settled at
Atramyttium after having been driven from
their homes by the Athenians for the sake of
purifying Delos); and after drawing them out
from their town as his friends and allies, had
laid wait for them at dinner, and surrounded
them and caused them to be shot down by his
soldiers. This deed made the Antandrians fear
that he might some day do them some mis-
chief; and as he also laid upon them burdens
too heavy for them to bear, they expelled his
garrison from their citadel.

I log] Tissaphernes, upon hearing of this act
of the Peloponnesians in addition to what had
occurred at Miletus and Cnidus, where his gar-
risons had been also expelled, now saw that the

105-109] THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR :w

breach between them was serious; and fearing and excuse himself as best he could in the mat-

further injury from them, and being also vexed ter of the Phoenician fleet and of the other

to think that Pharnabazus should receive them, charges against him. Accordingly he went first

and in less time and at less cost perhaps sue- to Ephesus and offered sacrifice to Artemis

ceed better against Athens than he had done, [When the winter after this summer is over
determined to rejoin them in the Hellespont, in the twenty-first year of this war will be corn-
order to complain of the events at Antandros pleted.]

MAPS: THUCYDIDES

I. THE GREEK WORLD, 431 B.C.

II. GREECE

III. ATHENS AND THE PIR/EUS

IV. PYLOS AND SPHACTERIA
V. SYRACUSE, 415-413 B.C.

I. THE GREEK

WORLD, 431 B.C.

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III. ATHENS AND
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IV. PYLOS AND SPHACTERIA

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V. SYRACUSE, 415-413 B.C.

Index

Abdcra, 414

Abronichus, son of Lysicles, 372

Acamantis, tribe of, 476

Acanthus, 468, 487, 488

Acarnanians, half civilized, 350; become allies of
Athens, 405; good slingers, 409; attached to
Athenian commanders, Phormio, 418, Demos-
thenes, 463, 472, 554; under Demosthenes, con-
quer the Ambraciots, 443, 444; accompany him
to Syracuse, 546

Achaeans, 350, 410, 440, 452, 477, 504, 509, 565

Acharnae, 392, 393

Achelous, delta of the, 416, 418, 443

Acheron, river, 361

Acherusian lake, 361

Achilles, 350

Acrae, 510

Acrothoi, 474

Acropolis, at Athens, 380, 391, 393, 487, 488, 524;
at Corcyra, 435

Acte, a promontory ending in Athos, 474, 491

Actium, Corcyreans defeat Corinthians off, 356

Admetus, king of Molossia, 383

Aeantides, a Lampsacene, 524

Aegaleus, Mount, 392

Aeginetans, their war with Athens, 353, 36o, 375;
among the most active of the enemies of Ath-
ens, 365; expelled from their island by the
Athenians, 394; put to death by the Athenians,
46i;502, 553,581, 588

Aeneas, son of Ocytus, 477

Aenesias, ephorate at Sparta, 387

Aenianians, 496

Aenians, 554

Aenus, 454

Acolis, 442

Aeolus, islands of, 438, 445

Aeson, 493

Aethaeans, 374

Aetolians, a rude but warlike people, 350, 440;
their country invaded by the Athenians, 440;
allies of Athens, 554

Agamemnon, 351

Agatharchidas, Corinthian commander, 410

Agatharchus, Syracusan commander, 544, 557

Agesander, Lacedaemonian ambassador, 384

Agesandridas, son of Agesander, Spartan com-
mander, 587, 589

Agesippidas, Lacedaemonian commander, 497

Agis, king of Sparta, invades Attica, 439, 447, 448,
542, 545; invades Argolis, 498; grants a truce
to the Argives, 498; his authority curtailed,

499; commands at Mantinea, 500; operates
from Decelea, 564; personal enemy of Alci-
biades, 574; fails in an attempt on Athens, 581,
582

Agraeans, 416, 443, 444, 466, 472

Agrianes, 414

Agrigentum (Acragas), 488, 546, 551, 552, 554;
foundation of, 510

Aisimides, Corcyraean admiral, 361

Akesines, river, 453

Alcaeus, archonship of, 487, 488

Alcamenes, son of Sthenelaidas, 565, 566

Alcibiades, leader of the anti-Spartan party, 494;
outwits Spartan envoys, 494; author of the
league with Argos, procuring Athens valuable
allies in Peloponnese, 495, 513; his character
and military ability, 513; his vast ambition, 513,
533, advocates the Sicilian expedition, 514; his
influence with the Argives and Mantineans,
516, 525; accused of impiety, 516; recalled from
his command in Sicily to take his trial, 523; flies
to Peloponnese, 525; offers his services to the
enemy, 534; decides the Spartans to send Gy lip-
pus to Syracuse and to fortify Decelea, 534;
persuades them to cause the revolt of Ionia, 567,
568; is sentenced to death by the Spartans, 574;
recalled by the army at Samos, 584; shows his
qualities as a leader, 584, 586

Alcidas, Spartan admiral, 420, 422, 424, 434, 435,

436, 440

Alcinadas, 487, 488

Alcinous, 434

Alciphron, Lacedaemonian proxenus, 498

Alcmaeon, son of Amphiraus, story of, 416

Alcmaeonidae, 524

Alexander, king of Macedonia, 383

Alexarchus, Corinthian commander, 543

Alexicles, 588, 590

Alexippidas, ephor at Lacedaemon, 578

Alicyaeans, 546

Almopians, 415

Alope, Locrians defeated at, 394

Alyzia, 546

Ambraciots, a people in western Greece, help
Corinth against Corcyra, 355, 356, 360, 361;
make war on the Acarnanians and Athenians,
405, 408, 409; almost annihilated at Olpae and
Idomene, 443*445; accompany the Corinthians
to Syracuse, 554

Ameiniades, son of Philemon, 405

Ameinias, Lacedaemonian commander, 480

Ameinocles, 352

Ammias, son of Coroebus, Plataean leader, 421

603

604

INDEX

Amorges, son of Pissuthnes, Persian rebel, 565,

568, 571, 577
Ampelidas, 488

Amphias, son of Eupaidas, 477
Amphilochians, 405, 416, 442, 443, 444, 445
Amphilochus, son of Amphiaraus, colonized Am-

philochia, 405
Amphipolis, Athenian colony on the Strymon,

374; key of the places beyond that river, 474;

surprised by Brasidas, 472, 473; battle of, 484,

485; its non-surrender one of the causes of the

failure of the Peace of Nicias, 488, 495; Thucy-

dides a commander at, 489
Amphissians, 441
Amyclae, temple at, 487, 488
Amyntas, son of Philip, 415
Amyrtaeus, 376
Anaceum, 589
Anactorium, Corinthian colony in western

Greece, 360, 362, 409, 445; becomes Athenian,

459,490,546

Anaia, stronghold of the Samian exiles, 42 1,424, 465
Anapus, river in Acarnania, 409; river in Sicily,

527, 535> 549, 56o

Anaxander, Theban commander, 591
Anaxilas, tyrant of Rhegium, 510
Andocides, Athenian admiral, 362
Andrians, 401, 457, 553, 581
Androcles, 580

Andromedes, Lacedaemonian ambassador, 493
Androsthenes, 496

Aneristus, Corinthian commander, 404
Antandrians, 592, 593
Antandrus, stronghold of the Lesbian exiles, 460,

465

Anthemus, 415

Anthene, 493

Anticles, 377

Antimenidas, Lacedaemonian ambassador, 493

Antiphemus, 510

Antiphon, Athenian oligarch, 581, 587

Antippus, 487, 488

Antissa, 421, 423, 569

Antisthenes, 573, 579

Aphrodisia, 460

Aphrodite, temple of, at Eryx, 521

Aphytis, 364

Apidanus, river, 466

Apodotians, 440

Apollo, temple of, at Laconia, 544

Apollo Archegetes, altar to, 509

Apollo Pythaeus, 497, 523

Apollo Temenites, statue of, 529, 536, 539

Arcadia, 349; mercenaries from, 424, 554. See
Mantineans

Archedice, daughter of Hippias, 524

Archelaus, king of Macedonia, 415

Archcstratus, son of Lycomedcs, Athenian com-
mander, 363

Archetimus, son of Eurytimus, 356

Archias, 453; founder of Syracuse, 509

Archidamus, son of Zeuxidamus, king of Sparta,

his efforts in favour of peace, 369, 370, 389, 390,
392, 393; friend of Pericles, 390; invades Attica,
399, 417; leads army against Plataea, 406, 407

Archonidas, a Sicel king, 538

Archons, at Athens, 372, 380

Argilus, an Andrian colony, 382, 473, 487

Arginus, 572

Arginusae, 591

Argolis, 394

Argos, a democratic state, the historical enemy of
Sparta, 489, 490; neutral during first part of the
war, 389; tries to take Sparta's place in Pelopon-
nese, 489; enters into alliance with Athens,
495; elements of a standing army at, 500; hum-
bled at Mantinea, 502; forced to leave Athens
and become the ally of Sparta, 502, 503; casts
off the oligarchy imposed upon her by Sparta
and rejoins Athens, 503, 504; helps Athens in
Sicily, 516, 554; in Ionia, 570; offers to support
the Athenian patriots at Samos, 586

Argos, in Amphilochia, 405, 409

Arianthides, Theban commander, 469

Aristagoras, the Milesian, 472

Aristarchus, 587, 588, 590

Aristeus, commander of Corinthian troops at Po-
tidaea, 363, 364; captured and killed by the
Athenians, 405

Aristides, son of Archippus, Athenian com-
mander, 459; tribute of, 487

Aristides, son of Lysimachus, 372, 465

Aristocles, 486, 501

Aristocrates, son of Scellias, 487, 488, 587, 588

Aristogiton, 354; story of, 523, 524

Ariston, son of Pyrrhicus, a Corinthian, 548

Aristonous, founder of Agrigentum, 510

Aristonus, Larisaean commander, 393

Aristonymus, Athenian commissioner, 477

Aristophon, 586

Aristotle, son of Timocrates, Athenian com-
mander, 443

Arne, Boeotians driven from, 352, 472

Arnisa, town of, 479

Arrhiani, 591

Arrhibaeus, king of the Lyncestians, 467, 478

Arsaces, lieutenant of Tissaphernes, 592

Artabazus, son of Pharnaces, Persian commander,
381,382

Artaphernes, a Persian, 459

Artas, 547

Artaxerxes, 375, 383; dies, 459

Artemis, 521, 593

Artemisium, naval battle at, 430

Artynae, 495

Asine, 460, 534

Asopius, son of Phormio, Athenian commander,
418

Asopus, river, 388

Aspendus, 584, 586, 590, 592

Assinarus, 562

Astacus, 395, 416

Astymachus, son of Asopolaus, 429

Astyochus, Spartan admiral in command of the

INDEX

605

fleet in Ionia, 568, 569, 572, 573; treachery and
corruption of, 573, 574, 583; mutiny of his own
seamen against, 585; returns to Sparta, 585

Atalanta, island of, 415, 439, 487

Athenaeus, son of Pericleidas, 477

Athenagoras, Syracusan politician, speech by, 519,
520

Athene, temple of, 475, 484

Athenian assembly, character of, 425; number
usually present at, 582; conduct during the
revolution of the Four Hundred, 580, 581, 590

Athenian empire, apology for, 368; foundation
and growth of, 373-378; unpopularity of, 389;
list of allies in, 389

Athenians, send out colonies to Ionia and the
islands, 349, 352; live in the country towns of
Attica until the centralization of Theseus, 391;
wall their city and fortify Piraeus, 372; build
their Long Walls, 375, 391 ; become the heads
of the Confederacy of Delos, 373; carry on the
war against Persia, fight in Egypt, Cyprus, and
Ionia, 373-378; reduce their allies to position of
tributary subjects, except Chios and Lesbos, 353,
373, 374, 419, 531; become alienated from
Sparta, 353; place her revolted Helots in Nau-
pactus, 374; annex Megara, 374; conquer Boeo-
tia, Aegina, 376; make the Thirty Years' Truce,
377; have a crushing superiority by sea, 403,
410, 411, 476, 578; feared and detested by Cor-
inth and Megara, 357, 365, 374, 379; join Cor-
cyra against Corinth, 360; lay siege to Potidaea,
364; allow Attica to be devastated without risk-
ing a battle, 393; retaliate by descents on the
coasts of Peloponnese, 393, 401 ; reduce Potidaea
after vast expense, 405, 406, 420; reduce the re-
volted Lesbos, 423; occupy Pylos, 447; capture
a Spartan army in Sphacteria, 456; take Cyth-
era, Thyrea, incite Helots to revolt, 460, 461;
surprise Nisaea, 463; defeated at Delium, 471;
conclude the Peace of Nicias, 486; enter into a
league with Argos, Elis, and Mantinea, 495; see
this league broken up by the battle of Mantinea,
501; treatment by, of the Melians, 507, 508; re-
solve to invade Sicily, 511, 516; meet with disas-
ter at Syracuse, 537; send Demosthenes and a
second armament to perish at Syracuse, 549-
563; oppressed by disaster, 564, by the Decelean
War, 545, by revolt of Ionia, 567, and by Tis-
saphernes, 565; recall Alcibiades, 584; recover
their naval prestige at Cynossema, 592

Athos, 474, 482

Atintanians, 409

Atramyttium, in Asia, 482, 592

Atreus, 351

Aulon, 472

Autocharidas, Lacedaemonian general, 485

Autocles, son of Tolmaeus, Athenian commander,
4.60, 477

Axius, river, 415

Battus, Spartan general, 458
Beroea, 364

Bisaltia, 415, 474

Boeotians, conquered by the Athenians, 376;
taken with them to the wars, 376; regain their
independence at Coronea, 377; most powerful
of confederates of Sparta, 432; defeat Athenians
at Delium, 470; refuse to come in to the Peace
of Nicias, 486, 491; send aid to the Syracusans,
565; their government, 492

Boeum, town in Doris, 375

Bolbe, lake, 363, 472

Bolissus, 569

Bomiensians, 441

Boriades, an Eurytanian, 441

Bottiaeans, 363, 365, 408, 415, 448

Brasidas, first officer to distinguish himself in the
war, 394; sent as commissioner to the fleet de-
feated by Phormio, 410; joins in a plan to sur-
prise Piraeus, 413; fails to persuade Alcidas to
attack Corcyra, 435, 436; gallantry of, at Pylos,
449; saves Megara, 464, 465; his march across
Thessaly, 466; his character, 467; takes Acan-
thus, Amphipolis, and Torone, 469, 472, 475;
crowned by the Scionaeans, 477; his retreat in
Macedonia, 479; defeats Cleon and dies at Am-
phipolis, 485 ; honours paid to his memory, 485

Brasideans, 500, 501

Brauro, wife of Pittacus, 474

Brazen House, temple of the, 382

Bricinniae, 483

Brilessus, 393

Bromiscus, 472

Bucolion, 481

Budorum, Fort, 413, 429

Byzantium, 373, 377, 381, 584, 592

Cacyparis, river, 561

Cadmeis, 352

Cakinus, river, 442

Calex, river, 465

Callias, son of Calliades, Athenian general, 363,

364

Calibrates, son of Callias, Corinthian command-
er, 356

Calliensians, 441

Calligeitus, son of Laophon, 565, 566, 573

Calydon, 442

Camarina, foundation of, 510; menaced by Syra-
cuse, 438, 531, 532; invites the Athenians to
Sicily, 438, 531; in the Sicilian war, at first re-
mains neutral, 523, 529, 532; joins Syracuse, 546,

554

Cambyses, king of Persia, 352
Camirus, 574
Canastraeum, 474
Carcinus, son of Xenotimus, 393
Cardamylc, 569
Carians, early inhabitants of the Cycladts, 350;

addicted to piracy, 350; 389, 421
Carnea, 502

Carteria, in the Phocaeid, 591
Carthaginians, 352, 513, 518, 533
Caryae, 497

606

INDEX

Carystus, Athenians war against, 373; 457, 458,

553> 58i

Casmcnac, 510

Catana, injured by eruption of Etna, 466; founda-
tion of, 510; expected to join Athens, 515; Athe-
nian fleet at, 522; Athenian army removes to,
523; 526, 528, 529, 534, 535, 551, 554, 561, 562

Caulonians, 544

Caunus, 377, 573, 574, 57^, 5^7, 592

Cavalry, in Greece, Boeotian, 389, 471; Locrian,
389, 471; Macedonian, 415; Phocian, 389; abun-
dant in Sicily, 515, 528

Ceans, 553

Cccrops, 391

Cecruphalia, 375

Cenaeum, 440

Cenchreae, 458, 566, 568, 569

Centoripae, 535, 546

Cephallenia, ally of Athens in western Greece,
395, 408, 440, 546, 554

Ceramicus, 524

Ccrcine, range of, 414

Cerdylium, Brasidas at, 483, 484

Ccryces, 577

Chaereas, son of Archestratus, 582, 585

Chacronea, in Boeotia, 376, 377, 466, 469

Chalaeans, 441

Chalcideus, Lacedaemonian admiral, 566, 567,
568, 569, 571, 574

Chalcidians of Euboea, 353, 545, 553; in Sicily,
509, 510

Chalcidians of Thrace, 363, 408, 413, 414, 466,
467, 483, 485, 490, 503, 511, 512

Chaonians, 405, 409

Charadrus, 499

Charicles, son of Apollodorus, Athenian com-
mander, 543, 544, 545

Charminus, Athenian commander, 571, 573, 574,
582

Charoeades, son of Euphiletus, Athenian com-
mander, 438, 439

Charybdis, 453

Chersonese, 352, 457, 458, 590

Chimerium, in Thcsprotis, 356, 361

Chionis, 487, 488

Chios, with Lesbos, the only ally of Athens left
independent, 353, 419, 531; suspected by Ath-
ens, 459; heads the revolt of Ionia, 567; riches
and prudence of, 569, 575

Choerades Isles, 546

Chromon, 441

Chrysippus, 351

Chrysis, 387, 481

Cilicians, 376

Cimon, conquers at the Eurymedon, 374; dies in
Cyprus, 37!$

Cithaeron, Mount, 407, 422

Clarus, 424

Clazomenae, 567, 569, 571

Clearchus, son of Ramphias, Lacedaemonian com-
mander, 566, 573, 584

Clcaridas, son of Cleonymus, Spartan general at

Amphipolis, 480, 483-485, 487, 488
Clcippides, son of Deinias, Athenian commander,

4i7

Cleobulus, 492

Cleomedes, son of Lycomedes, Athenian general,
504

Clcomcncs, of Lacedaemon, 380

Cleon, popular party leader at Athens, 425; pro-
poses the execution of the Mitylenians, 425, of
the Scionaeans, 477; commands with credit at
Pylos, 454-457; in opposition to Nicias, advo-
cates a war policy, 452, 486; defeated at Am-
phipolis and slain, 485

Cleonae, 535

Cleonaen, 500, 501, 502

Cleone, 474

Cleopompus, son of Clinias, 394, 401

Cncmus, Spartan commander, 404, 409, 410, 413

Cnidus, 572, 573, 574

Colonae, in the Troad, 38 1

Colonus, a temple of Poseidon, 580

Colophon, 424

Conon, Athenian commander, 546

Copaeans, at Delium, 470

Cophos, in Toronc, 482

Corcyra, base for invasion of Sicily, 517, 519, 520,
521

Corcyrcans, their wealth and naval greatness,
352> 353> 355; quarrel with Corinth over Epi-
damnus, 355 ff.; make an alliance with Athens,
360; naval battle with Corinthians, 360-362; re-
fuse to shelter Themistocles, 383; reinforce the
Athenian fleet, 394; their revolution, 434-438,
458, 459; aid the Athenians in Sicily, 554

Corinth, naval base in Peloponncsian War, 409,
413, 420

Corinthians, quarrel with Corcyra over Epidam-
nus> 355 ff'» takc part in naval battles against
the Athenians, 410 rT.; peace opposed by, 486;
their intrigues in Peloponnesus, 488, 490, 491,
492; reconciled to Sparta, 496; begin hostilities
with Athens, 507; foremost in aiding Syracus-
ans, 532, 537, 538, 553, 554, 563; their naval
genius, 547, 548

Coronea, battle of, 377, 432, 433, 470

Coronta, 416, 547

Corycus, 567, 572

Coryphasium, within Buphras and Tomeus, 476,
487

Cos, Meropid, 573, 574, 592

Cotyrta, 460

Cranians, 395

Cranii, in Cephallenia, 492; Helots at, 498

Cranonians, 393

Crataemenes, founder of Zancle, 510

Crcnac, or the Wells, 443

Crestonia, 415, 474

Cretan Sea, 507

Crete, 410, 434, 554, 573

Crissaean Gulf, 375, 405, 409, 410, 413

Crommyon, 458

Cropia, 392

INDEX

607

Crusis, 408

Cuma, a Chalcidian town, 510, 569, 571, 591

Cyclopes, 509

Cydonia, 410

Cyllcne, the Elcan arsenal, 356, 410, 434, 435, 532

Cylon, story of, 380

Cyme, 423

Cyncs, son of Thcolytus, 416

Cynosscma, battle of, 591, 592

Cynuria, 486; challenge of, 493

Cyprus, 376

Cypsela, fort of, 491

Cyrenc, 376, 552

Cyrrhus, 415

Cyrus, king of Persia, 352, 353

Cythera, 460, 461, 476, 485, 4»7, 554

Cyzicus, 592

Daithus, 487, 488

Damagon, Lacedaemonian leader, 440

Damagetus, 487, 488

Damotimus, son of Naucrates, 477

Danaans, 350

Danube, river, 414

Daphnus, 569, 571

Dardanus, 591

Darius, son of Artaxerxes, 524, 565; his leagues
with Sparta, 568, 572, 578

Darius, successor of Cambyses, 352; conquers
Ionia, 353

Daskon, 527

Daulis, 394

Daxon, founder of Camarina, 510

Decelea, 534, 542, 545, 549, 581, 590

Delium, 466, 469; battle of, 470, 485, 486

Delos, 350, 482, 490; ancient meeting place of
Ionian race, 442, 443; confederacy of, 373

Delphi, oracle of, 355, 356, 374, 378, 382, 486, 490

Delphi, temple of, 376, 382, 481, 486; money bor-
rowed from, 379, 385

Delphinium, 573

Demaratus, Athenian commander, 537

Demarchus, Syracusan commander, 585

Demiurgi, 495, 496

Demodocus, Athenian commander, 465

Demosthenes, Athenian general, invades Aetolia,
440; defeated' at Aegitium, 441; saves Nau-
pactus, 442; his influence with the Arcarnani-
ans, 442, 554; his victories over the Ambraciots,
443-445; occupies Pylos, 447, and captures a
Spartan army, 456; surprises Nisaea, 463;
schemes for the conquest of Boeptia, 440, 466;
arrives in Sicily with second Sicilian expedi-
tion, 549; but for Nicias, would have prevented
the Sicilian disaster, 551, 552; his courage and
tenacity, 558; forced to surrender, 561; put to
death by Syracusans, 562

Demoteles, 453

Dercyllidas, Spartan commander, 579

Derdas, in alliance with Pcrdiccas, 363

Demeans, 415

Dians, 491

Diasia, festival of Zeus MeiHchics (the Gracious),
380

Didyme, an island of Aeolus, 438

Diemporus, son of Onetorides, 387

Dii, Thracian swordsmen, 414, 545

Diitrephes, Thracian commander, 545, 579

Diniades, one of the Perioeci, 569

Diodotus, son of Eucrates, Athenian statesman,
426

Diomedon, Athenian commander, 568, 569, 577,
582

Diomilus, Syracusan commander, 535

Dionysus, 391, 436, 487, 588

Dioscuri, temple of the, 435, 474

Diotimus, son of Strombichus, 360

Diphilus, Athenian commander, 547

Dium, a Macedonian town, 466, 474, 504

Doberus, in Paeonia, 414, 415

Dolopians, 373, 416, 496, 497

Dorians, 352, 353, 389, 401, 438, 461; their con-
tempt for, and enmity towards the lonians, 379,
411, 484, 529, 530, 539, 553, 554, 570; establish
themselves on the Solygian hill, 457

Dorieus, the Rhodian, 418

Doricus, son of Diagoras, Thurian commander,

572, 585

Doris, Phocian's expedition against, 375
Dorkis, Lacedaemonian commander, 373
Dorus, 466

Drabescus, a town of the Edonians, 374, 472
Droi, 415

Druoskephalai, or Oakheads, 422
Drymussa, 571
Dryopes, 553
Dymc, 410

Earthquakes, 374, 3&9» 43&, 439» 459» 494» 49^,

535, 573

Eccritus, Spartan commander, 542
Echinades, islands, 416

Eclipses, of the sun, 394, 459; of the moon, 552
Edonians, 374, 415, 472, 474, 483
Eetionia, mole in Piraeus, 587, 588
Egestaeans, of Trojan origin, 509; quarrel with

Sclinus and secure the help of Athens, 510, 511;

regarded as barbarians, 512; trick the Atheni-

ans, 521, 522, 525, 526; 535, 554
Egypt, revolt of, from Persia, 375; Athenians in,

375, 376; its commerce with Greece, 460
Eion, 373, 448, 459, 472, 473, 474, 483, 484, 485
Elaeus, 591, 592
Elcans, help Corinth against Corcyra, 356, 360,

36 1 ; defeated by the Athenians, 394; quarrel

with Sparta, 490; make a league with the Ar-

gives, Mantineans, and Athenians, 495; exclude

the Lacedaemonians from the Olympic games,

496

Eleusis, 377, 391, 392, 393, 4^4
Elimiots, 415

Ellomenus, in Leucadia, 440
Elymi, 509
Embatum, in the Erythraeid, 423, 424

608

Empcdias, 487, 488

Endius, Spartan statesman, 494, 565, 567

Enipcus, river, 466

Ennea Hodoi, former name of Amphipolis, 374,

472

Enomotarchs, 500
Enomoties, 500, 501
Entimus, from Crete, 510
Enyalius, 463

Eordians, driven from Eordia, 415
Ephesus, 383, 424, 459, 568, 593
Ephors, Spartan magistrates, 370, 371, 381, 492,

565

Ephyre, city in the Elean district, 36 1
Epicles, 592

Epicydidas, Lacedaemonian general, 485
Epidamnus, 355, 356
Epidatas, son of Molobrus, Spartan commander,

448, 455, 457
Epidaurians, allies of the Corinthians, 356, 375,

377; at war with the Argives, 497, 502; have a

treaty with Athens, 503; 542, 588
Epidaurus Limera, 460, 537, 544
Epipolae, 529, 535, 536, 538, 539; night attack on,

549, 550

Erae, 568

Erasinides, Corinthian commander, 540

Erechtheus, 391

Eresus, 421, 424, 569, 590, 591

Eretrians, 353, 553, 579, 589

Erineum, town in Doris, 375

Erineus, in Achaia, 547

Erineus, river, 561, 562

Erythrae, in Ionia, 422, 565, 567, 572

Eryx, 509

Eteonicus, 569

Ethiopia, 399

Etna, eruption of, 446

Etrurians, see Tyrrhenians

Eualas, Spartan commander, 569

Euboea, revolt of, 377; reconquered by Pericles,
377, 387; importance of, to Athens, 564, 589;
again revolts, 589

Eubulus, 569

Euclcs, Athenian general, 473, 537

Euclides, founder of Himera, 510

Euctemon, Athenian commander, 571

Euesperitae, 552

Euetion, Athenian general, 540

Eumachus, son of Chrysis, Corinthian command-
er, 395

Eumolpus, 391, 577

Eupalium, in Locris, 441, 442

Euphamidas, son of Aristonymus, Corinthian
commander, 395, 477, 497

Euphemus, Athenian envoy, 529; speech of, 530-

532

Eupompides, son of Dalmachus, 421
Euripus, river, 545, 546
Europus, 415

Eurybatus, Corcyraean admiral, 36 1
Euryelus, 535, 538, 550

INDEX

Eurylochus, Spartan commander, 441, 442, 443,

444

Eurymachus, son of Leontiades, 387
Eurymedon, river, Cimon's victories at, 374
Eurymedon, son of Thucles, Athenian command-
er, at Corcyra, 436, 458; at Pylos, 447, 448; sent
to Sicily, 447, 542; fined, 463; killed in action,

552

Eurystheus, 351
Eurytanians, 440
Eurytimus, 356
Eustrophus, 493
Euthydemus, Athenian commander, 487, 488, 541,

557

Euxine, 414

Evarchus, tyrant of Astacus, 395, 510
Evenus, river, 410

Five Hundred, Council of, 586
Five Thousand, the, 585-590
Floods, 439

Four Hundred, revolution of the, at Athens, 579-
590

Galepsus, a Thasian colony, 474, 483

Gaulites, a Carian, 585

Gela, in Sicily, 510, 534, 538, 546, 552, 554, 561;
congress of, 461

Gelas, river, 510

Gelo, tyrant of Syracuse, 510, 534

Geraestus, 417

Geraneia, Mount, 375, 376, 464

Getae, 414

Gigonus, 364

Glauce, in Mycale, 583

Glaucon, Athenian admiral, 362

Goaxis, 473, 474

Gongylus, an Eretrian, 381, 538

Gortynia, 415

Graea, 393, 439

Greece, early state of, 350-354

Greeks, serving as mercenaries in Asia, 424, 571

Gylippus, Spartan commander, sent to Syracuse,
534; arrives there, 538; changes the face of the
war, 539, 540, 549; speech to his troops, 556,
557; takes Demosthenes and Nicias prisoners,
561; tries to save their lives, 562

Gymnopaediae, 504

Gyrtonians, 393

Haemus, Mount, 414

Hagnon, son of Nicias, Athenian leader, 377, 401,

402, 414, 472, 485, 487, 488
Halex, river, 441
Haliae, 375, 458
Haliartians, at Delium, 470
Halicarnassus, 574, 592
Halieis, 401
Halys, 353
Hamaxitus, 591
Harmatus, 591
Harmodius, 354; story of, 523, 524

INDEX

Harpagium, 592

Harpina, 496

Hebrus, river, 414

Hegesander, Thespian commander, 542

Helixus, 584

Hellanicus, Greek historian, 373

Hellenes, when adopted as the national name,

349> 350

Hellespont, revolt of the, 579
Helorine road, 527, 528, 561
Helots, their secession to Ithome, 374; 382, 453,

467, 485, 491, 498, 540, 554.
Helus, 460
Hephaestus, 438
Hera, temple of, 435, 436, 481
Heraclea, Lacedaemonian colony, 439, 440, 466,

485, 497

Heraea, Arcadians of, 500
Heraeum, Cape, 502
Heracles, temple of, 500; festival of, 558
Heraclides, Athenian commander, 537
Heraclides, son of Lysimachus, Syracusan general,

528
Hermae, mutilation of, 516, 523; frenzy caused

by» 525

Hermaeondas, a Theban, 418

Hermes, temple of, 545

Hermione, 356, 381, 401, 572

Hermocrates, Sicilian statesman and commander,
461; speeches by, 461, 462, 518, 519, 528, 529,
530; reviews troops, 535; persuades Sicilians to
face the Athenians at sea, 543; hinders retreat
of the Athenians, 559; induces the Syracusans
to join in the Ionian War, 570; his independ-
ence, 571; his integrity, 575; exiled from Syra-
cuse, 585

Hermon, commander of the Peripoli in Muny-
chia, 588

Hesiod, 441

Hessians, 442

Hestiaeans, 553

Hestiodorus, son of Aristocleides, 405

Hiera, one of the islands of Aeolus, 438, 439

Hieramenes, 578

Hierophon, son of Antimnestus, Athenian com-
mander, 443

Himcra, 445, 510, 525; joins Syracuse, 538, 554

Himeraeum, 540

Hippagretas, Spartan commander, 457

Hipparchus, 354, 523, 524

Hippias, 354, 523, 524

Hippocles, son of Menippus, Athenian command-
er, 567

Hippocrates, Athenian commander, 463, 466, 469,
470; killed at Delium, 472

Hippocrates, Lacedaemonian, 572, 590, 592

Hippolochidas, 466

Hipponians, 483

Hipponicus, son of Callias, Athenian commander,

439

Hipponoidas, 501
Histiaea, 377

Homer, 349, 351, 397, 442, 443

Hyacinthia, feast of the, 493

Hyaeans, 442

Hybla, in Gela, 526, 535

Hyblon, a Sicel king, 510

Hyccara, Sicanian seaport, 525, 526, 541

Hylias, river, 547

Hyllaic harbor, 436

Hyperbolus, an Athenian, 582

Hyperechides, 524

Hysiae, 422, 504

lalysus, 574

lapygian promontory, 517, 518, 521, 546, 554

lasus, 571, 572, 577

Iberians, 509, 533

Icarus, 423, 590

Ichthys, Point, 394

Ida, Mount, 460, 592

Idacus, 591

Idomene, 415; battle of, 444

letac, 538

Ilium, 352, 509

Illyrians, 355, 478

Imbrians, 418, 454, 484, 553

Inaros, Libyan king, 374, 375, 376

Inessa, Sicel town, 442, 535

lolcius, 487, 488

Ionian Gulf, 414, 546, 554

lonians, colonists of Athens, 350, 352; early naval

greatness, 352; conquered by Persia, 353; pass

under the dominion of Athens, 373, 529, 530;

ancient grandeur and union of, 442, 443; revolt

from Athens, 567. See Dorians.
Ipnians, 441

Isarchidas, son of Isarchus, 356
Ischagoras, Lacedaemonian commander, 480, 487,

488

Isocrates, Corinthian commander, 410
Isthmonicus, 487, 488
Istone, Mount, 438, 458
Italy, 352; feeds the Sicilian armada, 537, 541
Itamenes, 424
Ithome, 374, 430
Itys, 394

Kaiadas, 382

Kestrine, 361

Kitium, 376

Krokyle, 441

Kytinium, in Doris, 375, 440, 442

Labdalum, 535, 539

Lacedaemonians, occupy nearly half Peloponnese,
command the whole, 351, 352; keep their con-
federates independent under oligarchies, 353,
502; live in constant fear of the Helots, kept
down by rigorous measures, 382, 467, 485, 488;
regarded as liberators at the outbreak of the
war, 390, 474; but sacrifice their allies and the
general interests of Greece, when their interest
requires it, 487, 489, 49A 506, 507, 5^8, 5745 con-

610

INDEX

elude the Thirty Years' Truce, 377; led to begin
Peloponnesian War, 355, 365, 371, 378; invade
Attica, 389, 399, 417, 422; try to obtain footing
in western Greece, 442; lose an army at Pylos,
456; alarm Athens by the success of Brasidas in
Chalcidke, 476; conclude the Peace of Nicias,
486; lose their influence in Peloppnnese, 489,
490; conquer at Mantinea, 502; advised by Alci-
biades, fortify Decclea, 534, 545; cause revolt
of Ionia, 567. See Athenians.

Lacedaemonius, son of Cimon, 360

Laches, son of Melanopus, Athenian commander,
438, 439> 442, 445, 446, 4T6* 4**7> 488> 494, 499,
510,529

Lacon, son of Aeimnestus, 429

Laconia, 394, 395, 4*8, 45°, 4^7, 537, 544, 565

Lade, island of, 568, 569

Laeaeans, 414

Laespodias, 586

Laespodius, Athenian commander, 537

Laestrygoncs, 509

Lamachus, Athenian commander in Sicily, 465,
487, 488, 511, 522; killed in battle, 536

Lamis, 510

Lampon, 487, 488

Lampsacus, 384, 524, 579

Laodicium, in the Oresthid, 481

Laphilus, 487, 488

Larisaeans, 393, 591

Las, in Laconia, 587, 588

Laurium, silver mines at, 401, 534

Leagrus, 362

Lcarchus, son of Callimachus, 405

Lebcdos, 568

Lcctum, 591

Lecythus, 475, 476

Lemnians, 377, 418, 454, 484, 553

Lcocorium, 524

Lcocrates, son of Stroebus, Athenian commander,

375

Leogoras, 362

Leon, Athenian commander, 487, 488, 569, 577;
opposed to the Four Hundred, 582

Leon, Lacedaemonian leader, 440, 494, 579

Leon tines, 453; at war with Syracuse, invite the
Athenians to Sicily, 438; ruined by faction, 482,
483; furnish a pretext for the Sicilian expedi-
tion, 511, 514, 515, 518, 522, 526, 529, 531

Leontini, foundation of, 510

Leotychidcs, king of the Lacedaemonians, 371

Lcpreum, 490, 491, 496, 499

Leros, island oflF Miletus, 570

Lesbos, with Chios, the only ally of Athens left
independent, 353, 419; revolts, 417; how treated
afterwards, 429; makes a second attempt to re-
volt, 565, 569. See Mitylenians.

Lcucas, ally of Corinth in western Greece, 355,
356, 360, 361, 409, 418; enemy of the Acarnani-
ans, 440; 537, 5*4

Lcucas, isthmus of, 436, 448

Leuconium, 569

Lcuctra, 497

Leukimme, a headland of Corcyra, 356, 361, 362,
436

Libya, 399, 509, 552, 554

Lichas, a Spartan, 488, 502; scourged at Olympia,
496; sent as commissioner to Astyochus, 573;
protests against the Peloponnesian treaties with
Tissaphernes, 574; dies at Miletus, 585

Ligurians, 509

Limnaea, 409, 443

Lindii, 510

Lindus, 574

Lipara, 438

Lochages, 500

Locrians, Epizephyrian (Italiots), allies of Ath-
ens, 438, 447, 521, 587

Locrians, Opuntian, 376, 395

Locrians, Ozolian, half civilized, 350; lose Nau-
pactus, 374; allies of Athens, 440

Lorymi, 574

Lycaeum, 486

Lycaeum, Mount, 497

Lycia, 405, 573

Lycophron, Corinthian general, 410, 458

Lynccstians, 415, 478

Lysicles, Athenian commander, 421

Lysimeleia, 553

Lysistratus, Olynthian commander, 474

Macarius, Spartan leader, 441, 444

Macedonia, 414, 415, 504

Machaon, Corinthian commander, 410

Maeander, 578

Maenalians, 500, 503

Magnesia, 384, 576

Magnetes, 415

Ma lea, promontory in Laconia, 573

Malea, promontory in Lesbos, 417, 418

Malian Gulf, 565

Malians, 439, 472, 497

Mantineans, 443, 444; at war with the Tegcans,
481; acquire an empire in Arcadia, 489, 501;
make a league with Argos, Elis, and Athens,
489, 490, 495; defeated at Mantinea, and forced
to give up their conquests in Arcadia, 500-503;
join the Athenians against Syracuse, 516, 525,

554

Marathon, 353, 395, 524

Marathussa, 571

Marea, town above Pharos, 375

Marseilles, 352

Meander, plain of the, 421

Mecybernaeans, 487, 492

Medes, 371, 374, 386, 432, 510, 518, 529, 543

Median War, 353, 354, 373, 393, 4*9, 430, 434, 53<>

Medmaeans, 483

Mcgabates, governor of Daskylion, 381

Megabazus, son of Zopyrus, 376

Mcgara, in Sicily, 510, 522, 529, 534, 544

Megarians, help the Corinthians against Corcyra,
360, 361; furnish the pretext for the war, 365,
384; join the Athenian confederacy, 374; revolt,
377; suffer by the war, 395, 413, 429, 463; ad-

INDEX

611

vise an attempt on Piraeus, 413; their popular
chiefs resolve to betray Mcgara to the Atheni-
ans, 463; fail and are proscribed by the oli-
garchs, who establish their government, 465;
their refugees fight with the Athenians at
Syracuse, 554

Megarid, 375, 376, 395, 466

Meikiades, Corcyraean admiral, 361

Melanchridas, Lacedaemonian admiral, 566

Melanthus, Lacedaemonian commander, 565

Meleas, a Laconian, 418

Melesander, Athenian commander, 405

Mclcsias, 586

Melesippus, son of Diacritus, Lacedaemonian am-
bassador, 384, 390

Melians, refuse to join Athens, 439; their con-
ference with the Athenians, 504-507; their sur-
render and extermination, 508

Mclitia, in Achaia Panacrus, 466

Memphis, 375, 376

Menander, Athenian commander, 541, 549, 557

Mcnas, 487, 488

Mendc, 477, 478, 479, 480

Menecolus, founder of Camarina, 510

Menecrates, son of Amphidorus, 477

Menedaius, Spartan leader, 441, 444

Menon, Pharsalian general, 393

Messapians, 441

Messenians, settled in Naupactus, 374; placed in
Pylos, 457, 491; taken by the Athenians to
Syracuse, 554

Messina, in Sicily, 447, 452, 453, 510, 522, 528

Metagenes, 487, 488

Metapontium, in Italy, 547, 554

Methana, 458, 487

Methonaeans, 480

Methone, saved by Brasidas, 394

Methydrium, in Arcadia, 498

Methymna, in Lesbos, 417, 421, 429, 569, 590, 591

Metropolis, 443

Milesians, 457, 460, 553

Miletus, at war with Samos, 377; revolts from
Athens, 568; headquarters of the Peloponnesian
fleet, 570 ff.

Mimas, Mount, 572

Mindarus, Lacedaemonian admiral, 585, 590, 591

Mindius, river, 592

Minoa, island of, 429, 463, 476

Minos, king of Crete, 350, 351

Mitylenians, revolt from Athens, 417; their speech
at Olympia, 418-420; capitulate at Paches, 423;
condemned to death, 424; reprieved, 428,
429; their exiles, 459, 460, 465; attempt to re-
volt again, 569. See also Lesbos.

Molossians, 409

Molycrium, Corinthian colony, 410, 442

Morgantina, Camarinaeans take, 462

Motye, 509

Munychia, 391, 588

Mycale, 371, 583, 584

Mycalessus, massacre of, 545, 546

Mycenae, 351

Myconus, 423

Mygdonia, 363, 415

Mylac, 439

Myletidae, 510

Myonians, 441

Myonncsus, 424

Myos, 384

Myrcinus, an Edonian town, 473, 483, 485

Myronides, Athenian commander, 376, 471

Myrrhine, daughter of Callias, 524

Myrtilus, 487, 488

Myscon, Syracusan commander, 585

Myus, in Caria, 421

Naucleides, 387

Naupactus (Lepanto), 374, 389, 409, 410, 434, 435,
441, 442, 450, 457, 547

Naxians, in Sicily, 453, 515, 522, 535, 554

Naxos, one of the Cycladcs, 373, 383

Neapolis, 552

Ncmea, 498, 499

Neodamodes, 491, 500, 542, 554, 565

Nericus, 418

Nestus, river, 414

Nicanor, 409

Nicasus, son of Cecalus, 477

Niciades, 476

Nicias, his commands, 429, 457, 460, 480; invites
Cleon to go to Pylos, 454; signs the armistice
with Sparta, 477; author of the Peace of Nicias,
486; opposes the league with Argos advocated
by Alcibiades, 494, 495; opposes the Sicilian
expedition, 511-513; responsible for its magni-
tude, 515; prevents the Athenians from taking
Syracuse, 549; prevents Demosthenes from sav-
ing the army, 551, 552; shows heroic qualities,
557> 559, 560; forced to surrender, 562; put to
death by die Syracusan s, 563

Nicolaus, Corinthian commander, 404

Nicomachus, a Phocian, 469

Nicomedes, son of Cleombrotus, Lacedaemonian
commander, 375

Nicon, Thcban commander, 542

Niconidas, friend of Perdiccas, 466

Nicostratus, son of Diotrephes, Athenian com-
mander, 435, 460, 477, 480, 499

Nile, Athenians in the, 375

Nisaea, 374, 377, 4i3> 4^9, 45^, 463, 464* 4<>8, 474,
476, 486

Nisus, temple of, 476

Notium, 424

Nymphodorus, 394

Odomanti, 415

Odrysians, empire of the, 394, 414, 472

Oeanthians, 442

Oeniadac, 376, 409, 416, 418, 440, 445, 466

Oenoe, 392, 590

Oenoen, 441, 442

Oenophyta, battle of, 376, 471

Oenussae, isles off Chios, 569

Ocsime, a Thasian colony, 474

612

INDEX

Oetaeans, 439, 565

Olophyxus, 474

Olpae, battle of, 443, 444

Olympia, 487

Olympic Games, 418, 496, 513

Olympicum, temple of Zeus, near Syracuse, 526,

528, 529, 539, 548, 549
Olympus, Mount, 466
Olynthus, 363, 364, 408, 478, 487, 492
Onasimus, son of Megacles, 477
Oneion, Mount, 458
Onomacles, Athenian commander, 570
Ophionians, 441
Opicans, 509, 510

Orchomenos, in Arcadia, 499, 502, 503
Orchomenus, in Boeotia, 376, 377, 438, 466, 470
Orestes, son of Echecratidas, 376
Orestheum, in Maenalia, 499
Orestians, subjects of King Antichus, 409
Oreus, in Euboea, 589
Orncae, 500, 501, 502, 511
Orobiae, in Euboea, 439
Oroedus, king of the Paravaeans, 409
Oropus, 393, 439, 47* » 545, 579, 5^9
Oskius, 414

Paches, Athenian commander, 421, 423; murders
an Arcadian captain, 424

Pachium, 466

Paean, Dorian battle song, 362, 412, 458, 550

Paeonians, 414, 415

Pagondas, Theban commander, 469, 471

Palaira, 395

Pale, 356

Pallene, isthmus of, 363, 475, 477

Pamillus, 510

Panactum, 482, 487, 493, 495

Panaeans, 415

Panathenaea, feast of the, 496, 524

Pandion, 394

Pangaeus, Mount, 415

Panormus, 411, 509, 569

Pantacyas, river, 510

Paralians, 401, 439, 582

Paralus, state galley, 424, 436, 582, 586

Paravaeans, 409

Parnassus, 440

Parnes, Mount, 393, 471

Parrhasians, subjects of Mantinea, 491

Pasitelidas, son of Hegesander, Spartan general,
480, 482

Patmos, 424

Patrac, 410, 497

Pausanias, son of Clepmbrotus, head of the Greek
forces against Persia, 372, 373; subsequent his-
tory of, 406, 430,431

Pedaritus, son of Leon, Spartan commander, 571,

572, 573, 578

Pcgae, 374, 375, 377, 452, 463, 465
Pcithias, Athenian leader, 434, 435
Pelasgians, 349, 392, 474
Pele, 571

Pella, 415

Pellcne, 389

Pellichas, 356

Pcloponncsians, their colonies, 352; union among,
366, 367, 379, 489; their poverty, political state,
and military strength, 385, 386

Peloponnesian War, really caused by fear of Ath-
ens, 355, 371 ; apparently caused by the interfer-
ence of Athens between Corcyra and Corinth,
359, 360, 362, and of Corinth between Athens
and Potidaea, 365; strong feeling against Ath-
ens at its commencement, and underestimate of
her strength, 389, 390, 485, 486, 545, 564. See
also Athenians and Lacedaemonians

Pelorus, Cape, 453

Pentecosiomedimni, richest class of Athenian citi-
zens, 420

Pentecostyes, 500, 501

Peparethus, 439

Perdiccas, king of Macedonia, 363, 364, 394, 395,
415, 466, 467, 480, 503, 504, 540

Pericles, son of Xanthippus, the first citizen of
Athens, 404; recovers Euboea and Samos, 376,
377; in favour of war, 380; his method of con-
ducting the war, 386, 390, 391, 404; his author-
ity over his countrymen, 393, 404; funeral ora-
tion of, 395-399; his character and death, 404

Perieres, founder of Zancle, 510

Perioeci, Spartan subjects dwelling outside the
city, 374, 440, 448, 460, 569

Peripoli, young Athenians employed on home
service, 463, 521, 588

Perrhaebians, 466

Persia, war of Athens against, 373, 374, 375, 376;
overtures of Sparta towards, 404, 405, 459; in-
tervenes in Peloponnesian War, 565; concludes
treaties with the Lacedaemonians, 568, 572, 578

Petra, 547

Phaeacians, 355

Phaeax, son of Erasistratus, Athenian ambassador,
482, 483

Phaedimus, Lacedaemonian ambassador, 493

Phaeinis, 481

Phagres, 415

Phalerum, 375, 391

Phanae, 569

Phanomachus, son of Callimachus, 405

Phanotis, in Phocia, 466

Pharnabazus, 405, 565, 566, 573, 579, 584, 590, 592

Pharnaces, 482, 578

Pharos, 375

Pharsalus, in Thessaly, 376, 393, 466

Phaselis, 405, 587, 592

Phea, in Elis, 546

Pheia, 394

Pheraeans, 393

Philip, brother of Perdiccas, 363, 414, 571, 590

Philocharidas, son of Eryxidaidas, 477, 487, 488,

494
Philocrates, son of Demeas, Athenian commander,

508
Philoctetes, 351

INDEX

613

Phlius, 356, 481, 498, 504, 507, 537
Phocaeac, in Leontinc, 483
Phocaeans, 352, 460, 571

Phocians, become masters of the temple of Delphi,
376; allies of Sparta, 389; settled in Sicily, 509;

565

Phoebus, 382

Phoenicians, in the Grecian Archipelago, 350; de-
feated at sea by the Athenians, 374, 376; in
Sicily, 509

Phoenicus, harbour of, 572

Phoenippus, 476

Phormio, son of Asopius, Athenian commander,
besieges Potidaea, 364; ravages Chalcidice and
Bottica, 365; commands at Samos, 377; com-
mands the Naupactus squadron, 405; his vic-
tories in the Gulf of Corinth, 409-413; returns
to Athens, 416; his fame in Acarnania, 418

Photys, 409

Phrygia, 393

Phrynichus, his judgment as a general, 570; as a
statesman, 576, 577; joins the oligarchs, and
proves one of the boldest of the Four Hundred,
581; sent to Sparta, 587; assassinated on his re-
turn, 588

Phrynis, one of the Perioeci, 565

Phthiotis, 349, 350, 565

Phyrcus, Fort, 496

Physca, 415

Phytia, 443

Phytodorus, Athenian commander, 537

Pierians, expulsion from Pieria, 415

Pierium, in Thessaly, 485

Pindus, Mount, 416

Piraeus, 372, 391, 392, 399, 413, 489, 517, 564, 584,
587-589

Pisander, 577, 579, 580, 581, 587, 590

Pisistratus, 354, 442, 523

Pissuthnes, son of Hystaspes, satrap of Sardis,

377> 424

Pitane, 354

Pittacus, Edonian king, 473

Plataea, Persians defeated at, 381; Theban attempt
to seize, 387-389, 392, 542; laid waste by Boeo-
tians, 390; besieged, 406-408, 421, 422, 424; sur-
renders, 429; trial and massacre of inhabitants,
429-434; Plataean troops serve under Demos-
thenes, 463

Pleistarchus, son of Leonidas, king of Sparta, 381,
3?2

Pleistoanax, son of Pausanias, king of Sparta, 377,
393, 486, 487, 488, 491, 502

Pleistolas, ephoralty of, 487, 488

Plemmyrium, 539, 543, 544, 546, 548

Pleuron, 442

Pnyx, 590

Polemarchs, 495, 500

Polichnitans, accompany Nicias, 410

Polichna, 567, 569

Polis, Hyaean village, 442

Polles, king of the Odomamians, 483

Pollis, 405

Polyanthes, Corinthian commander, 547

Polycrates, tyrant of Samos, his naval greatness,
352, 442

Polydamidas, 478, 480

Polymedis, Larisaean commander, 393

Pontus, river, 417, 465, 466

Poseidon, temple of, 380, 410, 476, 480

Potamis, Syracusan commander, 585

Potidaea, 363, 364, 365, 401, 405, 406, 420, 477,
481, 490

Potidania, 441

Prasiae, town in Laconia, 401, 537, 542, 589

Priapus, 592

Priene, 377

Procles, son of Theodorus, Athenian general, 439,
441, 487, 488

Procne, daughter of Pandion, 394

Proschium, in Aetolia, 442, 443

Prosopitis, 376

Prote, island of, 450

Proteas, son of Epicles, 360, 393

Protesilaus, temple of, 591

Proxenus, son of Capaton, 442

Prytanes, 495, 581

Psammetichus, 374, 375

Pteleum, 487, 569, 571

Ptoeodorus, a Theban exile, 466

Ptychia, island of, 458

Pydna, 364, 383

Pylos, Athenian occupation of, 447-457, 460, 467,
483, 485, 491, 507, 542; Alcibiades promises its
return to Sparta, 494, 533

Pyrasians, 393

Pyrrha, 421, 422, 424, 569

Py stilus, founder of Agrigentum, 510

Pythangelus, son of Plyleides, 387

Pythen, 538, 557

Pythia, 487

Pythian Games, 482

Pythodorus, son of Isolochus, Athenian com-
mander, 387, 445, 447, 463, 487, 488, 537

Ramphias, Lacedaemonian general, 384, 485

Rhegians, in Sicily, allies of Athens, 438, 439; in-
vaded by the Locrians, 447, 452; neutral in
Sicilian war, 521, 530; 538, 539

Rheiti, or the Brooks, 392

Rheitus, 457

Rhenea, one of the Cyclades, 352, 442

Rhia, 411

Rhium, Achaean, 411, 413, 497

Rhium, Molycrian, 410, 411

Rhodians, 521, 554, 574, 577, 579

Rhodopc, Mount, 414

Rhoeteum, 460, 591

Sabylinthus, guardian of King Tharyps, 409

Sacon, founder of Himera, 510

Sadocus, 394, 405

Salaethus, Spartan officer, sent to Mitylene, 422,

423> 424
Salaminia, state galley, 424, 436, 523, 525

614

INDEX

Salamis, island, 353, 367, 383, 413

Salamis, town in Cyprus, 376

Saminthus, 498

Samos, naval greatness of, 352, 583; revolt of, 377;
popular revolution in, 568, 569; declared in-
dependent by Athens, 568; almost united to
Athens, 582, 583

Sandius, hill of, 421

Sane, an Andrian colony, 474, 487

Salynthius, king of the Agraeans, 444, 445, 466

Sargeus, Sicyonian commander, 543

Scandea, 460

Scionc, revolt of, 477, 480, 487; reduced, and the
inhabitants exterminated, 490

Sciritae, 500, 501

Sciritis, in Laconia, 491

Scironides, Athenian commander, 570, 577

Scirphondas, one of the Boeotarchs, 546

Scolus, 487

Scombrus, Mount, 414

Scyllaeum, 497

Scyros, 373

Scythians, 414

Selinus, 510; at war with Egesta, 510; power
and wealth of, 515; principal ally of Syracuse
in the war, 527, 554; joins in the Ionian War,
570

Sermylians, 365, 487

Sestos, 371, 579, 591

Seuthcs, son of Spardacus, king of Thrace, 414,
.4i5»472

Sicanians, 509, 525

Sicanus, river, 509

Sicanus, son of Execestes, Syracusan general, 528,

55 1> 552, 557

Siccliots (Sicilian Greeks), friendly to the Pclo-
ponnesians, 389, 510; national feeling among,
462, 463; origin, wealth, greatness, and political
state, 509, 510, 515, 553, 554

Siccls (Sicilian natives), 453, 509; join Athens
against Syracuse, 532, 535, 546, 554, 560

Sicily, how colonized, races inhabiting, 352, 509;
under the tyrants, 352, 353; sends corn to
Peloponnese, 438; first Athenian intervention
in, 438; pacification of, 462; invaded by the
Athenians, 517

Sicyon, 356, 376, 377, 389, 409, 472, 498, 503, 543,

.554

Sidussa, 569
Sigcum, 524, 591
Simonides, Athenian general, 448
Simus, a founder of Himera, 510
Singaeans, 487
Sintians, 414

Siphae, town of, 466, 469, 472
Shalces, king of Thrace, 394, 405, 413, 414, 415,

472

Socrates, son of Andgenes, 393
Sollium, 395, 440, 490
Soloeis, 509
Solygian hill, 457
Sophocles, son of Sostratides, Athenian com-

mander, 445, 447, 458; banished from Athens,

463

Spartans. See Lacedaemonians

Spartolus, 408, 487

Sphacteria, 448. Sec Pylos

Spiraeum, Corinthian port, 566, 567, 568

Stages, lieutenant of Tissaphernes, 568

Stagirus, Andrian colony, 469, 483, 487

Stcsagoras, 377

Sthcnelaidas, Spartan ephor, 370

Stratodemus, 404

Stratonice, sister of Perdiccas, 415

Stratus, capital of Acarnania, 409, 410, 416, 443

Strepsa, 364

Strombichides, son of Diotimus, Athenian com-
mander, 567, 568, 571, 579, 584

Strongyle, one of the islands of Aeolus, 438

Strophacus, 466

Strymon, river, 373, 414, 415, 459, 472, 474, 483,
540

Styphon, son of Pharax, Spartan commander, 457

Styrians, 553

Sunium, 545, 565, 589

Sybaris, river, 547

Sybota, a harbour of Thesprotis, 361, 362

Syca, the Circle at, 535

Symaethus, river, 526

Symc, 573, 574

Synoecia, or Feast of Union, 391

Syracusans, at war with the Leontines, 438; form
a navy, 445, 452; supposed to menace the in-
dependence of the other Sicilians, 510, 512, 529,
53°» 53 1\ the main objects of the Sicilian ex-
pedition, 518; courage, 527, 543, 553, 556, 590;
especially strong in cavalry, 515, 528, 541; dur-
ing the war acquire a navy, 541, 543; defeat
the Athenian navy, 549, 558; capture the Athe-
nian army, 562; join in the Ionian War, 570;
by their courage, contrast favourably with the
Peloponnesian enemies of Athens, 571, 583, 585,
590; present at Cynossema, 592

Syracuse, foundation of, 509, 510

Taenarus (Matapan), 380, 382, 542

Tamos, lieutenant of Tissaphernes, 571, 586

Tanagra, battle of, 375, 376; 469, 471, 545

Tanagraeans, defeated by Athenians, 439; at
Delium, 470

Tantalus, son of Patroclcs, Lacedaemonian com-
mander, 460

Tarentum, 518, 519, 521, 537, 587

Taurus, son of Echetimides, 477

Tegca, 490, 493, 498, 499, 500, 501, 502, 503

Teichiussa, 570, 571

Tellias, Athenian commander, 537

Tellis, 487, 488

Tenedos, 417, 423, 424, 554

Tenians, 553, 581

Tcos, 567, 568

Teres, father of Sitalces, and king of the Odrysi-
ans,394

Tcrcus, 394

INDEX

615

Icnas, river, 522, 535

Tcrinacan, Gulf, 537

Peutiaplus, 423

Teutlussa, or Beet Island, 574

Thapsus, 510, 535, 536, 537, 551

fhasos, revolt of, 374, 579, 580; Thucydides at,

473

rheaenetus, son of Tolmides, 421

Theagenes, tyrant of Mcgara, 380, 454, 487,
488

Thebans, surprise Plataea, 387, 542; why they
joined Xerxes, 432; procure from the Lace-
daemonians the slaughter of the Plataeans, 434;
at Delium, 470; their treatment of the Thes-
pians, 480, 481; in Boeotia, 546. See Boeotians

Thebes, 371, 422, 535

Themistocles, author of the naval greatness of
Athens, and founder of the Athenian empire,
353, 367, 372; implicated in the treason of
Pausanias, 383; ostracized and residing at Arg-
os, 383; his interview with Admetus, 383;
flight to Persia and death, 383, 384

Theori, 495

Thera, 389

Theramenes, son of Hagnon, Athenian politician,
581, 587, 588, 589

Therimenes, Spartan commander, 570, 571, 572,

574, 577

Therme, 395

Thermopylae, 415, 440, 456

Theseus, 391, 392, 525

Thesmophylaces, 496

Thespians, suffer heavy loss at Delium, 470, 471 ;
how rewarded by the Thebans, 480, 481; fac-
tions of, 535

Thesprotis, 356, 361, 409

Thessalians, 374, 393, 415, 440, 466, 474, 480, 485,

497, 565

Thessalus, 524

Thetes, poorest class of Athenian citizens, 521

Thirty Years' Truce, 377

Thoricus, 589

Thracians, 374, 472, 483, 490; invade Macedonia,
414, 415; raid Boeotia, 545, 546

Thrasybulus and Thrasyllus, leaders of the patri-
otic movement in the army of Samos, 582, 583,
584; win the battle of Cynossema, 592

Thrasycles, Athenian commander, 487, 488, 567,
568

Thrasylus, Argive general, 498, 499

Thrasymelidas, son of Cratesicles, Spartan ad-
miral, 449

Thria, 393

Thrius, 377

Thronium, 394

Thucles, 509, 510

Thucydides, son of Olorus, when he began his
history, 349; his mode of dealing with mythical
traditions, 351, 352, 394; his conception of
history, 354; commands at Samos, 377; his ac-
count of the plague, 399; his reflections on the
Corcyraean revolution, 436, 437; commands at

Amphipolis, 473; possessed property in Thrace,
473; exiled, 489; his admiration for Sparta, 569;
his aristocratic feeling, 581

Thurjats, 374

Thurii, in Lucania, 525, 532, 537, 547, 554, 579,

585

Thyamis, river, 361

Thymaus, Mount, 443

Thymochares, Athenian commander, 589

Thyrea, 394, 460, 461, 493, 535

Thyssus, 474, 491

Tichium, 441

Tilataeans, 414

Timagoras, a Cyzicene, 565, 566, 573,

Timagoras, a Tegean, 404

Timanthes, 356

Timocrates, Athenian leader, 487, 488

Timocrates, Spartan officer, 410, 413

Timoxenus, son of Timocrates, Corinthian com-
mander, 395

Tisamenus, 439

Tisander, an Apodotian, 441

Tisias, son of Tisimachus, Athenian general, 504

Tissaphernes, Persian satrap, 565, 570, 571, 575,
583-586, 590, 592, 593; his treaties with the
Peloponncsians, 568, 572, 574, 578, 579

Tlepolcmus, 377

Tolmides, son of Tolmaeus, Athenian admiral,
376, 377

Tolophonians, 441, 442

Tolophus, an Ophionian, 441

Torone, 474, 475, 477, 479, 482, 487

Torylaus, 466

Trachinians, 439, 496

Tragia, 377

Treres, 414

Triballi, 414, 472

Trinacria, 509

Triopium, promontory of Cnidus, 572, 579

Tripodiscus, 464

Tritaeans, 441

Troezen, 356, 377, 401, 452, 458, 476, 565

Trogilus, 536, 538

Trojan War, 350-35*, 353, 5°9

Trotilus, 510

Tydeus, son of Ion, 573

Tyndarcus, 351

Tyrrhene Gulf, 525

Tyrrhenians, 474, 532, 537, 553, 554

Ulysses, 453
White Castle, 375

Xenares, son of Cnidis, Lacedaemonian com-
mander, 492, 495, 497

Xenoclides, son of Euthycles, Corinthian admiral,
360, 445

Xenon, Theban commander, 542

Xenophantcs, a Laconian, 577

Xcnophon, son of Euripides, 405, 408

Xerxes, 353, 378, 381, 383, 430

616 INDEX

Zacynthus, sends infantry to help the Corcyraeans, Zeus, festival of, 380; temple of, 406, 420, 434, 486,

361 ; 389; ally of Athens in western Greece, 404, 496, 568

440, 448; helps Athens against Syracuse, 554 Zeus, Nemean, precinct of, 441

Zancle, 510 Zeuxidas, 487, 488

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